Sr. Director, NA GTM Architects
IT
Toronto, ON, Canada · Waterloo, ON, Canada
CAD 260,950-337,700 / year + Equity
Responsibilities
Canada; Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Toronto, Ontario, Canada Job category: Sales Job ID: 136275-en_USOwn Every Moment at NetApp
At NetApp, your ideas power innovation. We lead in intelligent data infrastructure—delivering unified storage, integrated data services, and solutions that help organizations unlock the full potential of their data, from AI to multicloud.
Ready to innovate and contribute to our path to $10B? Here, you'll collaborate with passionate teams, tackle real-world challenges, and see your impact in how customers transform and grow. If you're ready to bring curiosity, creativity, and drive to every moment, NetApp is where your journey begins. Join teams that innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel together across every function.
Job Summary
We are seeking a dynamic and strategic leader to head our North America Principal GTM Architects team. This individual will be instrumental in evolving our NA-based technical principal architects into influential thought leaders and trusted advisors—both within NetApp and across our partner and customer ecosystems.
The Sr. Director, North America Principal GTM Architects is an executive technical sales leader responsible for driving NetApp’s solutions-led go-to-market (GTM) strategy across North America. Leading a high-caliber team of Principal GTM Architects, this role serves as the critical bridge connecting NetApp’s product and solution innovation directly with North America field execution, key customers, and strategic partners.
Reporting directly to the Sr. Director of Global Solutions & Field Activation, this leader will lead "tip of the spear" field engagements to open net-new logos, expand technical footprint in strategic accounts, and establish NetApp’s relevance with C-suite and Line-of-Business (LOB) decision-makers. Additionally, this position leads North American participation in Business Solution Area (BSA) working groups, oversees regional Request for Enhancement (RFE) stewardship, and drives continuous field-to-product feedback loops to accelerate revenue growth.
Business Objectives and Success Metrics
- Revenue Acceleration: Drive measurable growth in solution-led bookings and expansion of target customer areas (AI, Enterprise Apps, Cyber Resilience, Data Protection, Virtualization, IT Ops & Automation, and Power Reduction & Sustainability).
- Sales Velocity: Reduce deal cycles by equipping field teams with validated Solution Blueprints and reference architectures from day one of product/solution launches.
- Strategic Account Acquisition: Increase net-new logo acquisition and penetration into new buying centers across North America Strategics, Enterprise, and Public Sector accounts.
- Product-Market Fit: Champion prioritized, high-impact RFEs thru the appropriate processes to Product BUs that directly address customer unmet needs and unlock blocked pipeline.
Job Responsibilities
Leadership & Field Strategy Alignment
- Team Leadership & Development: Hire, coach, and direct a diverse team of senior Principal GTM Architects across North America, fostering technical credibility, business acumen, and a solution-first selling culture, while promoting collaboration, and continuous learning.
- Sales Leadership Interlock: Partner closely with North America Area Vice Presidents (AVPs), Regional Directors (RDs), District Managers (DMs), and Sales Engineering Directors (SEDs) to align PGA resources against high-value growth targets and territory priorities.
- Workload & Imperative Alignment: Champion NetApp’s core focus pillars across NA, aligned closely with the identified Business Solution Areas.
"Tip of the Spear" GTM & Executive Engagement
- C-Suite & Buyer Relationship Building: Collaborate with account and regional sales leadership to direct and lead executive-level customer engagements (through EBCs, QBRs, and strategic deal reviews) with CIOs, IT VPs, Chief Architects, and LOB Executives to establish NetApp’s Intelligent Data Infrastructure (IDI) vision.
- Land & Expand Execution: Spearhead technical engagement on strategic target accounts to secure new workload adoption, expand footprint, and establish NetApp’s right to a "seat at the table."
- Solution Envisioning & Reference Architectures: Guide the team in architecting whole-portfolio solutions, combining NetApp platform technology, cloud services, service offerings, and 3rd-party partner integrations to address complex customer requirements.
Business Solution Area (BSA) & Blueprint Driving
- BSA Working Group Leadership: Lead NA PGA participation in global BSA Working Groups, ensuring regional priorities are represented across key solutions areas (AI, Enterprise Apps, Cyber Resilience, Data Protection, Virtualization, IT Ops & Automation, and Power Reduction & Sustainability).
- Solution Blueprint Adoption: Operationalize the adoption of standardized Solution Blueprints within NA sales cycles to simplify selling, improve quoting workflows, and accelerate time-to-revenue.
RFE Stewardship & Product Feedback Loops
- Field Requirement Qualification: Support the end-to-end RFE intake, validation, consolidation, and prioritization process for North America, serving as the voice of the field to Product Management and the GTM Portfolio Field Strategists.
Qualifications & Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related field; Master’s/MBA degree preferred.
- 12+ years of progressive leadership experience in technical sales, solution architecture, field CTO, or GTM strategy functions within enterprise storage, cloud, or data infrastructure industries. Additionally, experience in Product Management, with Solutions knowledge a significant advantage.
- Proven track record of building relationships and delivering strategic technology vision to C-level customer executives (CIO, CTO, VP of Infrastructure/Data).
- Deep technical breadth across hybrid multicloud architectures, AI enterprise data pipelines, cyber resilience/data protection frameworks, and virtualized/containerized environments.
- Strong ability to bridge high-level corporate strategy with front-line tactical sales execution.
- Collaborative, matrix-influencer capable of driving cross-functional alignment across Sales, Product Management, Marketing, and Engineering.
- Exceptional communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills, and an expert presenter to large audiences, in both technical and business settings.
- Strong analytical and strategic thinking abilities, with a focus on data-driven decision-making.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, global environment, navigating diverse cultures and markets.
The target salary range for this position is 260,950 - 337,700 CAD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off (PTO), various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.
At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.
Why You'll Thrive at NetApp
At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.
NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.
Our culture
We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.
If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one. Apply now.
Submitting an Application
To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team only reviews applications submitted through our company website. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.
AI Disclosure
For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision-making.
