--- title: 'Senior Systems (Sales) Engineer at Forward' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-systems-sales-engineer-forward-illinois-minnesota-michigan-rtz7pm4se161' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-08' --- # Senior Systems (Sales) Engineer at Forward - **Company:** Forward - **Location:** Illinois / Minnesota / Michigan - **Posted:** 2026-05-19 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/forwardnetworks/jobs/7734892003 ## Job description Forward was founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D.s, building the industry's first network digital twin: a mathematically accurate model of the production network. It's the foundation for autonomous networking, giving engineers and AI agents the ability to know the impact of every change before it touches production. That founding instinct still defines how we work. We're accurate and evidence-driven, relentless about clarity, and we'd rather be certain than comfortable, building a groundbreaking platform that transforms how teams run and secure networks across every major cloud and vendor environment. Global leaders like Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell trust Forward, alongside fast-growing enterprises and government agencies, realizing an average of $14.2 million in annual benefits, according to IDC. Backed by top-tier investors, including A. Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Omega Venture Partners, Section 32, and Threshold Ventures, and headquartered in Santa Clara, we're most proud of our team: curious people who'd rather build what doesn't exist than accept how things have always been done. Forward is looking for a Systems (Sales) Engineer - Do you want to help sell a platform that solves real networking problems? - Join a company that has been in the market 6+ years and has some of the top Federal agencies and F500/Global 2000 already buying and referenceable. - If you have 5-10 years of wildly successful experience as a Systems Engineer selling to large enterprise accounts...you may be the one! - We are building a special team and hope you consider us if you want to have the experience of changing the networking world as we know it. Responsibilities: - Serve as the primary technical resource for the sales organization working with large enterprise accounts. - Work with the sales team as the product advocate and key technical adviser - Drive and manage the technology evaluation stage of the sales process; answer technical questions and communicate business and technical value to all levels of management - Establish and maintain strong relationships throughout the sales cycle to ensure complete customer satisfaction - Establish technical feasibility and perform qualification of the potential technical deployment - Develop and deliver product demos and POCs - Respond to functional and technical elements of RFIs/RFPs - Work with internal product management and engineering teams to convey customer requirements - Represent the product to customers, partners and at field events such as conferences, seminars, etc. Required Qualifications: - Strong understanding of networking and security solutions and vendors - Strong verbal and written communications skills with a focus on needs analysis, positioning, business justification, and closing techniques. - 5+ years’ experience selling to Enterprise customers for a networking company or relevant software vendor. - 2 Years experience with some scripting or programming language; understanding of program flow, conditionals, basic logic handling. - Superior presentation skills Highly Desired: - Working knowledge of API driven workflows and scripting languages (Python, bash, jq, graphql, etc) - Experience working with a startup company - B.S. Computer Science or equivalent educational experience - One or more of the following certificates: CCIE, JNCIE or VCDX The expected On-Target Cash Earning for this role is between $240,000 - $275,000 per year. Within this range, individual pay is determined by several factors including but not limited to, job-related skills, work experience, and relevant education/training ## About Forward ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Forward Networks provides a vendor-agnostic "digital twin" software platform that creates a mathematically accurate model of an enterprise's entire hybrid network, enabling teams to verify changes, improve security, and accelerate troubleshooting. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series D) - **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States - **Founded**: 2013 - **Founders**: David Erickson, Nikhil Handigol, Brandon Heller, Peyman Kazemian ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Computer Networking Products, Network Management Software, Network Security - **Target customers**: B2B, primarily large enterprises (including Fortune 50 institutions), financial services, global entertainment companies, and top-level US federal government agencies. - **Mission or purpose statement**: To transform networks to be more reliable, agile, and secure by providing a single source of verified truth for how a network actually behaves. ## Products & Services - **Forward Enterprise**: The core platform, a network digital twin. It builds a mathematically accurate model of every device, path, and policy across a hybrid network (on-premises and cloud). Used by networking, security, cloud, and compliance teams for change management, compliance audits, and troubleshooting. - **Forward AI**: Built on the Forward Enterprise digital twin, this feature allows users to ask the twin questions in natural language to validate changes, understand network behavior, and act with confidence. - **Forward Predict**: A newer offering built on the digital twin that allows users to predict the outcome of changes before they are implemented, answering "what if" scenarios. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: **Total Funding**: $112.1 million across four rounds. **Annual Revenue**: Approximately $15.0 million (estimated). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Threshold Ventures. Customers include Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell. - **Growth Signals**: The company has been in the market for over 10 years, has won 25+ industry awards, and supports 30+ vendors. It has a presence in 6 countries (including India, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and France). Employee headcount is around 199 with monthly growth of +0.4%. ## Competitive Advantages - **Mathematically Accurate Digital Twin**: The core technology is a mathematically precise model of the network, which is a significant differentiator from competitors that use simpler or less accurate modeling methods. - **Vendor-Agnostic**: The platform works across all major cloud and vendor environments (e.g., A10, Arista, Cisco, F5, Fortinet, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks, AWS, GCP), providing a single source of truth for multi-vendor networks. - **Strong Investor & Customer Base**: Backed by top-tier venture capital firms and trusted by some of the world's most demanding and complex networks, including major financial institutions and government agencies. ## Strategic Focus - **AI and Predictive Analysis**: The company is heavily investing in AI capabilities (Forward AI) and predictive modeling (Forward Predict) to move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive network management. - **Expanding Platform Capabilities**: Continuing to build out the digital twin platform to serve more use cases for different teams (networking, security, cloud, compliance) and to handle increasingly complex hybrid environments. - **Market Penetration**: Leveraging a strong base of referenceable Fortune 500 and government clients to expand its footprint and grow its customer base. ## Why Work Here - **Culture & Mission**: Described as a "people-centric, innovative culture" where "brilliant minds are shaping the future of network reliability, security, and AI-ready operations." The company emphasizes that it is an "agile team and early-stage company with plenty of opportunities to grow." - **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: The company offers remote positions (e.g., a Customer Care Engineer role listed for Australia). The specific policy for all roles is likely flexible and depends on the team and location. - **Notable Perks & Benefits**: - **Compensation**: Competitive pay and equity packages. - **Health & Wellness**: Top-grade medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families. - **Time Off**: No tracked time off for vacations, holidays, and family days (with manager approval). - **Growth**: Opportunities for professional growth within an agile, early-stage company environment. - **Engineering Culture**: Founded by four Stanford Ph.D.s, the company has a strong technical foundation. The work involves solving complex problems at scale for the world's most demanding networks, which would appeal to engineers who enjoy deep technical challenges. ## Sources 1. [forwardnetworks.com - Careers](https://www.forwardnetworks.com/careers/) 2. [forwardnetworks.com - About](https://www.forwardnetworks.com/about/) 3. [forwardnetworks.com - Homepage](https://www.forwardnetworks.com/) 4. [linkedin.com - Forward Networks](https://www.linkedin.com/company/forward-networks) 5. [job-boards.greenhouse.io - Forward Networks](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/forwardnetworks/jobs/7714534003) ## Other roles at Forward - [Senior Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-accountant-forward-santa-clara-gxtdg5zfjahw) — Santa Clara, CA - [Customer Success Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-engineer-forward-united-kingdom-1xgv62x8fc5s) — United Kingdom - [Revenue Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/revenue-operations-manager-forward-santa-clara-7gc9rgnjhcw6) — Santa Clara, CA - [Software Engineer – Programming Languages Team](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-programming-languages-team-forward-bengaluru-3yg62efy339p) — Bengaluru, India - [Customer Success Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-engineer-forward-new-york-jdyeme9e1v8x) — New York, NY - [Senior Revenue Systems Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-revenue-systems-analyst-forward-santa-clara-f79rdxxk4nt9) — Santa Clara, CA - [Regional Sales Director- East Enterprise, North East](https://feeny.ai/job/regional-sales-director-east-enterprise-north-east-forward-new-hampshire-pjrvn58ac839) — New Hampshire, MA - [Site Reliability Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/site-reliability-engineer-forward-santa-clara-0j25dk63fw51) — Santa Clara, CA - [Federal-Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/federal-business-development-representative-forward-virginia-maryland-sz3m6w4ktyr7) — Virginia / Maryland / Washington, DC - [Technical Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-forward-santa-clara-cf5b35rhbxvq) — Santa Clara, CA