--- title: 'Senior Technical Marketing Engineer – Network Automation at Forward' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-marketing-engineer-network-automation-forward-united-states-rhst1z9m6psm' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-13' --- # Senior Technical Marketing Engineer – Network Automation at Forward - **Company:** Forward - **Location:** United States - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-09-15 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-13 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/forwardnetworks/jobs/7993264003 ## 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. We are seeking a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer (Network Automation) to help drive adoption and understanding of Forward's automation capabilities across customers, partners, and the broader network engineering community. As a Senior Network Automation TME, you will sit at the intersection of product and go-to-market execution. You will translate Forward's differentiated automation capabilities — network queries, verification-as-code, API-driven workflows, and CI/CD-style change validation — into compelling automation workflows, technical content, and field enablement that resonate with network automation practitioners and decision-makers. This is a non-quota-carrying, highly technical, and externally visible role with meaningful influence on product direction and market positioning. ## Responsibilities - Partner with Product Management to define, validate, and shape automation-related capabilities and use cases. - Design and evangelize customer workflows that realize the value of automation features, including NQE (Network Query Engine), APIs, and CI/CD-driven verification. - Enhance existing product integrations and build new ones to expand automation and interoperability across the broader network and IT ecosystem. - Build and maintain lab environments to support demos, technical validation, and automation use-case exploration. - Develop high-quality technical collateral for internal audiences, including training materials, demo guides, and sales enablement content. - Collaborate with Marketing to create external-facing assets such as whitepapers, solution briefs, blogs, presentations, and videos. - Enable Sales and Solutions teams with automation-focused demos, messaging, and technical training. - Represent Forward at customer meetings, webinars, and industry events, including networking and automation conferences and trade shows. - Contribute thought leadership on network automation trends and Forward's role in modern NetDevOps and intent-based networking architectures. - Gather field and market feedback to influence product roadmap and automation positioning. Required Qualifications - 8+ years of experience as a Technical Marketing Engineer, Sales Engineer, Network Engineer, or similar customer-facing technical role. - Strong understanding of enterprise networking concepts, including routing, switching, and network change management. - Experience with NetDevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, or infrastructure-as-code workflows applied to networking. - Familiarity with source control (Git), API integration, and building automation against network data models. - Hands-on experience with network automation tooling and frameworks (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, Python, REST APIs, or similar). - Experience working with complex enterprise networks across on-prem, virtualized, and cloud environments. - Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform and familiarity with virtualization and containerized environments. - Proven ability to build and operate lab environments for demos and technical validation. - Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts to technical and non-technical audiences. - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Networking, or a related field. - Ability to work effectively across Product, Sales, and Marketing teams. ## Preferred Qualifications - Working knowledge of data query and transformation languages (e.g., GraphQL, JSONPath, or a query engine such as Forward's NQE). - Familiarity with AI/ML concepts and hands-on experience exploring AI-driven use cases in network operations or data analysis. - Working knowledge of Linux administration. - Familiarity with Forward or similar network visibility, verification, or analytics platforms. - Experience presenting at conferences, webinars, or customer-facing technical events. The base pay range for this role is between $200,000 and $230,000. Base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. ## 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 - [Customer Success Engineer Federal with a TS/SCI w/CI](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-engineer-federal-with-a-ts-sci-w-ci-forward-virginia-b6hppaxx5c82) — Virginia - [Enterprise - Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-business-development-representative-forward-mn-il-1kk9w23fsdm0) — MN IL, MI - [Network Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/network-engineer-forward-bengaluru-f5deg026js3w) — Bengaluru, India - [Senior Marketing Events Specialist - Contractor](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-marketing-events-specialist-contractor-forward-santa-clara-8h416td42tpb) — Santa Clara, CA - [Web Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/web-manager-forward-santa-clara-v16qt6yhkb7s) — Santa Clara, CA - [Regional Sales Director Federal-Civilian-HHS, DHS](https://feeny.ai/job/regional-sales-director-federal-civilian-hhs-dhs-forward-dc-md-xh8qyng7x3kv) — Dc MD, VA - [Senior Director, Product Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-product-engineering-forward-santa-clara-03fs56jgn3hj) — Santa Clara, CA - [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-new-york-jdyeme9e1v8x) — New York, NY - [Site Reliability Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/site-reliability-engineer-forward-santa-clara-0j25dk63fw51) — Santa Clara, CA