Experienced Network Engineer Looking for Career Advice

Hey all,

I’m struggling with my current job search and looking for some advice. I’ve worked as a network engineer for 15+ years and currently work for a large government contractor. Although the money is good and there’s a fair amount of work/life balance (I never work more than 80 hours over a two week pay period), I’m not feeling particularly challenged, and, for a variety of reasons, want to move on from the company/industry. I’ve been searching for a new job for the last six months or so, but am struggling to even get interviews. I fear that the fact that I lack automation or cloud experience are key contributors to this. I'm trying to make it a priority to gain some new skills on the side, but it's hard to make time. Anyway, I’m considering moving out a strictly networking role and could use some help as I try to identify potential opportunities. One of the more promising experiences I’ve had so far interviewing was with a big tech company for pre-sales Systems Architect role supporting a named account. Basically, my job would have been to work with the customer to identify technical solutions within the tech company’s vast portfolio to help address their technology needs. Ultimately, I ended doing well in the technical interviews, but didn’t connect with the sales manager. I don’t know that that role would have been a perfect fit for me, but what I really liked about it was that the scope of it extended beyond working with traditional network products and extended to whole system design. Although I still like being technical and having my hands on equipment, I really enjoy the system design/architectural aspects of my current job (when I’m given the opportunity to do so anyway) and would like the opportunity to expand upon that in a future role. I do kinda like the idea of being in a pre-sales role, but I feel like that may be an uphill battle going forward just due to a lack of experience in that capacity. It seems those types of roles are typically described as Systems Architect or Solutions Engineer/Architect. If I wanted to support a company internally with a similar role, what type of positions or keywords should I be entering into my job search? Any ideas would be appreciated.