Client Director, Cloud & Strategic AI

Who Youll Work With

The Client Director owns Aristas relationship with one or more of the worlds largest cloud providers and frontier AI labs end to end: strategy revenue and trust. Youll be the single point of accountability for high-impact accounts building some of the largest AI training and inference clusters on the planet shaping the future of AI infrastructure scale.

This role offers high executive visibility collaborating directly with Arista leadership and sitting on a Bay Area-based team that covers our most strategic hyperscale and AI customers. These customers buy at enormous scale move fast run their own engineering-led evaluations and expect a peer-level technical partnership from a team that understands their architecture as well as they do.

What youll do

Own the account strategy

• Build and run a multi-year account plan tied to the customers AI and cloud roadmap: cluster build-outs front-end and back-end fabrics DCI and next-generation silicon transitions.

• Know the customers org chart cold from network engineering and architecture through supply chain procurement finance and legal. Build relationships at every layer up to executive sponsors.

• Anticipate where the customer is going 1224 months out and position Arista there before an RFP is written.

Win the big decisions

• Lead strategic RFPs and competitive evaluations from qualification through award coordinating SEs product management engineering and executives into one coherent response.

• Leverage Aristas open networking advantage to develop sharp competitive positioning against white-box/ODM merchant-silicon disaggregation and incumbent vendors. Win by offering unmatched flexibilitywhether leading with EOS or supporting the customers chosen NOS (e.g. SONiC FBOSS for Meta) on Arista best-in-class hardware.

• Structure deals that work for both sides: pricing multi-year commitments reseller and channel paths and creative commercial and financing models.

Deliver on commitments

• Own the forecast and the quote-to-PO-to-delivery chain. Catch discrepancies before the customer does.

• Partner with supply chain and operations to secure capacity and manage lead times on large time-critical builds.

• Handle escalations personally from field issues to commercial disputes and close the loop.

Be the customers advocate inside Arista

• Translate customer requirements into clear input for product management and engineering roadmaps.

• Drive alignment with Arista executives finance legal and supply chain on non-standard terms and strategic commitments.

• Share account intelligence and competitive insight across the team so every account benefits.

Qualifications :

Required:

• 12 years selling data center networking optical silicon or cloud infrastructure with at least 5 years owning a hyperscale cloud service provider or frontier AI account.

• A track record of closing large multi-year deals (eight- and nine-figure programs) and consistently exceeding quota.

• Working technical fluency in data center fabrics: leaf-spine and AI back-end networks BGP/EVPN 400G/800G Ethernet RoCE and congestion management DCI and optics. You can hold your own with a customers principal network engineer.

• Understanding of the NOS landscape (EOS SONiC FBOSS and other disaggregated options) and how hyperscalers decide between them.

• Experience running complex RFPs and competitive evaluations against well-funded incumbents and white-box/ODM alternatives.

• Comfort with the commercial side: pricing strategy reseller and channel structures non-standard terms and working through legal finance and supply chain.

• Bachelors degree in engineering computer science or business or equivalent experience.

Preferred:

• Background as a sales engineer or network architect before moving into account leadership.

• Direct experience with AI training and inference cluster build-outs GPU clouds or neo-cloud providers.

• Existing relationships with network engineering infrastructure or supply leaders at major cloud providers or AI labs.

• Familiarity with Ultra Ethernet scale-out vs. scale-up networking and next-generation switch silicon roadmaps.

Who thrives here

• Owner not coordinator. You treat the account like your business and take accountability for every outcome good or bad.

• Technical credibility. Engineers trust you because you understand their architecture and never oversell.

• Long-game thinker. You invest in relationships and positioning years before the deal and you protect trust when a short-term win would cost it.

• Calm under pressure. Hyperscale buying is fast ambiguous and high-stakes. You stay steady and keep the team focused.

• Detail-obsessed on execution. Big strategy means nothing if the quote PO or delivery date is wrong.

• Team player. You make SEs product and operations better and share what you learn across the team.

Compensation Information:

The new hire base pay for this role has a salary range of 135000 to184000k USD. The actual salary offered will be based on a wide range of factors including skills qualifications relevant experience and US location. The salary range provided reflects the base salary and in addition may also be eligible for discretionary Arista bonuses commissions equity and benefits including medical dental vision wellbeing tax savings and income protection. The recruiting team can share more details during the hiring process specific to the role and location.

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Additional Information :

Arista Networks is an equal opportunity employer. Arista makes all hiring and employment-related decisions in a non-discriminatory manner without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin or any other factor determined to be unlawful under applicable federal state or law law. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Arista Networks is an equal opportunity employer. Arista makes all hiring and employment-related decisions in a non-discriminatory manner without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin or any other factor determined to be unlawful under applicable federal state or law law. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time