Hiring! Looking for a Virtualization/Automation focused Solutions Architect

Hey all! We have a new position that has opened up at Pure Storage for a Solutions Architect that will be focused on virtualization and automation. Apply here:

https://boards.greenhouse.io/purestorage/jobs/651394

So that is the job posting, but let me talk in more detail about what it entails.

One thing I will start with is that we really want the person to be in the SF Bay Area. It is not a absolute requirement, but highly preferred. A lot of our engineering is here and we want you to work closely with them, as well as PM and the rest of the solutions team. So living here or willing to re-locate is a big plus.

So this position will be heavily focused on VMware technologies, especially at the start. But in reality, this will be an evolving role that we want to bleed into other areas, with a special focus on automation technologies and containers. A Solutions Architect at Pure Storage is a really fun role (in my opinion) so I highly recommend it. A few thoughts:

• Self-defined work. There is not a specific day-to-day requirement of what you should be doing. Your manager will not really be assigning you tasks to finish. We want our Solutions Architects to be self-motivated to identify new trends and technologies and figure out how to use them, how they work, and if necessary integrate them with Pure Storage offerings. While we don’t necessarily have a responsibility assigned to us to complete task X very often, we do have the on-going responsibly of continuing to learn, investigate, demo and instruct.
• Become an expert and lead. This is a role generally for those interested in going deep into things, learn new tech and learn it well. We need you to figure it out and work with our customers and partners so they understand it too. No one is an expert in anything at first, but the ability to become one (and on what is basically up to you!) and lead is what we want.
• Collaborative. This role can not be done right without working with engineering, product management, sales, partners, customers etc. We want you to help design features and integrations with engineering, help PM figure out what needs to be done and when, work with the field and customers to identify gaps, fill them and relate the information back.
• Curious. We need you to want to know more. Always want to learn.

This is not an easy job–it is a lot of work, but it is a fun one. At its core, your task is to learn new tech and play around with it. Then tell us about it. That, I think, is pretty cool.

So as far as hard requirements, I would start with this:

1. Advanced knowledge of VMware ESXi and storage. While this will not be the only thing, a large majority of our customers run VMware and therefore, this is important.
2. Experience with scripting, PowerShell, Javascript, Python etc. Not necessarily all of them, but at least some.
3. Public speaking skills and excellent communication skills. Our job is to communicate technologies, so being able to take something and explain it effectively is of the utmost importance.
4. Ability to remember the hex code for our orange is #FD5000

Very nice to haves:

1. vRealize experience. Any or all. Log Insight, Operations Manager, Orchestrator, Automation. A lot of growth with these lately. If you don’t know it now, you will definitely need to learn these once you start.
2.  Newer technologies, like Chef, Puppet, Docker, Kubernetes to name a few
3. Hyper-V, KVM and other virtualization technologies
4. Site Recovery Manager experience is a plus

There are quite a few perks to working at Pure, unlimited vacation, free lunches and dinners, fun parties and most importantly–great people. It’s all good.

So if you want to work on exciting technology, learn new stuff across the entire IT stack, design your work, and solve problems, this is the job for you.

Apply today!