Principal Systems Engineer - Telco/MSSP

Description

System Engineer - Service Provider

Function: Systems Engineering (Presales)

Segment: Service Provider (Telco, ISP, DC/Cloud and Managed Service Providers)

Location: Mumbai

Role Summary

The Service Provider System Engineer is the primary technical advisor to Fortinet's service provider customers and partners. You will work alongside Account Managers to understand carrier-grade security and networking requirements, design and demonstrate solutions, run proofs of concept, and guide customers from evaluation through successful deployment. You will help operators and MSSPs secure their own infrastructure (mobile core, Gi/N6 LAN, peering and data centers) and build managed security services for their end customers.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the trusted technical advisor to service provider accounts, engaging at engineering, architecture and CXO levels.
• Translate business and technical requirements into Fortinet solution architectures, including high-level and low-level designs.
• Deliver product presentations, technical workshops, whiteboard sessions and live demos at customer sites and industry events.
• Plan, execute and document proofs of concept and lab trials, including performance and scale validation.
• Respond to RFIs, RFPs and security questionnaires with accurate technical content and compliance matrices.
• Position and design Fortinet solutions for use cases such as: • Mobile core and 4G/5G network security, subscriber and Gi/N6 LAN protection
• Carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) and large-scale firewalling
• Threat mitigation and protection for AI factories and AI workloads.
• SD-WAN, SASE, ZTNA and managed security services for enterprise customers
• Secure data center, cloud and virtualized/containerized (NFV/CNF) environments
• Centralized management, logging, analytics and SOC/SIEM integration

• Support partners (system integrators, MSSPs, distributors) with technical enablement and joint solution development.
• Provide structured feedback from the field to Product Management and Engineering to influence the roadmap.
• Collaborate with Professional Services, Technical Support and Sales to ensure smooth handover and customer success.
• Track competitive offerings and market trends, and articulate Fortinet's differentiation.
• Contribute to technical content such as white papers, reference architectures and solution briefs.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunications or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in presales, systems engineering, network engineering or solution architecture, preferably with service providers or telecom operators.
• Strong understanding of IP networking and routing (TCP/IP, BGP, OSPF, VRF, IPv6) and network security fundamentals (Firewalling, IPS, VPN, DDoS, NAT).
• Working knowledge of mobile network architecture (4G EPC, 5G Core, GTP, SCTP, Diameter, N6/Gi-LAN) is highly desirable.
• Hands-on experience with next-generation firewalls and security platforms; experience with Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, Juniper, Check Point or similar is a plus.
• Familiarity with virtualization, cloud and automation (VMware, KVM, OpenStack, Kubernetes, AWS/Azure/GCP; REST APIs, Ansible, Python).
• Understanding of AI security, including protecting AI/ML workloads and LLM applications and the use of AI in threat detection and SOC operations.
• Excellent presentation, communication and customer-facing skills, with the ability to explain complex topics clearly.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and the ability to manage multiple opportunities at once.
• Willingness to travel as required.

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

• Fortinet NSE certifications (NSE 4 or higher, with NSE 7/8 preferred), or willingness to obtain them within the first six months.
• Industry certifications such as CCNP, JNCIP, CISSP, PCNSE or equivalent.
• Experience in handling Service Provider customers and managed services business models.
• Exposure to SOC operations, SIEM/SOAR, threat intelligence and zero trust architectures.
• Experience building and running demo or lab environments.