Principal Solutions Engineer - AI Research

Business Area:

Sales Engineering

Seniority Level:

Director

Job 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.

Principal Solutions Engineer - AI Research

We are on a mission to make data and analytics easy and accessible to everyone. The work we do empowers any organization—from the world's largest enterprises to small nonprofits—to use data to solve some of the most complex challenges that impact businesses, communities, and lives.

As the Principal Solutions Engineer - AI Research, you will use engineering, math, computational science, domain knowledge, and scientific methods to: 

• Approach the customer with quantitative codesign methods to include elaborating end-to-end data and software models based on domain use case, evaluate source inputs, evaluate constraints, evaluate likely outcomes, topological operational data metrics and boundary values, and computational needs (tractable or intractable problem)

• Investigate problems and open questions in a domain to further understand the computational engineering needs of specific problems and the capabilities of Cloudera to serve those needs

• Design and run computational engineering pipelines for prototyping AI solutions that clients target for production implementation

• Turn promising and practical results into customer solutions to include methodologies, algorithms, technologies, tools, or processes

• Develop and innovate advanced techniques and methods in corpora lifecycle management, domain skills definition, model development and tuning, agent development and inferencing

• Strategic Advisor to Cloudera Engineering on new technologies, methods, and algorithms required in the product to keep Cloudera competitive in AI

• Engage with the community on the art of the possible, AI visionary events to inspire clients to build AI solutions on Cloudera

At Cloudera, we are Customer Driven & People First. We believe in the power of our people because when we bring together bold ideas, collaboration, and purpose, we do not just imagine the future—we help build it.

The Role:

This position will serve as a customer-facing, hands-on technologist with a track record of success. You will be the technical authority for Cloudera’s Enterprise AI portfolio, bridging the gap between complex data architectures and actionable AI business outcomes.

In this senior individual contributor role, you will own the technical sales strategy for the industry’s only platform bringing AI to data anywhere. You will not only demonstrate technology but also inspire customers to think bigger about their AI roadmap, ensuring they understand the value of the Open Data Lakehouse and Unified Data Fabric.

What You Will Do

• Innovation Lifecycle - develop advanced techniques, solutions, and methodologies for customer core business process adoption

• Research Engineering - assist domain experts, scientists, data scientists and technical engineers to develop AI Solutions to meet organizational objectives to include 

• Computational Engineering - work with clients to define objectives to curate data, algorithms, and outcomes; setup training pipelines, large-scale customer experiments, and evaluate models for production deployment

• Research Consultation - consult with research scientists on the art of the possible and invention of new theoretical ideas, and or the practical application of theories to drive a computational engineering solution pipeline

• Own the Technical Sales Lifecycle: Drive the technical sales process from introductory meetings and discovery through to post-sales success, upselling, and subscription renewals.

• Architect AI Solutions: Design comprehensive solutions for customer needs using Cloudera technologies—specifically Cloudera AI, AI Inference, AI Studios, and AI Workbench—based on reference architectures and common patterns.

• Strategic Evangelism: Present Cloudera’s product roadmap and vision to C-level executives (CIO, CTO, CDO), demonstrating how AI Agents and Cloud Bursting accelerate enterprise AI adoption.

• Demonstrate Value: Create and deliver inspiring technical presentations and demonstrations that compel customers to say “yes” to Cloudera. Partner with Account Managers to articulate the true business value of our solutions.

• Voice of the Customer: Interface with Product Management and Engineering to advocate for your customers' needs, transforming feedback from the field into actionable roadmap items.

• Community Leadership: Participate in external publicity and evangelism, including speaking at conferences, writing blogs, and leading webinars to drive the narrative around trusted Enterprise AI.

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is:

• New York: $198,000 - $247,000

• California: $198,000 - $247,000

• Colorado: $198,000 - $247,000

• Illinois: $198,000 - $247,000

Individual compensation within the published range is determined by the candidate's skills, experience, qualifications, and primary work location. In addition to base pay, sales roles are eligible for Cloudera's commission plan, while non-sales roles are eligible for the corporate incentive plan. All employees receive a comprehensive benefits package.

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

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