Senior Presales Consultant

Revised Job Description | Data Center Networking, Juniper QFX, Apstra, EVPN-VXLAN, Network Automation

Role Focus

Juniper & Aruba-focused presales leadership for partner and customer engagements, RFx responses, solution design, POC, demonstrations and technical enablement.

Primary Domain

Enterprise and data center networking, especially Juniper QFX switching, data center fabrics, EVPN-VXLAN, Junos OS, Apstra/Data Center Director and related Wifi and automation/assurance capabilities.

Seniority Emphasis

Able to lead technical qualification, validate architectures, own technical proposals and SOW inputs, mentor junior presales resources and support strategic pipeline development. Knowledge on HPE Compute and Storage an added advantage

Ideal Candidate Profile

A hands-on networking presales professional with proven Aruba & Juniper or comparable data center switching experience, strong Layer 2/Layer 3 fundamentals, and confidence engaging customers, partners, vendors and internal sales teams.

Role Purpose

The Senior Presales Consultant –Juniper & Aruba Networking is responsible for driving technical presales engagements for Juniper & Aruba networking solutions, with strong emphasis on data center networking. The role supports sales and channel teams in opportunity qualification, requirements discovery, solution mapping, architecture validation, product positioning, BOM preparation, demonstrations, RFx responses, SOW preparation and post-win handover. The candidate must be credible in front of customers and partners, able to translate business and application requirements into robust Juniper networking designs, and able to differentiate Juniper solutions against competing technologies.

Key Responsibilities

• Customer and Partner Engagement: Work closely with Sales and Channel teams to identify opportunities, qualify customer needs, document requirements, uncover technical constraints and map business problems to Juniper networking solutions.
• Data Center Solution Design: Lead solution mapping and high-level architecture design for Juniper data center networking, including spine-leaf architectures, top-of-rack switching, data center interconnect, EVPN-VXLAN fabrics, routing and switching integration, resiliency and operational requirements.
• Juniper Product Positioning: Position relevant Juniper/HPE Juniper Networking products and capabilities, including QFX Series data center switches, Junos OS, Apstra/Data Center Director, automation/assurance, telemetry and adjacent security or routing components where applicable.
• Presales Demonstrations and Workshops: Conduct technical presentations, whiteboarding sessions, product demonstrations, discovery workshops and solution walkthroughs for partners, end customers and internal stakeholders.
• BOM and Configuration Support: Prepare and validate solution BOMs, sizing assumptions, license/subscription requirements, optics/transceiver considerations, support services and configuration dependencies for data center networking opportunities.
• RFx and Tender Responses: Support RFI/RFP/tender responses by preparing technical write-ups, compliance matrices, architecture diagrams, solution descriptions, implementation assumptions and differentiators.
• Architecture Validation: Validate presales solution designs for technical feasibility, scalability, performance, availability, operational fit, security considerations and alignment with customer requirements.
• SOW Input: Work with Sales, Channel and Post-Sales teams to prepare solution scope, implementation assumptions, exclusions, responsibilities and handover information; act as final technical owner for presales SOW inputs within the candidate’s solution scope.
• Competitive Awareness: Research market trends, competitor solutions and alternative architectures, and provide practical feedback to management and sales teams on positioning, gaps and win themes.
• Enablement and Mentoring: Coach and mentor presales colleagues & Partners on Juniper networking fundamentals, data center design principles, product updates, partner enablement content and repeatable solution templates.
• Vendor and Principal Engagement: Lead technical discussions with Juniper/HPE Juniper vendor teams for new initiatives, roadmaps, deal-specific clarifications, escalations, solution validation and enablement planning.
• Cross-Solution Bundling: Identify opportunities to bundle Juniper networking with compute, storage, security, data protection, cloud, AI infrastructure or services offerings to create stronger partner/customer solutions.
• Post-Win Handover: Jointly conduct technical handover sessions with Sales, Channel and Post-Sales teams after deal closure, ensuring requirements, assumptions, risks and accepted solution scope are clearly transferred.
• Market and Event Support: Participate in exhibitions, partner events, vendor briefings and marketing campaigns to showcase Juniper solutions, capture leads and remain current with industry needs.
• Certification and Continuous Learning: Keep current with Juniper product updates, data center networking standards, vendor training and required certifications.
• Target Contribution: Support achievement of presales targets, pipeline influence, vendor line-card objectives and partner enablement goals assigned to the presales team.

Mandatory Networking Domain Knowledge

• Layer 2 and Layer 3 Fundamentals: Strong understanding of VLANs, trunks, LACP, MLAG/MC-LAG concepts, spanning tree, ARP, VRRP/HSRP equivalents, IP subnetting, routing tables, ECMP and high availability design.
• Routing Protocols: Hands-on knowledge of BGP and OSPF; ability to explain route advertisement, route filtering, redistribution, route reflectors, ECMP, summarization and traffic engineering at a presales/design level.
• Data Center Fabric Architectures: Strong knowledge of spine-leaf design, underlay/overlay separation, fabric scaling, redundancy, failure domains, east-west traffic flows and data center interconnect considerations.
• EVPN-VXLAN: Ability to design and explain EVPN-VXLAN concepts including VTEP, VNIs, L2/L3 gateways, anycast gateway, route types, symmetric/asymmetric IRB, segmentation and multi-tenant data center use cases.
• Switching Platforms and Optics: Knowledge of data center switch roles including top-of-rack, leaf, spine, super-spine and DCI border; understands 10/25/40/100/400/800GbE considerations, optics, DAC/AOC, breakout cables and cabling constraints.
• Network Security and Segmentation: Understands segmentation, ACLs, microsegmentation concepts, secure management access, control plane protection, MACsec use cases and integration with firewall/security architectures.
• Network Operations: Good understanding of monitoring, telemetry, logging, SNMP/streaming telemetry, configuration backup, change control, Day 0/1/2 operations, troubleshooting workflows and operational handover requirements.
• Automation and Programmability: Working knowledge of network automation concepts such as ZTP, templates, APIs, Python, Ansible, Junos commit/rollback model and infrastructure-as-code concepts; hands-on depth is preferred.
• Enterprise Infrastructure Awareness: Able to interface with server, virtualization, storage, backup, security and cloud teams; understands how network design impacts workloads, virtualization clusters, storage traffic, AI/HPC workloads and application availability.

Juniper-Specific Technical Requirements

• Junos OS Proficiency: Comfortable with Junos OS architecture, configuration hierarchy, commit/rollback, routing instances/VRFs, interface configuration, routing policy, firewall filters, system services and operational commands.
• QFX Data Center Switching: Experience positioning or designing with Juniper QFX Series switches for top-of-rack, leaf/spine, data center fabric, DCI, campus core/distribution or AI-ready data center use cases.
• Apstra / Data Center Director Awareness: Ability to explain intent-based networking, Day 0 design, Day 1 deployment, Day 2 operations, closed-loop assurance and multivendor data center fabric automation concepts.
• Juniper Portfolio Breadth: Good awareness of how QFX, EX, MX, SRX, Mist AI and relevant Juniper/HPE Juniper management or assurance offerings can combine into broader enterprise networking solutions.
• Design Documentation: Able to produce customer-facing HLD/LLD inputs, topology diagrams, port maps, logical architecture notes, assumptions, limitations, migration approach and implementation considerations.
• Interoperability: Able to articulate interoperability with common enterprise environments such as VMware, Hyper-V, Kubernetes/container platforms, storage networks, firewalls, load balancers, monitoring tools and existing Cisco/Arista/HPE/other network estates.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline; equivalent professional experience will be considered.
• Minimum 7 years of relevant IT experience, with at least 4-5 years in networking presales, solution architecture, network consulting or senior network engineering.
• Proven experience supporting enterprise networking opportunities, preferably Juniper Networking; strong candidates with equivalent data center switching experience from Cisco, Arista, HPE Aruba, Dell, NVIDIA/Mellanox or similar platforms may be considered if they can quickly ramp on Juniper.
• Demonstrated experience in data center networking design, including spine-leaf fabrics, high availability, routing/switching, EVPN-VXLAN, DCI and operational considerations.
• Experience in IT distribution, systems integration, vendor presales, channel presales or partner-facing technical roles is strongly preferred.
• Ability to prepare and validate technical proposals, BOMs, RFx responses, architecture diagrams, demonstration plans and SOW inputs.
• Strong presentation, communication and stakeholder-management skills; able to explain complex networking topics to both technical and business audiences.
• Proven ability to work independently, handle multiple opportunities concurrently and operate effectively under pressure.
• Commercial awareness, including ability to balance technical fit, budget constraints, supportability, licensing, services and partner margin considerations.
• Willingness to maintain vendor certifications and participate in Juniper/HPE Juniper enablement, partner events and technical communities.

Preferred Certifications

• Juniper certifications such as JNCIA-Junos, JNCIS-ENT, JNCIP-ENT, JNCIS-DC or JNCIP-DC are strongly preferred.
• Equivalent networking certifications such as CCNP Enterprise/Data Center, CCIE, Aruba, Arista, VMware NSX or cloud networking certifications are advantageous.
• Presales, solution architecture or project-related certifications are beneficial where supported by strong networking domain experience.

Other Duties

• Perform any other duties as assigned from time to time, consistent with the senior presales consultant role and assigned vendor line-card responsibilities.

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