Role Description As a Pre-Sales Engineer you will serve as the premier technical authority on SASE, SSE, and Zero Trust architectures within the federal sales organization. You will operate as a specialized technical resource, collaborating with core account managers and systems engineers to position, architect, and validate advanced security solutions. By leveraging your deep technical expertise, understanding of the federal threat landscape, and consultative skills, you will build trusted relationships with agency CISOs, enterprise architects, and security leadership. Your objective is to guide customers through the complexities of modernization, ensuring that HPE solutions satisfy rigorous federal security compliance and achieve successful mission deployment. What You Will Do - Lead Specialized Technical Strategy: Serve as the principal technical overlay authority for the HPE cybersecurity and SASE portfolio, collaborating with core DoD and Federal sales teams to drive end-to-end solution strategy. - Architect Zero Trust Architectures: Design, validate, and defend large-scale SASE and SSE solutions—including ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and FWaaS—ensuring full alignment with NIST SP 800-207, EO 14028, and OMB M-22-09 directives. - Navigate Federal Compliance & ATOs: Assist customers in navigating the Risk Management Framework (RMF) and achieving Authority to Operate (ATO). Secure architectures against STIG requirements and design solutions tailored for DoD Impact Level 5 (IL5) and Impact Level 6 (IL6) environments. - Conduct High-Level Technical Discovery: Lead multi-domain discovery sessions and architectural workshops to solve complex federal networking and security challenges, bridging the gap between agency requirements and technical execution. - Oversee Technical Validations: Design and execute advanced product demonstrations and proof-of-concepts, translating strict compliance and technical mandates into defensible, outcome-driven solutions. - Support Complex Pursuits: Provide technical leadership on major federal programs and procurement actions, authoring and reviewing high-impact RFI and RFP responses to ensure architectural integrity and technical differentiation. - Integrate Advanced Telemetry: Guide customers through security visibility and observability integrations, ensuring seamless telemetry pipelines with existing enterprise SIEM, SOAR, and XDR platforms. - Provide Field-Driven Feedback: Collaborate with Product Management, Engineering, and the Office of the CTO to deliver structured feedback from the field, ensuring future product roadmaps align with evolving federal defense requirements. - Act as a Force Multiplier: Serve as a technical mentor to mid-level and junior Systems Engineers across the broader team, raising the overall technical capability and readiness of the organization. - Maintain Mission Flexibility: Demonstrate operational autonomy across accounts and regions, maintaining the flexibility to support customer schedules and mission-critical engagements when national security priorities demand it. Qualifications - Expert-level understanding of SASE, SSE, and Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) principles, deployment models, and design tradeoffs in cloud and hybrid environments. - Deep familiarity with federal security frameworks, including NIST SP 800-207, OMB M-22-09, the Risk Management Framework (RMF), STIG compliance, and FedRAMP/DoD IL5/IL6 requirements. - Comprehensive knowledge of core networking protocols (TCP/IP, BGP, OSPF) and security technologies (Firewalls, IPS/IDS, IPsec, SSL/TLS, and micro-segmentation). - Strong command of identity, credential, and access management (ICAM) structures, including SSO, SAML, OAuth, and policy-driven access controls. - Practical experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and the integration of secure access platforms into complex enterprise environments. - Exceptional technical writing, diagramming, and presentation skills, with a proven ability to confidently advise customer architects, security directors, and agency leadership. Requirements - 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, solution architecture, or technical leadership within the cybersecurity or network security domains. - Demonstrated success supporting DoD, Federal Civilian, or highly regulated industries, with a clear understanding of the federal acquisition lifecycle. - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience. Significant military technical leadership experience (such as senior non-commissioned officer roles in cyber or communications branches) is highly valued and recognized as equivalent experience. - DoD 8140/8570 compliance is highly desirable. Preferred advanced professional certifications include CISSP, CCSP, JNCIE, GIAC, or relevant vendor-specific credentials. - An active federal security clearance is preferred but not required at the time of hire. Benefits - Health & Wellbeing: Comprehensive suite of benefits that supports physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing. - Personal & Professional Development: Investment in your career with specific programs to help you reach your career goals. - Unconditional Inclusion: Commitment to inclusivity and flexibility to manage work and personal needs.

Lead the coordination of network infrastructure teams, manage vendor relationships, and provide technical consultation to clients while supporting sales strategies and driving product and service sales through effective relationship building.

Title: Senior Pre-Sales Engineer - Network Location: San Francisco, California Type: Full Time Workplace: hybrid Category: Network Specialist Job Description: AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation. At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD. We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived. We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD. The AHEAD Senior Pre-Sales Engineer-Network, will be focused on the core tenets of Network and Network Security related solutions for AHEAD prospects and customers including a broad range of technologies. As a member of our Specialty Solutions Engineering team, you will be considered an organizational thought leader for this marketplace. Pre-sales experience is a key component of this role. You will work in partnership with multiple sales representatives to help build a cohesive account strategy for each existing and prospective client. As part of this strategy, you will help sales representatives identify potential technologies and vendors to partner within a given account and assist in driving this strategy throughout a given campaign. Time management and prioritization are essential attributes to being successful. Your goal is to evolve into the technical thought leader for each of your clients. In this capacity, you will work to define strategy, compare alternative approaches, and build key relationships, as well as size and configure products. Positioning and leveraging subject matter experts and inside consultants is a necessity to scale your effectiveness within accounts. AHEAD is actively recruiting for this role and is looking for candidates who consider themselves as a “Next Generation Network Architect.” A core tenet and base requirement for this position is deep understanding of Campus wired and wireless technologies. Understanding and mastery of other areas like Datacenter and cloud networking technologies are a plus. Outside of this core tenet, our expectation is to attract, recruit and attain resources who have a desire to focus not only on traditional on-premise solutions, but also to be looking to career, technology and skill advancement by being actively willing to demonstrate skills and ability to learn new technologies including multiple SDN solutions, network security, load balancing, edge / acceleration, and cloud technologies. Experience or eagerness to learn about and with network and system / access design with Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure or other cloud services is a key requirement. Roles & Responsibilities: - Participation, Leadership and Coordination of the AHEAD virtual team for Network Infrastructure - You will also be responsible for working with the AHEAD partner management team and directly with selected vendors to maintain vendor technical and sales relationships - As a Network Specialist you are a thought leader within the Engineering organization, responsible for designing, architecting, and, at times, consulting for Ahead clients - Your goal as a Network Lead should be to build skills, relationships, and industry credibility across many segments to drive product, services and consulting sales - Support the sales teams during engagements by providing advice and solutions or proposals optimized to meet customer technical and business requirements - Develops relationships with the account managers, partners and customers in support of sales team objectives and engages and leverages team specialist resources as appropriate - Strategizes and executes technical sales calls - Completes required pre-sales documentation (configurations, pricing, services, presentations, justifications etc.) quickly and accurately - Qualifies sales opportunities in terms of customer technical requirements, decision making process and funding - Presents and markets the design and value of proposed Ahead solutions and business justification to customers, prospects and Ahead management - Participates in mentorship of entry-level team members - Possesses strong, detailed product / technology / industry knowledge. Knowledge of job associated software and applications Base Skills: - Network Infrastructure Experience - Strong wireless skills (certifications highly looked upon) - Wireless principles/site survey/Ekahau knowledge) Strong Campus/LAN skills (Cisco and other OEM vendors) - Cisco certifications are highly recommended - Cisco Nexus Technologies - IP Routing Protocols - Cisco Core Datacenter Technologies - Network Management - Network Security (Palo Alto/Fortinet) tenants along with SASE knowledge Other Skills: - VMware / VMware NSX - Arista - Automation skillset - F5 / NetScaler - Amazon AWS, Azure, Cloud connectivity and network fundamentals Education & Experience: - Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent - Pre Sales and Data Center experience is required - Professional communication, presentation, analytical, and problem-solving skills. - Experience working as a technical lead in a pre-sale’s sales campaign - Ability to work under critical conditions and influence others to achieve results - Strong interpersonal skills with excellent presentation skills - Must be independent, self-motivated, a self-starter and possess a good working attitude - Able to work well within a team and partner environment - Customer focused and results driven The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location. Why AHEAD: Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between. We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning. USA Employment Benefits include: - Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance - 401(k) - Paid company holidays - Paid time off - Paid parental and caregiver leave - Plus more! See benefits https://www.aheadbenefits.com/ for additional details. Use of AI: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, assessing responses, or to capture recordings and create transcriptions or summaries during interviews. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please refer to the Candidate Privacy Notice or contact us at privacy@ahead.com. You may opt-out of the review or analysis of your application and resume by AI tools by using the General Application. Please include the role you wish to apply for in the Additional Information field. You may also choose to opt-out of recording and transcription at any time, including after joining an interview. Candidates will not be penalized for choosing to opt-out.

• Partner with Account Executives to execute pre-sales activities including opportunity qualification, demonstrations, Proof-of-Concept, RFP, design documentation, technical presentations and enablement sessions. • Help customers achieve success by leading the technical and product sale, recommending best-practice solutions, and guiding them on how to use Twilio’s APIs. • Establish yourself as a trusted advisor to our customers, by taking the lead on understanding customer technical pains through discovery in order to design, demonstrate, and present innovative solutions that solve business challenges. • Build and present highly interactive, complex and engaging customer product demonstrations to help showcase the capabilities of Twilio’s Communications Products, while effectively forming strong customer relationships with both technical and nontechnical stakeholders • Be Hands-on, high-energy, passionate, and a creative problem solver, equipped with the knowledge of how to get things done and ability to lead others to success. • Take the initiative to identify and solve problems - both for the customer and within the organization as we grow • Contribute to the broader Twilio Presales Engineering community through knowledge sharing, constructing demonstration materials, and creating reusable presentations • Mentor less experienced Presales Engineers