PRINCIPAL SALES ENGINEER
Lumen is the trusted network for the AI-powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high-performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities.
At Lumen, you’ll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what’s next, where performance, security, and resilience matter.
This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you’re ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI-ready connectivity, join us today.
The Role
You'll be the technical lead on Alkira deals - in the room with network architects and infrastructure directors, owning the technical side of the deal from first conversation through POC to close. You'll do that as part of an experienced Sales Engineering team, with senior SEs alongside you on the largest and most complex opportunities.
This is a pre-sales engineering role. You'll partner directly with an Account Manager on strategy and carry real influence over what we build next - our Product team treats SE field feedback as a primary input to the roadmap. It's also a role you can grow in: you'll have senior SEs to learn from, and a clear path for career growth.
Travel: approximately 25%, including regional air travel as needed.
The Main Responsibilities
- Present and demo the Alkira platform to technical decision makers, from engineer to CIO
- Clearly articulate the Alkira value proposition, with a good understanding of the market, industry and competitive landscape
- Partner with Alkira Account Managers to understand customer requirements and pain points. Assist with any technical asks from customers and help respond to RFP/RFIs
- Scope, run and win Proof of Concepts end to end, with senior SE support on the largest and most complex engagements
- Assist customers with design and deployment based on best practices
- Work with the Alkira Product Management team to provide feedback on upcoming features from the customer's lens
- Track and drive key customer features/asks with Alkira Product Management to implementation
- Contribute to the wider SE team - we review each other's designs, share what works in the field, and build the reusable material the whole team sells with
What We Look For in a Candidate
- 8+ years in a customer-facing pre-sales engineering role - Sales Engineer, Systems Engineer, Solutions Consultant or Solutions Architect - ideally at a networking or security vendor, cloud provider, channel partner, or consultancy
- Strong networking fundamentals - Everything below builds on this, and it is not negotiable
- Deep expertise in routing protocols and technologies, including BGP, OSPF, and static routing, with hands-on experience in route policy design, route redistribution, filtering, and traffic engineering
- Understanding of network virtualization and software-defined networking, including VRFs, multi-tenant network architectures, SD-WAN, and the encapsulation protocols used to build overlays at scale (GRE, VXLAN, GENEVE and similar)
- Hands-on experience with IPsec VPNs, encryption standards, NAT, and secure connectivity architectures
- Good understanding of how enterprises extend cloud connectivity using a variety of Networking Technologies (i.e. Cloud On-Ramps, SD-WAN and IPsec)
- Experience in large-scale enterprise network design and deployment experience across data center, WAN and hybrid/multi-cloud
- A deep understanding of network services - DNS, DHCP, load balancing, traffic inspection and similar
- The ability to troubleshoot live, in front of a customer, across routing, security and cloud domains
- Excellent written and verbal communication, and comfort presenting and demoing to customers in person - In this role you are the technical credibility of the company
Strongly preferred
- Understanding of cloud networking constructs across AWS, Azure, and GCP (e.g., VPCs/VNets, Transit Gateway, Virtual WAN, Cloud Router, peering, and hybrid connectivity such as Direct Connect and ExpressRoute)
- Network security expertise, including firewalls (e.g., Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Check Point), firewall policy design, service insertion/chaining, and Zero Trust principles
- Relevant technical certifications (e.g., CCNP/CCIE, AWS Advanced Networking, Azure Network Engineer, PCNSE)
- Familiarity with Terraform or infrastructure-as-code for network automation
- BA/BS/MS in a technical field
- Strong passion for sales and creating long-lasting professional relationships
Requisition #: 343535
Life at Lumen
Life at Lumen is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI-focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes.
Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win.
To learn more about Life at Lumen and how we live the Lumen 8, please visit:
https://jobs.lumen.com/global/en/life-at-lumen
Background Screening
If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page. Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role. Background results will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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https://jobs.lumen.com/global/en/privacy-notice
Disclaimer
The job responsibilities described above indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not intended to include a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities for this job. Job duties and responsibilities are subject to change based on evolving business needs and conditions.
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