Federal (Sales) Systems Engineer

Forward Networks is revolutionizing the way large networks are managed. The Forward Enterprise platform delivers a vendor-agnostic "digital twin" of the network, based on a mathematical model. The platform scales to support hundreds of thousands of network devices, whether cloud, hybrid cloud, or on-prem. It serves as a single source of truth for the network, enabling network operators to instantly verify security posture, accelerate troubleshooting, avoid outages, and modernize network management.

Over the past few years, Forward Networks has received tremendous industry recognition, including “Cool Vendor in Enterprise Networking” by Gartner, “Product of the Year” by Cloud Computing, “Hot Company” by Cyber Defense Magazine, “Enterprise Cloud Computing Software of the Year,” and has been named to Fortune’s “Best Workplaces in the Bay Area” list.

The company was founded by four Stanford PhD graduates who saw a massive opportunity to improve network operations. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, MSD Capital, Threshold Ventures, and Goldman Sachs..

Forward Networks is looking for a Federal (Sales) Systems Engineer

• Do you want to create a category and help build a special company?


• Do you want to help sell a platform that solves real networking problems?


• Join a company that has been in the market for 5+ years and has some of the top Federal agencies and F500/Global 2000 already buying and referenceable.


• If you have 5-10 years of wildly successful experience as a Sales Engineer selling to large enterprise accounts. You may be the one!


• We are building a special team and hope you consider us if you want to have the experience of changing the networking world as we know it.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary technical resource for the sales organization, working with Federal DOD, Civilian, and Public Sector accounts in the Western regions.


• Work with the sales team as the product advocate and key technical adviser


• Drive and manage the technology evaluation stage of the sales process, answering technical questions and communicating business and technical value to all levels of management.


• Establish and maintain strong relationships throughout the sales cycle to ensure complete customer satisfaction.


• Establish technical feasibility and perform qualification of the potential technical deployment.


• Develop and deliver product demos and POCs


• Respond to functional and technical elements of RFIs/RFPs


• Work with internal product management and engineering teams to convey customer requirements.


• Represent the product to customers, partners, and at field events such as conferences, seminars, etc.

Required Qualifications:

• Active TS/SCI Clearance (a CI or FSP clearance preferred)


• Strong understanding of networking and security solutions and vendors


• Strong verbal and written communication skills with a focus on needs analysis, positioning, business justification, and closing techniques.


• 10+ years’ experience selling to Federal customers for a networking company or a relevant software vendor.


• Superior presentation skills

Highly Desired:

• Experience working with a startup company


• B.S. Computer Science or equivalent educational experience


• Working knowledge of API driven workflows and scripting languages (Python, bash, jq, graphql, etc)


• One or more of the following certificates: CCIE, JNCIE or VCDX

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary + bonus is expected to be between $250,000/yr and $290,000/yr. The offered compensation may also include stock.