Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
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Six seats sit under sales engineering, from the demo engineer to the technical account executive who carries a quota. We split them by the stage of the technical sale each one owns, screen with a live discovery and demo rather than a CV review, and charge a flat 15% only once your hire starts.
Most pre-sales briefs ask for a sales engineer and mean one of three jobs: run the demo, design the solution or carry the deal. We start with where your technical deals stall.
The technical sale, and the seat that owns each stage
Moves: technical requirements qualified early
1 seat
Business-focused discovery and value framing: mapping the buyer's process and pain to the product, often in consultative or less technical sales.
Brief us when your buyers are business users rather than engineers, and deals stall because nobody connects the product to their workflow.
Moves: demos that move the deal forward
1 seat
Demo environments, scripts and reusable assets: the data, stories and click paths that make a demo land every time.
Brief us when demos break, take days to prepare, or look different depending on who runs them.
Moves: technical win rate and POC conversion
2 seats
The technical side of the deal: discovery with technical buyers, tailored demos, proof-of-concept plans and the answers that remove technical risk.
Brief us when your AEs lose deals at the demo or the technical evaluation, or spend their week answering questions they cannot.
Hire a Sales EngineerDesigning how the product fits the customer's environment: architecture, integrations and the solution plan that wins a complex evaluation.
Brief us when deals depend on integrations, data or architecture, and buyers need a credible plan before they commit.
Moves: reviews and RFPs cleared without delay
1 seat
RFPs, security questionnaires, technical documentation and solution responses, often in regulated or public-sector sales.
Brief us when deals stall in security review or procurement paperwork, or your AEs are writing RFP answers at midnight.
Moves: closed revenue on technical deals
1 seat
A quota for deals that need deep technical credibility, combining an AE's ownership of the deal with a sales engineer's command of the product.
Brief us when your buyers are technical, the product is complex, and you want one person who can both sell it and prove it.
Measured on
Pre-sales interviews tend to test product knowledge, which is the easiest part of the job to learn. We screen for what is hard to teach: discovery that finds the real requirement, a technical win they owned, and how well they make an account executive look good.
Candidates run a short discovery and demo on a product in your category inside our screen. We score the questions they ask before they show anything. A demo that starts in minute one is where we dig.
A set of practitioner questions on architecture, integrations, security and data, matched to your stack, so you meet people who can hold a room of engineers.
We ask for one proof of concept they designed: the success criteria they wrote, how they kept it short and what decided it.
We check with an account executive they supported how they shared the deal: who led which call, how they handled a difficult buyer, and whether the AE would work with them again.
Not sure which seat you need? Tell us where technical deals stall, at discovery, demo, proof of concept or security review, and we will tell you which of the six owns it.
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Sales engineers are usually paid a base plus a variable tied to team or individual results. Software sales engineers sit well above the all-industry band shown here: the BLS median at software publishers is $153,410.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryWages including commission (BLS)Average total pay, base plus variable
Sales Engineer
BLS, all industries, wages include commission
$92,890 to $161,230$173,511 average total
Solutions Engineer
Salary.com base benchmark
$116,358 to $137,144 base
Sales Engineer bar: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, annual wage at the 25th and 75th percentiles (SOC 41-9031), all industries. Ring: Built In average total compensation for sales engineers (self-reported), reviewed September 30, 2026. Solutions Engineer: Salary.com base salary benchmark, United States, as of October 1, 2026. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
The clock starts when the brief is signed and stops when three to five calibrated candidates are in front of you. Most of that time is spent talking to people, not searching for them.
Day 1
Forty-five minutes with whoever the hire reports to. We leave with the number the seat owns, the range you can pay and the two or three things that genuinely disqualify.
Days 2 to 7
We build the list from people doing the job now, approach them directly and screen every name against the brief before it reaches you.
Days 8 to 10
Three to five people, each with a page: what they have run, why they fit this seat, pay expectations, notice period and where they are weak.
After the shortlist
Interviews run at your pace. We handle scheduling, references and the counter-offer conversation, and nothing is payable until your hire starts.
Three clients, quoted as they wrote to us about searches we ran for them. We publish no names or logos without permission.
The titles overlap, and many companies use them interchangeably. Where they differ, a sales engineer leans toward demos, technical discovery and proof of concept on a defined product, while a solutions engineer designs how the product fits a customer’s wider environment: integrations, data and architecture. The brief should describe the deals, not the title.
We charge a flat 15% of the hire’s first-year base salary, payable only once they start. On a $140,000 base that is $21,000. Variable pay is not part of the calculation, there is no retainer, and nothing is payable if the search does not produce a hire.
The BLS puts the middle half of US sales engineers between $92,890 and $161,230 a year (May 2025, all industries, including commission), with a median of $153,410 at software publishers. Built In reports average total compensation of $173,511 for sales engineers, and Salary.com puts solutions engineers at $116,358 to $137,144 base (October 2026).
When account executives start losing deals at the technical evaluation, or spend more time answering product questions than selling. A common trigger is a product moving upmarket into buyers with security reviews, integrations and technical evaluators. Before that point, a strong AE with product support from engineering is usually enough.
It depends on deal complexity rather than a fixed rule. Products with long technical evaluations, proofs of concept and security reviews need more pre-sales cover per account executive than products sold on a single demo. We help you size it at the brief, from your deal volume and how much of each deal is technical.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates. Interviews and the offer then run at your pace. Because a live discovery and demo sits inside our screen, your own interview loop can focus on product fit and team chemistry.
Yes. Managers and heads of solutions engineering are screened on the team they built, how they allocated pre-sales cover across deals and the technical win rate under them, as well as their own credibility in front of customers. The fee is the same 15% of first-year base at every level.
Tell us the product, the buyers and where technical deals stall. We reply within one business day with which of the six seats it is and what it pays.
Most of our pre-sales searches are filled from people we already know, the week an employer briefs us. Set up a job alert for sales roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
Sales Engineering sits in our Sales & Pipeline practice, right beside the account executives it supports. If the gap is further along the deal, start there.