Field PLM Principal Architect

Position Summary

The Principal Architect – HPE Campus & Branch is a senior technical member of the Field PLM organization responsible for providing expert architecture and technical leadership for HPE’s strategic Campus & Branch opportunities and customers. This role partners with Field PLMs, HPE Territory Managers, Systems Engineers, Product Management, Engineering and Support to win complex opportunities, develop and validate architectures, remove technical barriers, and help protect the install base of customers.

The Principal Architect is expected to operate as one of the organization’s highest levels of technical expertise for the HPE Mist Campus & Branch portfolio while helping to scale capabilities of the broader field organization.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Engage early with Field PLM and account teams on strategic and technically complex opportunities.

• Help with technical discovery, drive architecture discussions, whiteboarding sessions and solution design.

• Collaborate with Field PLM and HPE account teams to develop the technical win strategy.

• Lead or guide complex proofs of concept, migration planning and architecture validation.

• Identify technical risks, dependencies, product gaps and customer objections early in the sales cycle.

• Support competitive positioning and displacement strategies where architecture is a key differentiator.

• Drive customer architecture acceptance and confidence in HPE Mist solutions.

• Evangelize and be a thought leader for HPE’s AI-Driven, Self-Driving solutions.

Own Complex Architectures

• Architect complex Campus & Branch solutions spanning Mist Wireless Assurance, Wired Assurance, EX/CX switching, Campus Fabric / EVPN-VXLAN, Access Assurance/NAC, segmentation, branch/WAN, Marvis, APIs, automation and third-party integrations.

• Evaluate end-to-end designs for scale, resiliency, operational simplicity, security, migration feasibility and customer outcomes.

• Serve as a senior technical authority for architecture decisions and complex design tradeoffs.

• Remain hands-on and technically current across the HPE Mist Campus & Branch portfolio and relevant adjacent technologies.

Strategic Customer Satisfaction

• Engage on critical customer satisfaction and escalations ensuring customer success.

• Determine whether issues are driven by product, configuration, architecture, operations or a combination of factors.

• Perform architecture reviews and evaluate telemetry data, evidence and systemic risks.

• Coordinate technical workstreams with Field PLM, Account SE, Support/TAC, Product Management and Engineering.

• Validate remediation plans and help communicate technical findings and recovery actions to customer technical leadership.

• Identify lessons learned and systemic improvements beyond the immediate incident.

Field Scale & Technical Leadership

• Mentor Field PLMs and Systems Engineers on advanced Campus & Branch architectures.
• Develop reusable reference architectures, validated designs, best practices, configurations, technical decision guidance and enablement.

• Deliver advanced training, architecture office hours and technical knowledge transfer.

• Translate field experience into actionable product feedback for Product Management and Engineering.

• Help translate product direction, architecture changes and engineering guidance back to the field.

Engagement Profile

The Principal Architect is expected to engage when technical complexity or business/customer impact warrants expertise. Typical engagements include:

• Strategic new logos and major competitive takeouts.

• Complex Wireless, Switching, Routing, Campus Fabric / EVPN-VXLAN opportunities.

• Large-scale, multi-campus or multi-domain architectures.

• Complex migrations, POCs and architecture validation.

• Critical customer satisfaction issues and escalations.

• Opportunities or customer situations requiring Product Management or Engineering involvement.

Qualifications

• Extensive enterprise networking architecture and pre-sales experience with demonstrated success in complex customer environments.

• Expert-level knowledge of campus wired and wireless networking, switching and routings architectures, and enterprise network design.

• Deep understanding of EVPN/VXLAN and modern campus fabric architectures.

• Strong knowledge of identity/NAC, segmentation, branch/WAN and AI-driven network operations.

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical discovery, architecture workshops, POCs and customer-facing design reviews.

• Ability to communicate credibly with senior network architects, technical executives, Product Management and Engineering.

• Strong troubleshooting and critical thinking skills across product, configuration, architecture and operations.

• Ability to influence without direct authority and work effectively across sales, field, support, product and engineering organizations.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to simplify complex technical concepts.

• Willingness to travel as required to support strategic opportunities and customers.

• Relevant advanced networking, wireless or security certifications.

Success Measures

• Business impact: strategic wins, new logos, competitive takeouts, install base expansions/refresh and revenue influenced.

• Architecture impact: accepted designs, technical objections removed and successful complex POCs/migrations.

• Customer Success: improved strategic customer health, critical issues resolved and retention risk mitigated.

• Organizational impact: Field PLMs/SEs mentored, advanced enablement delivered and reusable architecture content created.

• Product impact: meaningful product gaps identified and actionable field feedback driven with Product Management and Engineering.

HPE is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible workplace and encourages applications from all qualified individuals, including those with disabilities. If you believe you require accommodation during any stage of the application or interview process, please submit your request by completing our secure form linked here.

Note: This option is reserved for applicants needing assistance/reasonable accommodation related to a disability.

We strive to provide our team members and their loved ones with a comprehensive suite of benefits that supports their physical, financial and emotional wellbeing.

We also invest in your career because the better you are, the better we all are. We have specific programs catered to helping you reach any career goals you have — whether you want to become a knowledge expert in your field or apply your skills to another division.

We are unconditionally inclusive in the way we work and celebrate individual uniqueness. We know varied backgrounds are valued and succeed here. We have the flexibility to manage our work and personal needs. We make bold moves, together, and are a force for good.

Information about employee benefits offered in the US can be found at https://myhperewards.com/main/new-hire-enrollment.html

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