Manager, Solutions Engineering - SLED
Boulder, Colorado, United States
Overview
At NetApp, our High Achievement Principles shape how we work: we innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel as a team. We have a history of helping customers turn challenges into business opportunities. As part of our sales organization, your role will require a strategic blend of technical acumen and charismatic client engagement, ensuring that every partnership is nurtured towards its maximum potential. As a pivotal link between NetApp and our clients, your contributions will directly influence the growth and direction of our department, making a lasting impact on the organization's success. This is more than a job—it's a chance to be part of a team that values innovation, supports professional growth, and celebrates shared victories.
Success profile
Ready for a sales career at NetApp? Explore the traits that can help you thrive.
- Relationship expertise
- Communicator
- Results-driven
- Strategic
- Collaborative
- Perceptive
Responsibilities
Boulder, Colorado, United States Job category: Sales Job ID: 136728-en_USOwn Every Moment at NetApp
At NetApp, your ideas power innovation. We lead in intelligent data infrastructure—delivering unified storage, integrated data services, and solutions that help organizations unlock the full potential of their data, from AI to multicloud.
Ready to innovate and contribute to our path to $10B? Here, you'll collaborate with passionate teams, tackle real-world challenges, and see your impact in how customers transform and grow. If you're ready to bring curiosity, creativity, and drive to every moment, NetApp is where your journey begins. Join teams that innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel together across every function.
LOCATION REQUIREMENT
This people manager will lead a team of Solutions Engineers supporting West SLED accounts. We are considering candidates only in California (greater San Francisco/San Jose Bay Area), and Colorado (greater Boulder area). Candidates outside of these locations will not be considered.
JOB SUMMARY
NetApp is seeking a Solutions Engineering Manager to lead our Western State, Local Government, and Education (SLED) Solutions Engineering team within the Commercial organization. This first-line people leader will manage Solutions Engineers supporting territories west of the Mississippi River and partner with two SLED District Sales Managers. Our SLED business combines a focus on growth and new customer acquisition with the complexity of enterprise-scale environments. Customers include state and local government agencies, public safety organizations, higher education institutions, research organizations, and university-affiliated healthcare systems. These organizations rely on secure, resilient data infrastructure to deliver essential services and advance their missions.
You will develop a strong technical sales team, align resources with district priorities, and drive a value-based selling approach that connects technology investments to customer outcomes. Success requires deep SLED experience, proven people leadership, and strong knowledge of the infrastructure and data center ecosystem.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Lead, coach, and develop Solutions Engineers, setting clear expectations, providing actionable feedback, and supporting performance and career growth.
- Partner with two SLED District Sales Managers to align technical sales strategy, account coverage, and execution across the West SLED business.
- Allocate technical resources based on territory needs, opportunity complexity, customer priorities, and revenue potential.
- Coach the team to sell on value by uncovering customer challenges and connecting solution recommendations to measurable outcomes, including resilience, security, operational efficiency, and cost optimization.
- Guide technical execution across discovery, solution design, demonstrations, proofs of concept, and technical validation.
- Apply a deep understanding of SLED sales cycles to account and opportunity planning, helping the team sustain engagement through long complex pursuits.
- Help the team understand and plan around customer budgeting processes, funding availability, fiscal calendars, procurement timelines, and purchasing requirements.
- Drive early engagement with customers so NetApp is part of technology planning and budget development before funding decisions are finalized.
- Establish clear milestones and technical strategies that maintain opportunity momentum across extended sales cycles and multiple budget years.
- Build account plans with sales partners that support expansion within existing customers and acquisition of new SLED customers.
- Ensure solution recommendations reflect customer security, regulatory, and operational requirements, including those relevant to public safety and criminal justice environments.
- Coach Solutions Engineers to proactively build trusted technical relationships with customers and partners and engage stakeholders beyond an individual opportunity.
- Collaborate with specialist teams, partners, and internal stakeholders to bring the right expertise to customer engagements.
- Review pipeline health, technical risks, competitive positioning, and resource needs with sales leadership, helping the team resolve obstacles and advance opportunities.
- Lead hiring, onboarding, and ongoing development to strengthen the team’s technical expertise, sales effectiveness, and customer engagement skills.
- Participate in customer and partner engagements and travel across the region.
QUALIFICATIONS
- 10+ years of experience supporting SLED customers in enterprise technology sales, Solutions Engineering, or related customer-facing technical roles.
- 5+ years of people management experience, including direct responsibility for coaching, performance management, hiring, and developing technical sales professionals.
- Presales experience required, with a demonstrated ability to lead technical strategy and execution throughout complex sales opportunities.
- Strong knowledge of the infrastructure and data center ecosystem required, including storage, data management, virtualization, compute, networking, data protection, and hybrid cloud environments.
- Demonstrated experience with value-based selling, including translating technical capabilities into customer outcomes and articulating the business justification for technology investments.
- Deep understanding of SLED sales cycles and experience supporting complex, extended pursuits involving multiple stakeholders.
- Proven ability to partner with sales leadership, prioritize opportunities, and align technical resources with territory and district objectives.
- Experience guiding discovery, solution development, technical validation, and competitive differentiation in enterprise-scale environments.
- Familiarity with the security, regulatory, and operational considerations affecting government, education, and public safety customers.
- Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage technical teams, business stakeholders, and executive decision-makers.
- A demonstrated ability to build trusted customer and partner relationships and support both new customer acquisition and growth within existing accounts.
- Ability to travel for team, customer, and partner engagements across the West region.
Compensation:
The target salary range for this position is 253,300 - 327,800 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. The range is based on 'On Target Earnings’ (OTE) representing the total potential earnings, which is the sum of the base salary and potential commission earned when performance targets are achieved. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s). These offerings are subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. We will provide detailed information about the specific benefits for your region during the recruitment process.
At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.
Why You'll Thrive at NetApp
At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.
NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.
Our culture
We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.
If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one. Apply now.
Submitting an Application
To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team only reviews applications submitted through our company website. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.
AI Disclosure
For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision-making.
Our values
Put the customer at the center. Care for each other and our communities. Think and act like owners. Build belonging every day. Embrace a growth mindset.
Benefits
Volunteer time off
40 hours of paid volunteer time each year.
Well-being
Employee Assistance Program, fitness, and mental health resources to help employees be their best.
Time away
Paid time off for vacation and to recharge.
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Equal Opportunity Employer*
NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status and any other protected classification. We pledge to take every reasonable step to ensure that our applicants and employees are respected, treated fairly and with dignity. See the EEO poster, Know your rights poster, and NetApp EEO policy. NetApp makes reasonable accommodations, consistent with applicable laws, for religious purposes and for the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified applicant or employee with a disability, who can perform the essential job functions unless undue hardship would result.
State-specific postings/notices to applicants regarding contract compliance can be found here in English and here in Spanish, and fair employment practice information can be found here.
Reasonable Accommodations
At NetApp, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible workplace where individuals with disabilities can thrive. In alignment with our values, NetApp provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments where possible to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities, in accordance with employment rights and regulations relevant to their country of employment, to ensure equal access to employment opportunities and job performance.
Applicants who would like to request an accommodation or adjustment are encouraged to Contact Us. Each request will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with applicable laws and our commitment to equity and belonging within our culture, values and business practices. Requests will be handled confidentially and respectfully, and we will work collaboratively to identify effective solutions.
- For reasonable accommodations in Germany, click here.
- For reasonable accommodations in France, click here.
- For reasonable accommodations in The Netherlands, click here.
Please note that we do not accept unsolicited resumes to the above email address.
Data privacy
We care about your privacy and, therefore, ask that you read our Candidate Privacy Notice before you submit any personal information to us.
NetApp does not carry out any solely automated decision making (i.e. the process of making a decision by automated means without any human involvement) in determining your suitability or eligibility for specific roles.
However, the processing of your personal information is carried out with the aid of manual and automated tools. In particular, NetApp may use an automated employment evaluation tool or similar tool as one of several tools, actions, and/or steps to assist with NetApp’s review of candidate applications for various hiring needs.
Currently, when addressing certain hiring needs, NetApp uses the following tools:
- Eightfold (eightfold.ai): This tool can provide an initial ranking of a candidate’s skills and experience, based on information provided by the applicant in the application and/or supporting documentation, in comparison to the NetApp designated key requirements of a specific role. Additionally, the tool may be used to help review and/or rank internal employees seeking promotion or other internal mobility. An independent audit of the Eightfold Matching Model tool can be found at https://eightfold.ai/nyc-eightfoldmatching-model.
- Findem (findem.ai): This tool is used to help identify candidates whose skills and experience may be relevant to open roles at NetApp, using publicly available professional information. Findem may also be used to assist with candidate matching, AI-assisted screening, and recruitment communications.
Our talent acquisition team or our recruiters will ultimately select the candidates for further consideration, following human review of any automated evaluation results and associated underlying documentation (or lack thereof) submitted with the candidates’ application.
Candidates may request an alternative selection process which will not be subject to the Eightfold matching tool or to any electronic automated employment evaluation by contacting NetApp at careers@netapp.com. To bypass the Eightfold matching tool or any electronic automated employment evaluation, you must include a resume and job ID with your email to careers@netapp.com and you must include in the subject line of your email: Data Privacy Request. Candidates who have questions or want to request additional information on the source of data, type of data, and/or collection of data related to the candidate review process should contact NetApp at careers@netapp.com
Note: Eightfold is not applicable to temporary hiring opportunities. If you are interested in temporary roles, you can apply via a third-party site managed by our preferred supplier, Magnit Global. Magnit Global will provide its own privacy disclosures for your review as part of the application process.
Submitting an application
To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team reviews apcplications submitted through our company website only. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.
AI Disclosure
For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use AI-powered tools to assist with tasks such as identifying relevant candidates, matching skills and experience to role requirements, and conducting initial screenings. These tools support - rather than replace - human decision-making. To learn more, please see our AI Transparency Statement. If you would prefer not to engage with an AI-assisted process, you can request an alternative by contacting careers@netapp.com. Choosing an alternative process will not impact your candidacy in any way.