Principal Sales Engineer

Responsibilities

• Technical Sales Leadership
• Act as the technical lead on complex and strategic sales opportunities , partnering with Account Executives to shape and close deals
• Influence deal strategy, technical win themes, and competitive positioning
• Engage confidently with both senior technical stakeholders and business decision-makers
• Drive alignment between customer requirements and Vertica's value proposition
• Solution Design & Technical Validation
• Design and deliver high-impact technical presentations, demonstrations, and solution architectures
• Own the technical qualification and validation process across opportunities
• Provide guidance on architecture design, scalability, and performance considerations
• Lead technical deep dives, workshops, and whiteboarding sessions with customers
• Proof of Concept & Benchmark Execution
• Lead the design, execution, and optimisation of POCs and performance benchmarks under tight timelines
• Build realistic data models, workloads, and evaluation frameworks aligned to customer environments
• Translate query performance, compression, and throughput metrics into compelling business outcomes
• Clearly articulate Vertica's differentiation versus competing solutions
• Data Architecture & Modern Data Stack Integration
• Engage deeply in customer discussions around data platforms, analytics architecture, and modernization initiatives
• Position Vertica within modern ecosystems, including: Ingestion: Kafka, Spark
• Storage: S3, HDFS
• Consumption: Tableau, Power BI, Looker
• Advise on data modelling, ETL/ELT pipelines, governance, and data quality practices
• Hands-on Technical Execution
• Write and optimise complex analytical SQL queries for large-scale workloads
• Develop scripts (Python, shell) to support automation, benchmarking, and demo setup
• Configure and deploy Vertica environments across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud platforms
• Troubleshoot performance bottlenecks and optimise query execution
• Partner & Ecosystem Collaboration
• Collaborate with cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP), GSIs, and VARs to deliver joint solutions
• Support co-sell motions and partner-led opportunities
• Contribute to partner enablement and technical alignment
• Mentorship & Team Contribution
• Provide guidance and mentorship to Sales Engineers , supporting skill development and best practices
• Share reusable assets, tools, and learnings across the Sales Engineering community
• Contribute to continuous improvement of technical sales processes and methodologies
• Experience and Qualifications:
• Core Experience
• 8-12+ years of experience in sales engineering, presales, or technical consulting roles
• Proven track record as a technical lead on complex, enterprise sales cycles
• Strong experience with analytical database platforms (columnar, MPP, OLAP), such as: Vertica, Teradata, Greenplum, ClickHouse, or equivalent
• Analytical Database & Performance Expertise
• Deep expertise in analytical database architectures, query optimisation, and workload management
• Demonstrated success designing and executing POCs and performance benchmarks
• Ability to translate technical results into business-impact narratives
• Data Architecture & Integration Knowledge
• Strong understanding of modern data stack components, including: Data ingestion frameworks (Kafka, Spark)
• Storage layers (S3, HDFS)
• BI and visualisation tools (Tableau, Looker, Power BI)
• Ability to position Vertica within complex enterprise data ecosystems
• SQL, Scripting & Technical Skills
• Advanced proficiency in ANSI SQL and analytical query optimisation
• Experience with SQL dialects such as PL/SQL, T-SQL
• Practical experience using Python or shell scripting for automation and data processing
• Data Engineering & Platform Expertise
• Strong knowledge of: Data warehousing and Data Lake analytics
• Data modelling and schema design
• ETL/ELT pipeline development
• Data governance and data quality practices
• Experience working with cloud and hybrid infrastructures (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Emerging Technologies
• Working knowledge

Additional Information

It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing! Job Description Summary: The Principal Sales Engineer - Vertica is a highly experienced technical leader responsible for driving technical success across complex, high-value sales opportunities for Rocket Software's Vertica analytics platform. This role combines deep analytical database expertise, advanced presales execution, and strategic customer engagement, partnering closely with Account Executives, Solutions Architects, and partners to deliver differentiated, high-impact solutions. As a senior technical authority within the sales organisation, the Principal Sales Engineer leads complex solution design, proof-of-concept execution, and competitive positioning, while influencing deal strategy and customer outcomes. The role requires the ability to operate independently across multiple strategic opportunities, translating deep technical insights into clear business value and accelerating revenue growth.

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