Inside Channel Systems Engineer (US)

Description

Remote role based in the US. You work from home, mostly on West Coast hours, supporting channel partners who are mainly on the West Coast.

You act as a technical advisor and subject-matter expert across switching, wireless, routing, security and AI-native networking, covering solution design, technical validation, competitive positioning and customer engagement.

The goal is to build smaller partners' technical skills and sales capability so they can chase new deals and deliver the company's networking solutions on their own, using scalable inside sales support.

Responsibilities

• Grow the technical skills and sales readiness of smaller partners.
• Give partners remote presales support at every stage of an opportunity.
• Help partners qualify deals early so they focus on the ones they can win.
• Support discovery, architecture, product selection, sizing and configuration.
• Review solution designs, bills of materials and technical proposals.
• Show partners how to build their own bills of materials, configurations and reference designs so they can size and quote with confidence.
• Answer questions on SKUs, licensing and ordering, and arrange access to remote demo and lab environments.
• Run webinars, demos, workshops, office hours and enablement sessions.
• Help partners position the company's networking products against competitors.
• Support customer presentations, demos and proofs of concept.
• Spot partner capability gaps and recommend training and certification paths.
• Create reusable technical resources, reference designs and best practices.
• Connect partners with distributors and internal company resources when they need more help.
• Plan enablement, set partner priorities and move opportunities forward with Partner Account Managers.
• Help partners contact TAC and escalate technical issues when a deal or deployment needs it.
• Find high-potential partners for deeper development and investment.
• Build partners' ability to originate and close deals on their own.
• Work mainly by phone, video, digital collaboration, webinars and other scalable programs to reach a broad partner base.
• Apply expertise to resolve common and sometimes complex partner and technical problems, recommending solutions or alternatives and making your own judgment calls.
• Lead partner development initiatives, enablement programs or opportunity projects, working with channel sales, distribution, product specialists and other internal teams to grow partner pipeline and practices.
• Keep up with the networking portfolio and industry trends such as AI-driven operations, automation and cloud-managed networking.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, IT, engineering or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• 3+ years of networking systems engineering experience, ideally in presales, sales engineering or partner-facing work.
• Hands-on experience designing, deploying or supporting enterprise campus, branch and data center networks.
• Experience with channel partners, resellers or distributors, and a good grasp of how the channel goes to market.
• Experience running technical discovery, building solution designs and delivering demos or proofs of concept.
• Comfortable presenting to audiences from hands-on engineers to IT directors and business owners.
• Solid understanding of Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching, including VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, OSPF and BGP.
• Enterprise wireless design experience, including RF fundamentals, site surveys, roaming and Wi-Fi 6, 6E and 7.
• Working knowledge of routing, SD-WAN and branch connectivity.
• Network security and access control, including 802.1X, RADIUS, NAC, segmentation and firewall concepts, and familiarity with SASE and zero trust.
• Able to size solutions, build accurate bills of materials and write design documentation partners can use.
• Strong plus: a background in network deployment, professional services or technical enablement. Implementation engineers ready to move into presales are a great fit.
• Preferred: experience supporting partners who sell into commercial and SLED (state, local and education) customers.
• Strong plus: familiarity with the company's networking portfolio, including switching, wireless, routing and SD-WAN.
• Strong plus: experience with cloud-managed networking and AI-driven operations platforms.
• Plus: exposure to data center fabrics such as EVPN-VXLAN.
• Nice to have: basic scripting or automation experience with Python, REST APIs or Ansible.
• Preferred: industry certifications. Candidates without them should be willing to earn them within their first year.
• Preferred certifications include the company's Associate-level networking certification or higher, Juniper JNCIA or higher (such as JNCIA-Junos or JNCIA-MistAI), Cisco CCNA or higher, CWNA or CWDP for wireless.
• Plus: a security certification such as CompTIA Security+.
• Teaches complex technology in plain language and adjusts to the audience, from senior engineers to sales reps new to networking.
• Writes clearly, presents well on camera and keeps virtual sessions engaging.
• Measures success by how independent partners become and enjoys helping them grow.
• Understands how partners make money and ties recommendations to customer outcomes.
• Works well remotely, manages a busy schedule across many partners and follows through without reminders.
• Knows when to dig in personally and when to bring in specialists or distribution.
• Builds strong working relationships with account managers, distributors, product specialists and other teams.
• Knows the competitive landscape well enough to have honest, credible conversations about where the company wins.
• Keeps learning in a fast-changing market.

Conditions

Teleworker position within the US, working mostly on West Coast hours.

Expected base salary and target sales compensation range for this role is USD 125,000 to 294,000 per year in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

That range is the combined base and target sales pay for 100% of the sales plan, split 75% base and 25% target sales compensation.

Actual offer may vary based on location, experience, education, training or skill level.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and makes decisions based on qualifications, merit and business need.

Applicants needing accommodation during the hiring process can request it through the company's secure accessibility form.

Benefits

• A solid route into presales, working with a wide range of partners across the full networking portfolio and seeing deals through from first conversation to close.
• Ongoing training and certification support.
• A path toward a future field Systems Engineer or other technical sales role.
• Health, financial and emotional wellbeing benefits, with details available on the company's US new-hire benefits page.
• Personal and professional development programs, including support for expert knowledge or moving into another division.