Marc Hamilton's Weblog: Marc Hamilton's Weblog

Yes, it is true, according to my very informal survey, the second best marketing job in Silicon Valley is currently open. You can contact me if you are interested in applying. So just what is this great job? Yes, it does have something to do with Solaris. But not what you might at first think. You see, Sun has big plans for Solaris. Yes, most people by now know that you can get Solaris features like ZFS, DTrace, and Predictive Self-Healing not only on Sun's UltraSPARC servers but also on x86 systems from Sun, IBM, Dell, HP, and other vendors. But Sun has big plans for these technologies beyond just a traditional OS. We have already started to talk about the Sun xVM Server product family which will bring many of the same features to Windows and Linux operating systems through server virtualization. But that is just the start. We are investigating entire new areas to take these technologies, ranging from storage to networking and a whole lot more.

A big part of the job will be crafting outbound marketing messaging for Solaris and related products, again, not just for our current Solaris customers but for new markets into which we plan to take the technology. The ideal candidate would be working today to market similar OS or at least software technologies. Well, not that there is anything quite like Solaris, and not that I would ever try to hire from one of Sun's partners, but if you are leaving your current job anyhow, and looking for a challenge, I'd love to talk to you. At Sun we think some of the fastest growing markets for technology, as well as development areas for new technology, will be in the fast growing BRIC countries, so you should have experience marketing to those parts of the world, and be willing to travel there.

At Sun, we also value the contribution of women executives (two of the last three VP's I worked for were women), and I hate to have my daughter read studies like this about the lack of women executives in high tech, so women are equally encouraged to apply. Preferably you already would have experience as a software marketing director or VP at another high tech company. While I have a great staff of very talented direct reports, and don't plan on taking another job soon, who knows what I will be doing at Sun in 12 months, so I'm looking for a senior marketing executive that could step in to be the next Solaris Marketing VP when I move on. And if you have to ask, yes, the best marketing job in Silicon Valley is currently taken, and I'm quite happy in that role.