HPC Software & Storage Engineering Strategist

Description

The company helps customers connect, protect, analyze and act on their data and applications, from edge to cloud.

This is a senior individual contributor role reporting to the Vice President of HPC Software and Storage Engineering.

You will act as a strategic adviser and operating partner to the VP and leadership team, providing analysis, planning and organizational insight on workforce, investment, portfolio and operating decisions.

You will build a joined-up, forward view of workforce, financial investment, engineering capacity, product work and sustaining obligations, and turn strategy into resource and investment needs.

You will work with Engineering, Finance, Product Management, Business Planning, Support and other stakeholders to keep resources aligned with the HPC and AI strategy and roadmap.

The job goes beyond reporting. You will spot trends, test assumptions, compare options and recommend action.

Success means leadership can answer where people and money go today, whether that fits strategy, what capacity is needed over three years, and what to increase, keep, merge, cut or stop.

The ideal person combines strategic thinking, financial acumen, analytical rigor and an understanding of how engineering organizations work. They are curious, comfortable with ambiguity, and move between detailed analysis and executive thinking, asking what results mean, why they matter and what leaders should do.

Responsibilities

• Keep the headcount forecast current, covering monthly actuals, forecasts, hiring plans, attrition assumptions, open roles and organizational changes.
• Build multi-year workforce and capacity models tied to technology roadmaps, product commitments, platform schedules, sustaining needs and strategic priorities.
• Work with the directors to turn future engineering commitments into the skills, capacity and headcount they require.
• Identify capacity, skill and organizational gaps, and areas that are over- or under-invested.
• Assess how workforce is split across new product development, platform enablement, sustaining, technical debt and strategic initiatives, and recommend reallocations.
• Model alternative workforce scenarios to support leadership decisions.
• Lead the CAPEX and OPEX planning and management process for HPC Software and Storage Engineering.
• With Finance and engineering leaders, build annual budgets, long-range plans, forecasts and investment scenarios.
• Track actual and forecast spend against plan, flag material variances and emerging risks, and recommend corrective action.
• Link engineering spend to strategic priorities, roadmap deliverables and expected business outcomes, and assess the financial effects of roadmap, staffing, sourcing and organizational choices.
• When resources are tight, set out investment trade-offs for leadership.
• Represent HPC Software R&D in setting support policies, support durations, sustaining models and funding.
• Build an integrated view of engineering capacity consumed by sustaining and support work, and cost the long-term product support Engineering delivers.
• Check whether Support funding and staffing match the engineering effort needed for customer and contract commitments, and flag unfunded or underfunded work.
• Work with Support, Product Management, Finance and Engineering to agree on support duration, funding, staffing, lifecycle transition and end-of-support recommendations, and see them through.
• Find legacy products or commitments that take a disproportionate share of capacity, and make those trade-offs visible to leadership.
• Map where engineering people and dollars are invested across the portfolio, including strategic development, platform enablement, sustaining, technical debt, infrastructure and other commitments.
• Judge whether current investment matches strategic priorities and the future roadmap, and identify what to grow, maintain, consolidate, reduce or exit.
• Weigh the opportunity cost of keeping lower-priority or legacy investments, and give fact-based prioritization advice.
• Set up ways to measure whether investments deliver the intended engineering and business outcomes.
• Translate HPC and AI technology and product strategy into 12, 24 and 36 month views of workforce, capacity and financial requirements.
• Flag future resource constraints and investment needs early enough for leadership to act, and work with engineering and product leaders on upcoming technologies, platforms and roadmap transitions.
• Fold workforce, financial, sustaining and portfolio assumptions into long-range planning, and build scenarios showing the consequences of strategic choices.
• Develop organizational scenarios covering structures, sourcing, geographic strategies and resource allocation, and assess their financial, capacity, execution and organizational implications.
• Model make, buy or partner decisions where appropriate, and provide objective analysis for organizational design and investment decisions.
• Act as a strategic thought partner to the VP and leadership team on organizational, workforce, financial and investment decisions.
• Build analysis linking headcount, spending, capacity, roadmap commitments, sustaining obligations and business priorities.
• Spot trends and risks before they affect execution. For complex decisions, lay out alternatives, trade-offs, risks and a recommended action, and challenge assumptions with an independent, data-driven view.
• Write concise executive materials for strategic planning, business reviews, portfolio reviews and investment decisions.
• Track major strategic decisions and check whether the expected outcomes are being achieved.
• Run a consistent operating rhythm for workforce, financial, portfolio and strategic planning, and maintain a trusted source of information on capacity, investment, commitments and risks.
• Improve forecast accuracy, data quality and visibility, make sure leadership decisions flow into updated workforce and investment plans, and drive follow-through on review actions.

Requirements

• Significant experience in strategy, engineering operations, business planning, financial planning, portfolio management or similar leadership roles in a complex technology organization.
• Proven ability to advise and influence senior executives and engineering leaders.
• Strong business and financial judgment, including workforce modeling, CAPEX and OPEX planning, forecasting, investment analysis and scenario modeling.
• Experience turning technology and product strategy into workforce and investment requirements.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to pull complex organizational and financial information into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Understanding of complex engineering organizations, technology roadmaps and product lifecycle considerations.
• Excellent executive communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to influence across organizational boundaries without direct authority.
• Sound judgment, comfort challenging assumptions and presenting alternative views to senior leadership.
• Preferred: experience in large-scale software, infrastructure, systems, HPC, AI or enterprise technology environments.

Conditions

Hybrid role, averaging 2 days per week in a company office.

US annual base salary is USD 172,500 to 344,500 in Colorado and USD 163,500 to 396,500 in Minnesota and Texas.

The range covers base salary only. Variable incentives may also be offered.

The final offer may vary from this range based on location, experience, education or training, and skill level.

Job level TCP07, within Engineering.

The estimated application closing date is January 24 2027.

The company is an equal opportunity employer that decides on qualifications, merit and business need, and accommodation requests can be made at any stage of hiring.

Benefits

• Health and wellbeing benefits covering physical, financial and emotional wellbeing for team members and their families.
• Personal and professional development programs, including paths to become a knowledge expert in your field or to move into another division.
• Flexibility to manage work and personal needs.
• An inclusive culture that values varied backgrounds.
• US benefit details are published by the company.