Sr. Solutions Architect, Federal & FSI

At Penguin Solutions (Nasdaq: PENG) – The AI Factory Platform Company – we’re building a team of innovators who thrive on collaboration, creativity, and the opportunity to help shape the future of AI. As part of the AI technology revolution, our teams design, build, deploy, and manage AI factories for enterprises, sovereign AI initiatives, and neocloud providers worldwide.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Penguin Solutions operates globally through a network of R&D, manufacturing, and sales locations. For nearly three decades, we have operated at the intersection of memory and AI/HPC infrastructure. That engineering expertise positions us to power the next generation of AI workloads, from training to inference and agentic AI at scale.

Penguin Solutions brings together differentiated infrastructure software, advanced memory, compute systems, end-to-end services, and industry-leading partner solutions in a full-stack AI factory platform designed to help customers deploy and scale AI workloads with speed and precision.

At Penguin Solutions, we value ideas over hierarchy and believe in servant leadership, where leaders enable teams to do their best work. We empower employees to take ownership, drive innovation, and grow through challenging work, continuous learning, and exposure to advanced AI tools and technologies. With flexibility where it matters and a strong focus on outcomes, Penguin Solutions is a place to do your best work, grow your career, and make a meaningful impact.

Job Overview

We are seeking a highly skilled Sr. Solutions Architect to join our team, with a focus on Federal and Federal Systems Integrator (FSI) customers. In this role, you will serve as the lead technical visionary in the pre-sales process, acting as a trusted advisor to clients and the technical conscience for our sales team. You will be responsible for translating complex customer challenges—particularly within federal and FSI environments—into elegant, feasible, and compelling end-to-end AI solutions. This is a deeply technical, customer-facing role where you will design cutting-edge solutions aligned with mission requirements and our strategic business goals.

The ideal candidate brings strong experience supporting U.S. Federal agencies, understands government acquisition processes (RFIs/RFPs), and can translate mission requirements into compliant, high-performance solution architectures.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to Federal customers, providing deep expertise across HPC, Cloud, and AI/ML solutions in secure and regulated enterprise environments.
• Partner with sales to identify, qualify, architect, and close Federal opportunities, including direct agency engagements and work through prime contractors and integrators.
• Lead and contribute to technical responses for RFIs, RFPs, and other Federal procurement vehicles, ensuring alignment with customer requirements, compliance standards, and Penguin Solutions’ capabilities.
• Interpret Federal customer mission, security, and performance requirements and contribute to the development of end-to-end solution architectures.
• Develop and deliver technical presentations, architecture reviews, and solution briefings for Federal customers, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Act as the primary liaison between the sales organization and internal teams, including Product Management, Engineering, and Operations, to ensure solutions are feasible, differentiated, and deliverable.
• Provide Operations with clear product, cluster, networking, and design intent to enable factory-integrated and field-deployed solutions.
• Support competitive positioning by articulating the value of Penguin Solutions versus alternative Federal and commercial offerings.
• Travel throughout the assigned territory to support customer meetings, briefings, and technical workshops.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in a customer-facing, pre-sales technical role such as Solutions Architect, Pre-Sales Engineer, or a similar capacity.
• Deep, hands-on experience designing complex, large-scale enterprise systems (e.g., in AI/ML, HPC, Big Data, or enterprise software).
• Exceptional presentation, whiteboarding, and communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to present complex technical topics to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to manage multiple, concurrent design and architecture projects in a fast-paced sales environment.
• A strong understanding of the interplay between software, hardware, and networking in modern data center environments.
• Ability to obtain U.S. Federal Security Clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Active Top Secret Clearance.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or electrical engineering.
• Deep knowledge of AI/HPC architectures and Linux clusters.
• Familiarity with advanced file systems and SDS (e.g., Lustre, GPFS, WekaIO).

Location

This is a remote position in the United States.

Travel

As needed with travel to client sites and Penguin Solutions offices.

Compensation & Benefits

The base pay range that the Company reasonably expects to pay for this position in The United States is $139,000 - $173,000; the pay ultimately offered may vary based on business considerations, including job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and education. The position is bonus-eligible, and there are medical, dental, and vision benefits available. There is a 401k saving plan and other benefits, such as Paid Time Off, Life Insurance, and an Employee Assistance Plan.   

Inclusion & Belonging Statement

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment that embraces differences and fosters belonging for all.

Equal Opportunity Statement                                                                     

We are an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and strongly committed to all policies which will afford equal opportunity employment to all qualified persons without regard to age, national origin, race, ethnicity, creed, gender, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.