Field CTO

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." - IDC

"The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments" - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence.

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management.

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage.

The AI Field CTO is a customer-facing role aligned to work with our most strategic and enterprise customers and prospects on their AI transformation journey, in practical workloads in their industry. Working alongside DDN alliances, sales and presales team, the AI Field CTO will effectively drive, explore and close strategic sales opportunities with account teams by being true subject matter experts for AI in the real world - enabling customers to harness the power of AI.

The AI Field CTO will help customers leverage DDN products to develop real-world AI solutions for very real business challenges in industry, including deployment and operation of GPU-based large language models, inference, and generative AI.

This will require a deep understanding of AI workloads, how businesses can truly implement a full stack AI solution, partnering with our Strategic Alliance partners, and the ability to partner with customers on how DDN can transform their AI plan and drive real business outcomes.This position requires up to 50% travel.

Key Responsibilities:

AI Architecture & Strategy leadership - You will be aligned to a set of specific Strategic Alliance partners, partnering with a DDN Strategic Alliance owner who are aligned to the same Strategic Alliance partners, and will tactically engage the joint pipeline, knowing and understanding the specific customer business challenge, in the specific vertical and AI use case, then own the AI architecture vision and strategy for the full AI stack (infrastructure through application level). This will allow focu on how DDN, with our Strategic Alliance partners, can drive true AI deployment in the customer environment, to solve actual customer business challenges.
• In collaboration with the DDN alliance team and DDN sales account team, aligned to your Strategic Alliance, you will participate in account and opportunity planning, with a focus on AI transformation.
• Become a trusted advisor to the customer CIO/CTO & Key Decision Makers as they look to harness AI to transform their business.
• Understand the customer's specific business challenges and the translation to their AI strategy and technology needs; identifying the key capabilities and technology enablers required to support AI use cases, with DDN as a critical component.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to our sales and presales resources on strategic AI opportunities.
• Own a set of industry verticals and the associated AI use cases, distributed among the AI Field CTO organization, to be the subject matter expert in offering the best solution, inclusive of infrastructure, software, application, open source and more.
• Participate in the delivery of AI solution best practices, reference architectures, whitepapers, educational sessions, events and industry summits to existing customers, partners and to internal audiences. This will be a very customer-facing, industry-facing role, where the AI Field CTO will be very visible to the market, representing AI expertise from DDN.
• Play a critical role in driving strategic AI sales opportunities to closure by developing a deep understanding of customers' technical requirements and articulating the unique value proposition of DDN offerings in enabling and accelerating AI workloads.
• Act as a trusted advisor to C-level executives and IT decision-makers, translating AI business requirements into technical solutions and convincingly articulating how DDN offerings are far more compelling than competitors in meeting and exceeding customer needs.
• Identify and engage with all key stakeholders at customer organizations, building strong relationships and aligning DDN solutions with their unique AI requirements and objectives.
• Driving requirements to product management and engineering teams, and collaborating with them, to provide product features and capabilities based on market insights and customer AI requirements, influencing the product roadmap to maintain DDN competitive advantage in the AI space.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years' experience as a technology executive with responsibilities for technical strategy and architecture execution.
• Deep understanding of AI workloads, data center infrastructure, and the role of storage in enabling and accelerating AI initiatives.
• A perspective on the use of data and AI across industries, both challenges and value, and the ability to provide thought leadership in this space.
• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or equivalent work experience in AI/ML, data science, big data, or related fields.
• Multi-year experience in AI/ML infrastructure, enterprise architecture, or related disciplines.
• Proven experience in creating, selling and/or implementing AI technology-based solutions.
• Ability to clearly communicate the business value of AI technology decisions, and willingness to be very visible in market.
• Ability to operate as an effective tactical as well as strategic thinker and team leader.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex AI concepts and business benefits to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to effectively interface with senior management, board of directors and staff.
• Must be willing and able to work in an open office, team environment.

DDN has a very strong orientation towards these 4 characteristics and any successful employee will demonstrate these capabilities:

Self-Starter - Takes independent action to identify and solve problems. Seeks out relevant information needed to make decisions. Gets involved with new initiatives.

Success/Achievement Orientation - Delivers quality results consistently. Targets, achieves (or exceeds) measurable results. Sets challenging goals, focuses on critical priorities, and is accountable.

Problem Solving - Recognizes problems and responds with a systematic assessment that identifies and addresses cause of issue. Practical, realistic, and resourceful.

Innovative - Builds and improves key business processes that enhance the effectiveness of DDN. Generates new ideas, challenges the status quo, and solves problems creatively.

DataDirect Networks, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

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