About the Sales Engineer role
A Sales Engineer bridges the gap between a technical product and a commercial deal. They join sales calls as the technical expert, run tailored product demos, answer architecture and security questions, design proof-of-concept evaluations, and give prospects the confidence that the product will work in their environment. In complex B2B sales, the technical win they deliver is often the difference between a signed contract and a stalled deal.
The role blends engineering depth with sales instincts. A strong sales engineer understands the product well enough to improvise in a live demo, translates features into business outcomes for executives, and handles objections from skeptical technical buyers. In many companies, sales engineers also respond to RFPs and security questionnaires, support integrations during trials, and feed field insights back to the product team.
In your posting, describe your product's technical depth, the typical buyer, and the sales process the engineer will support: deal size, sales cycle length, and the ratio of sales engineers to account executives. Candidates also want to know how much travel is expected, how variable compensation works for this role, and whether they will influence product direction with what they learn in the field.
Sales Engineer job description template
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Job brief
We are hiring a Sales Engineer to be the technical half of our sales conversations. You will join calls as the expert, run demos built around what the prospect actually said, design and lead evaluations, and answer the architecture and security questions that decide whether a deal moves.
This suits somebody who is genuinely technical and enjoys the commercial pressure that comes with it, who can improvise when a demo goes sideways, and who translates a capability into a business outcome without losing the accuracy.
Responsibilities
- Partner with account executives throughout the sales cycle as the technical lead on deals
- Run technical discovery to understand each prospect's environment, requirements, and success criteria
- Prepare and deliver product demonstrations tailored to the prospect's use case
- Design, scope, and manage proof-of-concept evaluations through to a technical win
- Answer questions about architecture, integrations, data handling, and security
- Respond to RFPs, RFIs, and security questionnaires with accurate, persuasive content
- Handle technical objections and position the product against alternatives honestly
- Collaborate with product and engineering teams to relay customer feedback and feature requests
- Support onboarding handoffs so implementations start from realistic expectations
- Maintain demo environments, technical collateral, and internal enablement material
Requirements and skills
- Has worked pre-sales, as a sales, solutions, or customer engineer in business software
- Explains something complex to an engineer and to an executive in the same meeting
- Presents and demos confidently to a live audience, remote or in the room
- Comfortable with APIs, integrations, and how enterprise systems fit together
- Has run proof-of-concept evaluations against agreed success criteria
- Handles security, compliance, and privacy questions without deferring every one
- Asks enough in discovery to find the problem behind the stated requirement
- Willing to travel for the meetings and events that matter
- A technical degree, or the hands-on experience that replaced one
Nice to have
- Hands-on scripting or coding skills for building demo integrations and quick prototypes
- Experience selling to our target industry or buyer persona
- Familiarity with CRM tools such as Salesforce or HubSpot
- Experience responding to enterprise procurement processes and security reviews
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