Business Area:
Sales EngineeringSeniority Level:
Mid-Senior levelJob Description:
At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.
At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world's largest enterprises.
As a Senior Partner Solutions Engineer you are the trusted technical advisor to the System Integrators, ISV/OEMs, and hyperscalers that make up Cloudera's partner ecosystem in your region. You own the technical win. You shape target architectures, defend them under challenge from a partner's most senior architects, and turn partner relationships into repeatable, co-sold pipeline. You are a pre-sales professional first — someone who reads a room, frames a commercial story, and earns trust quickly — backed by a strong, current data-platform foundation. The specific region you cover is shown at the top of this description; your focus is the partners and customers within it.
As the Senior Partner Solutions Engineer you will:
Own the technical relationship with strategic partners. Become the architect they call first — the person who can turn an ambiguous partner ambition into a defensible, buildable plan.
Shape partner go-to-market. Drive co-sell motions, build joint reference architectures, and run defend-and-expand plays that grow the Cloudera footprint against an incumbent rather than merely protecting it.
Position Cloudera credibly in competitive situations. Articulate honest, specific trade-offs against Databricks, Snowflake, Confluent, and Microsoft Fabric. Partners trust candour, not product zealotry — acknowledge where a competitor legitimately wins and show where Cloudera pulls ahead.
Lead partner enablement. Design and deliver workshops, hands-on labs, and a path to certification that makes a partner self-sufficient and motivated to lead with Cloudera.
Navigate hybrid and sovereignty conversations. Reason fluently about on-prem data gravity, cloud bursting, data residency, and what 'sovereign' means architecturally as well as commercially.
Translate technical depth into partner value. Move comfortably from a whiteboard to a working PoC to a board-ready narrative, pitching the value rather than the feature list — making the joint solution genuinely easier for the partner to sell.
Build the “better together” story. Produce the repeatable joint assets — first-call decks, solution battlecards, reference architectures, and customer success stories — that let both Cloudera and partner account teams sell the joint value at scale.
Develop technical champions inside your partners. Grow a bench of partner-side architects who lead with Cloudera by choice, building toward a partner Center of Excellence where it makes sense.
Be the Voice of the Partner inside the Organisation, and the Voice of the Organisation to the Partner. Carry partners' technical concerns and roadmap needs back to Cloudera product management and engineering, and bring Cloudera's strategy, roadmap, and early product insight back to the partner.
Own the technical lifecycle of a partnership. From business case and architecture through solution build and governance — keeping the joint motion on track end to end.
Establish thought leadership. Author whitepapers, reference blueprints, and blog posts, and present at partner workshops, webinars, and industry events.
We’re excited about you if you have: (Minimum Qualifications)
This role is weighted toward pre-sales and partner instinct. We expect a solid, current technical foundation — but the bar is your ability to win technically with partners, not to be the deepest engineer in the room.
A minimum of 15 years in customer- or partner-facing technical roles, including substantial hands-on time working with System Integrators, ISV/OEMs, or hyperscalers.
A senior partner- or customer-facing pre-sales track record. You can point to named partners and concrete outcomes you personally moved — deals shaped, architectures chosen, partners enabled.
Commercial and partner-economics instinct. You understand margin, services attach, and certification economics, and you treat a partner as a partner — a route to scale — not as another customer to sell to.
Composure and clarity under challenge. A clear story arc, a read on your audience, and the ability to push back politely on a tough objection without folding or getting defensive.
A strong, current data-platform foundation. Comfortable across modern data architecture — lakehouse, streaming, hybrid cloud, and GenAI — at the depth a partner's senior architect will respect in a live conversation.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, and willingness to travel within your region, with occasional international travel.
You may also have: (Preferred Qualifications):
Strength in any of these is a differentiator, not a gate — we would rather hire a strong pre-sales partner technologist and deepen the specifics than the reverse:
Hands-on Apache Iceberg / open-lakehouse design and SDX-style governance and lineage.
Spark performance debugging, and Kafka / Flink streaming architecture at production scale.
GenAI and traditional AI from a pre-sales point of view, including AI inference serving.
Sovereign-cloud frameworks (Gaia-X, EUCS) and data-residency-driven architecture.
Fluency in the primary business language(s) of your region.
Cloudera accelerates organizations' ability to digitally transform their business with the best infrastructure, platform, industry solutions, and expertise. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage cutting-edge technology. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Cloudera as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.
This role is not eligible for immigration sponsorship.
What you can expect from us:
Generous PTO Policy
Support work life balance with Unplugged Days
Flexible WFH Policy
Mental & Physical Wellness programs
Phone and Internet Reimbursement program
Access to Continued Career Development
Comprehensive Benefits and Competitive Packages
Paid Volunteer Time
Employee Resource Groups
EEO/VEVRAA
#LI-MH2
#LI-Remote
Skills Required
- At least 15 years of experience in customer-facing or partner-facing technical roles
- Substantial hands-on experience working with System Integrators, ISV/OEMs, or hyperscalers
- Senior partner-facing or customer-facing pre-sales experience with demonstrated technical and commercial outcomes
- Commercial and partner-economics knowledge, including margin, services attach, and certification economics
- Strong communication, presentation, objection-handling, and executive storytelling skills
- Current technical foundation across data platforms, lakehouse, streaming, hybrid cloud, and GenAI
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
- Willingness to travel within the region and occasionally internationally
- Hands-on Apache Iceberg and open-lakehouse design experience
- SDX-style governance and data lineage experience
- Spark performance debugging experience
- Kafka and Flink streaming architecture experience at production scale
- Pre-sales experience with GenAI, traditional AI, and AI inference serving
- Experience with sovereign-cloud frameworks such as Gaia-X or EUCS
- Experience with data-residency-driven architecture
- Fluency in the primary business language or languages of the region
Cloudera Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Cloudera and has not been reviewed or approved by Cloudera.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay practices are presented as equity-audited with a recognized Fair Pay Workplace certification and ongoing internal reviews. Compensation is often characterized as competitive for similar-sized peers, with visible market-aligned ranges for key roles.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefit descriptions emphasize comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, alongside life and disability insurance, an EAP, wellness programming, and U.S. gym reimbursement. Health coverage is described as strong in practice.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Policies include generous PTO and holidays plus recurring companywide Unplugged Days that create extended weekends. Parental and medical leave are also highlighted as part of the core package.
Cloudera Insights
What We Do
At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.
Why Work With Us
Impact at Scale: The infrastructure we build solves massive problems for top global banks, telecommunications giants, and healthcare providers. Cutting-Edge Tech: Work directly at the intersection of Open Source, Machine Learning, and Generative AI. Unmatched Flexibility: Enjoy a remote-friendly, hybrid culture that respects your time—including







