Director, Solution Engineering – Solutions Validation & Customer Use Cases

Job Description:

HPE-Juniper Networking is a leading telecommunications equipment vendor building high-performance network products for service providers, enterprises, data centers, campus, and metro customers.
The Solution Engineering organization is responsible for qualifying and validating HPE networking products and software solutions for customer deployment by developing comprehensive test strategies and executing test plans on representative topologies that accurately reflect real-world customer environments. Leveraging agile methodologies, AI-assisted engineering, automation, and innovation, the organization delivers production-grade solutions that meet the evolving requirements of customers worldwide.
The Director of Solution Engineering is a senior leadership position responsible for defining strategy, driving execution excellence, and leading teams of highly skilled engineering professionals focused on solution validation, customer use-case qualification, automation, and product readiness. This role requires a combination of exceptional technical depth, business acumen, organizational leadership, and stakeholder management. The Director serves as a trusted partner to executive leadership, architecture teams, product management, engineering development, and customer-facing organizations to influence strategy and deliver superior customer outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Organizational Excellence

• Define and execute the long-term strategy for solution validation, customer use-case qualification, automation, and product readiness across multiple product portfolios.
• Establish organizational goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and operational frameworks aligned with company objectives and business priorities.
• Drive transformation initiatives that improve efficiency, release quality, predictability, and customer satisfaction
• Build and scale high-performing teams through effective leadership, organizational planning, succession management, and talent development.
• Create a culture focused on innovation, accountability, collaboration, inclusion, and continuous improvement.

Product and Solution Delivery Leadership

• Provide executive oversight for delivery of complex software and networking solutions spanning multiple programs, product lines, and customer segments.
• Collaborate with Product Management, Architecture, Development, Sales, and Field organizations to ensure alignment between customer requirements and solution deployment.
• Drive strategic prioritization, resource allocation, and execution planning to meet business objectives and release commitments.
• Ensure delivery excellence through predictable processes, quality metrics, risk management, and operational reviews.
• Champion automation-first methodologies that improve productivity, product quality, test coverage, and scalability.

Customer and Market Leadership

• Represent the organization in executive discussions involving strategic customers, partners, and business stakeholders.
• Develop a deep understanding of customer deployment environments, emerging use cases, competitive positioning, and market trends.
• Drive customer-centric engineering practices to ensure solutions address real-world customer challenges.
• Partner with sales, customer success, and field engineering organizations to accelerate adoption and customer satisfaction.

Cross-Functional Executive Collaboration

• Partner closely with senior engineering leaders, architects, product management, business units, and executive teams to define technical and business strategies.
• Drive alignment across multiple organizations to resolve cross-functional challenges and accelerate decision-making.
• Lead executive reviews and communicate progress, risks, mitigation plans, and strategic recommendations.
• Influence company-wide engineering initiatives, process improvements, and technology adoption strategies.
• Partner with Release Management and key stakeholders to drive execution against strategic milestones, ensuring predictable delivery and successful release outcomes

Organizational and Talent Development

• Build, mentor, and develop managers and senior technical leaders to create a sustainable leadership pipeline.
• Create career growth frameworks that maximize employee engagement, retention, and performance.
• Attract and recruit world-class engineering talent across technical and leadership positions.
• Foster an inclusive and diverse workplace that encourages innovation and collaboration.
• Drive employee recognition, coaching, and professional development programs.

Technology Leadership and Innovation

• Provide technical leadership across networking, cloud, automation, AI-driven operations, and emerging technologies.
• Influence future product direction by identifying strategic technology investments and innovation opportunities.
• Promote industry participation through patents, standards contributions, certifications, technical publications, and conferences.
• Encourage adoption of advanced automation, AI/ML, virtualization, containerization, and software-defined networking technologies.
• Drive innovation initiatives that create measurable business value and competitive differentiation.

Business and Financial Management

• Own budget planning, resource forecasting, and investment decisions for engineering infrastructure and tool ecosystems.
• Optimize CAPEX and OPEX investments while maximizing return on engineering resources and test infrastructure.
• Drive operational efficiency through strategic planning, utilization management, and infrastructure consolidation.
• Manage organizational risks and ensure successful mitigation strategies for key business initiatives.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Proven executive leadership experience managing managers and large engineering organizations.
• Strong strategic thinking with demonstrated success executing large-scale engineering initiatives.
• Ability to align technology investments with business objectives and customer priorities.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and executive stakeholder management skills.
• Strong customer-facing capabilities with the ability to influence business outcomes.
• Demonstrated success building high-performance engineering cultures.
• Expertise in organizational scaling, workforce planning, and talent development.
• Strong financial and operational management skills.
• Outstanding problem-solving, decision-making, and conflict-resolution capabilities.
• Proven ability to drive organizational transformation and innovation.
• Deep understanding of networking technologies, architectures, and industry trends.

Technical Expertise

Strong knowledge of:

• IP/MPLS Routing
• EVPN-VXLAN
• Data Center Networking
• Cloud Networking Architectures
• Service Provider Networks
• Routing Protocols (BGP, OSPF, ISIS)
• L2VPN, L3VPN, MPLS, Segment Routing
• NAT, GRE, IPSec, and Security technologies
• Automation Frameworks
• Python, Network API Integrations
• Containerization and Kubernetes
• High Availability and Resiliency Architectures
• Layer 2 Technologies (LAG, MC-LAG, Virtual Chassis)
• CLOS and Spine-Leaf Architectures

Experience and Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. Master's degree preferred.
• 18+ years of experience in networking, software engineering, or telecommunications.
• 8+ years of leadership experience, including managing managers and large technical organizations.
• Proven track record of delivering complex networking products, solutions, and customer use-case validations at scale, with deep experience in Solution Engineering and product readiness.
• Deep knowledge of HPE networking products, architectures, and customer deployment models.
• Experience working with multi-functional global engineering organizations.
• Experience with AI-assisted engineering practices and tools is highly desirable.
• Excellent verbal, written, and executive presentation skills.
• Experience with any competitive networking platforms
• Industry certifications such as JNCIE, JNCIP, CCIE, or equivalent are highly desirable.
• Demonstrated history of innovation through patents, standards participation, publications, or industry leadership.

Accessibility

HPE is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible workplace and encourages applications from all qualified individuals, including those with disabilities. If you believe you require accommodation during any stage of the application or interview process, please submit your request by completing our secure form linked here.

Note: This option is reserved for applicants needing assistance/reasonable accommodation related to a disability.

Health & Wellbeing

We strive to provide our team members and their loved ones with a comprehensive suite of benefits that supports their physical, financial and emotional wellbeing.

Personal & Professional Development

We also invest in your career because the better you are, the better we all are. We have specific programs catered to helping you reach any career goals you have — whether you want to become a knowledge expert in your field or apply your skills to another division.

Unconditional Inclusion

We are unconditionally inclusive in the way we work and celebrate individual uniqueness. We know varied backgrounds are valued and succeed here. We have the flexibility to manage our work and personal needs. We make bold moves, together, and are a force for good.

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