Senior Switching Architect

Senior AI Switching Architect Hyderabad / Bangalore Founded by highly respected Silicon Valley veterans - with its design centers established in Santa Clara, California. / Hyderabad/ Bangalore Our pay comprehensively beats "ALL" Semiconductor product players in the Indian market. Senior AI Switching Architect Job Title: Senior AI Switching Architect Location: Hyderabad, or Bengaluru - India Experience Level: 15+ years Position Overview We are seeking a highly experienced Senior AI Switching Architect to join our dynamic team focused on delivering cutting-edge hyperscale and AI networking solutions. In this role, you will serve as a trusted advisor to clients, developing and bridging complex technical architectures with strategic business outcomes. You will collaborate closely with sales teams, partners, and customers to architect, demonstrate, and deploy innovative networking infrastructures that power the next generation of data centers and AI workloads. This position demands a blend of deep technical acumen, sales prowess, and leadership to drive revenue growth in a competitive, fast-evolving market. The ideal candidate thrives in high-pressure environments, excels at translating intricate network designs into compelling value propositions, and possesses a proven history of closing multimillion-dollar deals in the hyperscale sector. Key Responsibilities Design and validate scalable network architectures, including IP fabrics, SDN overlays, and automation frameworks, ensuring alignment with customer business objectives such as cost optimization, performance scalability, and operational efficiency. Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., product management, engineering, and channel partners) to develop customized proposals, including detailed solution blueprints, ROI analyses, and competitive differentiators. Lead pre-sales engagements by conducting in-depth technical consultations, proof-of-concept demonstrations, and solution workshops to address customer pain points in hyperscale and AI networking. Author and review RFP/Tender responses, ensuring comprehensive coverage of technical compliance, pricing strategies, and risk mitigation to maximize win rates. Mentor junior architects and provide technical guidance to sales teams, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation. Stay abreast of industry trends in merchant silicon, open networking, and AI-driven automation, positioning our solutions as market leaders through thought leadership activities like whitepapers, webinars, and conference presentations. Build and nurture long-term relationships with C-level executives, CTOs, and network architects at Fortune 500 hyperscalers, cloud providers, and enterprise clients. Minimum Qualifications Core Technical Depth: 15+ years of hands-on experience in Hyperscale/AI Networking Infrastructure, IP routing protocols (e.g., BGP, OSPF, IS-IS), and Ethernet switching technologies for AI Networking like UALink, Ultra Ethernet. This includes architecting and deploying large-scale networks for global service providers and cloud operators, with expertise in: Network Design and Operations: Designing and operationalizing expansive IP/MPLS-based networks across Core, Access, Metro, and Edge domains, incorporating MPLS Traffic Engineering (MPLS-TE) for optimized path selection and bandwidth utilization. Datacenter Fabrics: Engineering hyperscale AI center IP Fabrics, EVPN/VXLAN-based overlays for multi-tenancy, and Data Center Interconnect (DCI) solutions to enable seamless workload mobility and hybrid cloud integrations. Overlay and Tunneling Protocols: In-depth knowledge of MP-BGP for route distribution, EVPN for MAC/IP learning, and advanced tunneling mechanisms like VXLAN for L2 extension, MPLS for L3 VPNs, Segment Routing (SR), and SRv6 for simplified traffic engineering. Hardware and Platform Proficiency: Strong understanding of Cisco, Juniper edge routing, universal routing, packet transport, and data center switching series, including their architectural advantages in high-density, low-latency environments. Equivalent experience with competitors (e.g., Juniper MX/PTX/QFX, Cisco NCS, Arista 7000 series) is essential for competitive analysis. Merchant Silicon Mastery: Expert-level familiarity with networking ASICs such as Broadcom's Trident/Tomahawk series for cost-effective switching or Nokia's Jericho for programmable routing, including feature comparisons (e.g., pipeline stages, table sizes, telemetry support) and strategic positioning against proprietary silicon. Automation and Orchestration: Hands-on experience with network provisioning tools like Juniper Apstra for intent-based networking or Paragon Automation for closed-loop operations, including integration with competitive equivalents (e.g., Cisco NSO). Monitoring and Telemetry: Proficiency in modern manageability standards such as NETCONF for configuration management, REST APIs for programmatic access, YANG data modeling, and streaming telemetry for real-time analytics to enable proactive issue resolution. Virtualization and Acceleration: Experience scaling virtualized network functions (VNFs) on x86 platforms using DPDK for user-space packet processing, SR-IOV for direct device assignment, and SmartNICs (e.g., NVIDIA BlueField) for offloading AI workloads. Open Networking Ecosystem: Practical deployment of whitebox switches with open-source software stacks like SONiC (Microsoft's NOS) and FRR (Free Range Routing) for disaggregated, cost-optimized architectures. Proven Pre-Sales Expertise: Extensive experience (10+ years) in pre-sales roles selling high-end networking equipment and solutions to enterprise and hyperscale customers. Exceptional oral and written communication skills are required, with a demonstrated ability to articulate how technical innovations directly address business challenges, such as reducing latency in AI training clusters or enhancing fault tolerance in distributed data centers. Stakeholder Engagement: Track record of effectively communicating intricate technical concepts and sales strategies to diverse audiences, including non-technical executives. Success in cultivating strategic alliances with C-level leaders and technical influencers across client organizations and ecosystem partners. RFP Mastery: Documented experience crafting winning RFP/Tender submissions, encompassing technical compliance matrices, detailed bills of materials (BOMs), commercial and pricing models, high-level design documents, and executive summaries that highlight solution fit and TCO benefits. Educational Background: Advanced degree (Master's or higher) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technology field, or equivalent combination of education and professional experience. Show original message Leadership Experience: Formal or informal experience in technical sales leadership, such as managing a pre-sales pod or mentoring emerging talent to accelerate team performance and knowledge