Senior Systems Engineer (Presales) - Netops

Solution Architect – Secure Networking – India

Location: Gurgaon / NCR

Department: SME Engineering – Secure Networking

About Fortinet

Fortinet has been founded on the principle of converging networking and security into a unified solution. Over the past 12 years, Fortinet has significantly expanded its Wired and Wireless networking portfolio through organic innovation and strategic acquisitions.

This growth has been recognized by Gartner®, which positioned Fortinet as a Leader in the 2024 and 2025 Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure .

If you have 12+ years of hands-on experience designing, implementing, and troubleshooting enterprise Wired and Wireless networking solutions , this is an opportunity to join Fortinet's Subject Matter Expert (SME) team and take your networking expertise into the next level of Network Security.

Role Overview

As a Solution Architect – Secure Networking , you will be part of the SME Engineering team supporting the India & SAARC region.

You will work closely with Account Teams and Field Systems Engineers to position Fortinet's Secure Networking portfolio, including:

Network Access Control (NAC)

Wireless

Enterprise Switching

Identity & Access Management (AAA)

Voice Solutions

ZTNA

SD-Branch

The role involves providing second-level pre-sales technical support , leading complex customer engagements, conducting POCs and demonstrations, and acting as a technical bridge between the field teams and Fortinet's Consulting Systems Engineering (CSE) organization.

Key Responsibilities

Pre-Sales & Technical Support

Provide second-level pre-sales support to the Field SE organization.

Support RFPs/RFIs with solution design, specifications, and product information.

Support strategic and complex customer projects to ensure successful Fortinet engagements.

Lead technical discussions and articulate technology capabilities and differentiated value.

Deliver technical presentations, demonstrations, and Proofs of Concept (POCs).

Provide hands-on technical assistance during customer engagements.

Conduct external workshops and POCs for prospects and customers in collaboration with Account SEs.

Perform hands-on testing to validate network designs, POC environments, and network deployments.

Technical Content & Enablement

Develop technical materials to support sales activities, including:

Presentations / slideware

Solution briefs

White papers

Success stories

Technical notes

Competitive comparisons

Design and conduct internal technical workshops.

Enable and disseminate product knowledge across Sales and Channel teams.

SME & Product Collaboration

Act as a technical point of contact for the CSE team.

Consolidate customer requirements and technical feedback across the India region.

Validate business cases and create/escalate product feature requests.

Report project activities and analyze project trends.

Provide market and competitive insights.

Participate in the development of commercial strategies.

Collect competitive intelligence on networking and security solutions and share insights with Account and Channel teams.

Travel

Ability to travel across India at short notice, as required.

Expected to work from the office four days per week to facilitate collaboration with extended teams and build strong working relationships.

Required Experience & Qualifications

12+ years of experience in a Senior SE, Consulting SE, or senior technical role within Networking or IT Security.

Experience working with both vendors and system integrators (SI) .

Strong hands-on expertise in enterprise networking and security.

Bachelor's degree in:

Computer Science

Information Technology

Electronics

Computer Applications

Or equivalent experience in networking/security.

Core Technical Expertise

Network Access Control (NAC)

Strong experience designing, proposing, demonstrating, and conducting POCs for NAC solutions.

NAC deployment and troubleshooting.

802.1X authentication and device onboarding.

MAC Address Bypass (MAB).

LAN micro-segmentation.

BYOD and IoT onboarding.

Wireless

Deep understanding of enterprise Wireless technologies, including:

IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be

IEEE 802.11e/h/i/k/r/v

CAPWAP

Wireless Controller Architecture

Campus and remote AP deployments

Wireless design, site surveys, implementation, and troubleshooting

WIPS

Wireless spectrum analysis

OFDMA

Spatial Reuse

UL/DL MU-MIMO

BLE / Zigbee

WPA / WPA2 / WPA3

Authentication & AAA

RADIUS

LDAP

Certificate-based authentication

Wired and Wireless authentication

SAML

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Two-factor authentication

EAP-TLS

EAP-TTLS/MSCHAPv2

PEAP

EAP-SIM / EAP-AKA

EAP-FAST

Enterprise Switching

Experience designing and proposing Data Center, Campus, and Branch switching solutions , including:

VLAN / IEEE 802.1Q

VXLAN

MLAG / MCLAG

Stacking

STP

ACLs

QoS

Port Security

802.1X

PoE / PoE budget calculations

LLDP / MED

RADIUS CoA

DHCP Snooping

IGMP

QinQ

Private VLAN

Storm Control

LoopGuard

PortFast

Split Port

Link Aggregation

Routing & Network Fundamentals

Strong TCP/IP fundamentals

IPv6

Advanced OSPF and BGP

Multicast

NAT

VRF

IPSec

SSL/TLS

Packet capture and network analysis

VoIP / QoS

LTE / 5G

Secure Networking

Hands-on experience with NGFW / UTM / Threat Prevention

Knowledge and ability to pitch:

ZTNA

SD-Branch

Network Security

LAN Micro-segmentation

Additional Technical Skills

Knowledge in the following areas is advantageous:

Automation & Scripting

Python

Bash

PowerShell

Golang or equivalent

Operating Systems

Linux administration

Cloud

Knowledge of public cloud technologies and concepts across:

AWS

Microsoft Azure

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Private Cloud

Knowledge of:

VMware

KVM

Other Technologies

MDM solutions

IoT solutions

SNMP

MIB / OIDs

Network monitoring and troubleshooting tools

What This Role Primarily Requires

Core must-have areas:

NAC + Wireless + Enterprise Switching + AAA/IAM + Routing (BGP/OSPF) + Hands-on Networking + Pre-Sales/POCs

The role is specifically focused on deep enterprise networking expertise combined with pre-sales consulting , rather than general cybersecurity, SD-WAN, or SASE experience alone.

Equal Opportunity

Fortinet is an equal opportunity employer.

We will only notify shortlisted candidates.

Fortinet will not entertain any unsolicited resumes.

Please refrain from sending unsolicited resumes to Fortinet employees or Fortinet email aliases.

If any agency submits resumes to Fortinet, such resumes,