Sr. Director, Strategic Customer Engineering

Job Summary

The Sr. Director, Strategic Customer Engineering will lead a specialized customer-facing engineering team focused on driving growth with global strategic accounts, including cloud service providers, NeoCloud companies, AI infrastructure providers, and multi-tenant data center operators.

This leader will be responsible for positioning the business unit’s portfolio of UPS systems, rack-line enclosures, rack PDUs, serial console management, KVM, and integrated infrastructure solutions with customer engineering and operations teams. The role will complement the Global Strategic Accounts team by providing deep technical engagement at the rack, row, pod, and deployment architecture level.

The manager will ensure that customer requirements are understood early, translated into solution roadmaps, and converted into executable product, engineering, and commercial actions.

Responsibilities:

Customer and Market Engagement

• Lead technical engagement with strategic customer engineering teams across cloud service providers, NeoCloud providers, AI infrastructure companies, and multi-tenant data centers.
• Develop direct relationships with customer infrastructure, hardware engineering, data center engineering, operations, and deployment teams.
• Identify customer pain points related to rack-level power, enclosure design, rack PDUs, remote management, serial console access, KVM, serviceability, deployment speed, and integrated infrastructure solutions.
• Ensure the business unit is involved early in customer architecture discussions, before specifications are locked and purchasing decisions are made.

Solution Development (work with the Solutions team in Pune)

• Guide the development of customer-specific and segment-specific reference architectures.
• Coordinate integrated solutions that combine DC and AC Power, rack enclosures, rack PDUs, remote management, serial console, KVM, and software capabilities.
• Translate customer requirements into product requirements, engineering priorities, and roadmap inputs.
• Drive co-development discussions with customer engineering teams where appropriate.
• Support the creation of validated solutions, proof-of-concept configurations, pilots, and deployment playbooks.

Internal Coordination

• Work closely with the Global Strategic Accounts team to complement existing account strategies.
• Partner with product management, engineering, sales, operations, and service teams to convert customer requirements into revenue opportunities.
• Ensure alignment between customer technical requirements and the business unit’s product roadmap.
• Provide executive-level updates on customer engagement status, opportunity pipeline, technical blockers, and competitive positioning.

Team Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing team of customer-facing engineers.
• Assign account and segment ownership across the team.
• Establish engagement standards, technical discovery processes, account plans, and reporting cadence.
• Coach engineers on executive communication, customer discovery, technical positioning, and solution selling.
• Develop reusable tools, including customer requirement templates, reference architectures, competitive battlecards, and technical presentation materials.

Success Measures

• Growth in opportunity pipeline with global strategic accounts.
• Number of active customer engineering engagements.
• Customer adoption of business unit solutions in cloud, NeoCloud, and MTDC environments.
• Number of reference architectures, pilots, or co-developed solutions created.
• Improved alignment between customer requirements and product roadmap.
• Increased attach rate across UPS, racks, rack PDUs, serial console, KVM, and software solutions.

 

Requirements:

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline required; Master's degree preferred.

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive experience in customer engineering, technical sales, solutions architecture, or product management within the data center, power, or infrastructure technology space.
• 5+ years in a leadership role managing customer-facing engineering or technical sales teams.
• Demonstrated track record of engaging and building relationships with hyperscale cloud providers, NeoCloud companies, AI infrastructure operators, or multi-tenant data center customers.
• Proven experience translating complex customer requirements into product roadmap inputs, reference architectures, or co-development programs.
• Experience managing or contributing to integrated solution development spanning power, rack, and management/software product lines.

Technical Knowledge

• Deep understanding of data center infrastructure, including UPS systems, rack enclosures, rack PDUs, remote management platforms, serial console, and KVM solutions.
• Familiarity with rack, row, pod, and deployment-level data center architecture as used by hyperscale and AI infrastructure customers.
• Working knowledge of AC/DC power systems and integration with rack-level infrastructure.
• Ability to engage credibly with customer infrastructure, hardware engineering, and data center operations teams at both technical and executive levels.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Demonstrated ability to build and develop high-performing technical teams, including account ownership assignment, coaching, and performance management.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills; ability to partner effectively with product management, engineering, sales, operations, and service organizations.
• Proven track record of driving alignment between external customer requirements and internal roadmap and commercial priorities.

Communication & Business Acumen

• Executive-level communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to present complex technical content to senior customer and internal audiences.
• Experience developing customer-facing tools such as reference architectures, competitive battlecards, solution playbooks, and technical presentations.
• Strong commercial instincts with an understanding of pipeline development, opportunity qualification, and technical win strategies.

Travel

• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as required to support strategic customer engagements (estimated 30–40%).

 

 

 

 

The successful candidate will embrace Vertiv’s Core Principles & Behaviors to help execute our Strategic Priorities.

OUR CORE PRINCIPLES: Safety.  Integrity.  Respect.  Teamwork.  Inclusion.

OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

• High-Performance Culture
• Customer Focus
• Operational Excellence
• Innovation
• Financial Strength

VERTIV BEHAVIORS

• Own it
• Act with urgency
• Foster a customer-first mindset
• Think big and execute
• Lead by example
• Drive continuous improvement
• Learn and seek out development
• Promote transparent & open communication

 

About Vertiv

Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to enable its customers’ vital applications to run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs.  Vertiv solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extend from the cloud to the edge of the network. Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, USA, Vertiv employs around 34,000 people and does business in more than 130 countries. Visit Vertiv.com to learn more.  

Work Authorization

No calls or agencies please. Vertiv will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States. This is not a position for which sponsorship will be provided. Individuals with temporary visas such as E, F-1, H-1, H-2, L, B, J, or TN or who need sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, are not eligible for hire.

Equal Opportunity Employer 

Vertiv is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. We promote equal opportunities for all with respect to hiring, terms of employment, mobility, training, compensation, and occupational health, without discrimination as to age, race, color, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy status (including childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity / expression (including transgender status or sexual stereotypes), genetic information, citizenship status, national origin, protected veteran status, political affiliation, or disability. If you have a disability and are having difficulty accessing or using this website to apply for a position, you can request help by sending an email to help.join@vertiv.com.

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