How to hire a professional services engineer

How to hire a professional services engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step professional services engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a professional services engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new professional services engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a professional services engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The professional services engineer hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A professional services engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, professional services engineers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of professional services engineers.

   Type of Professional Services Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Professional Services Engineer	Sales engineers sell complex scientific and technological products or services to businesses. They must have extensive knowledge of the products’ parts and functions and must understand the scientific processes that make these products work.	$30-71
   Engineer	Engineers are highly trained professionals who determine the feasibility of various projects, usually related to the construction industry. They are considered experts in mathematics and science, two disciplines that they need to use in designing and coming up with plans for projects... Show more	$31-62
   Sales Engineering Manager	A sales engineering manager specializes in developing systems and procedures to optimize a company's sales operations, aiming for client satisfaction and profit growth. It is their duty to set goals and timelines, establish guidelines, manage different teams, research new business and client opportunities, gather and analyze data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing operations, develop sales strategies, and implement solutions against problem areas... Show more	$42-80

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Professional Services
   • Java
   • Leveraged
   • Customer Satisfaction
   • Professional Development
   • Troubleshoot
   • CRM
   • Patients
   • Mental Health
   • Linux
   • XML
   • Windows
   • Technical Support

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage the long term technical relationship for multiple cloud and on premise strategic customers and partners.
   • Schedule reservations and manage large volume of customers.
   • Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
   • Develop a coherent and uniform product strategy, sales engagement process, project management methodologies, and automate CRM tools.
   • Develop custom SQL scripts and JavaScript solutions.
   • Create online support documentation for XML web services.

   More professional services engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your professional services engineer job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A professional services engineer salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, professional services engineers' average salary in hawaii is 75% less than in virginia.
   • Seniority. Entry-level professional services engineers earn 57% less than senior-level professional services engineers.
   • Certifications. A professional services engineer with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a professional services engineer's salary.

   Average professional services engineer salary

   $98,091yearly

   $47.16 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level professional services engineer salary

   $64,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 13, 2026

   Average professional services engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$128,528	$62
   2	Virginia	$127,489	$61
   3	District of Columbia	$122,574	$59
   4	Oregon	$119,099	$57
   5	New York	$113,310	$54
   6	Maryland	$109,489	$53
   7	Washington	$103,456	$50
   8	Illinois	$102,889	$49
   9	Minnesota	$100,198	$48
   10	New Jersey	$99,557	$48
   11	Massachusetts	$94,758	$46
   12	Colorado	$93,558	$45
   13	Texas	$91,825	$44
   14	Georgia	$86,029	$41
   15	North Carolina	$84,304	$41
   16	Michigan	$82,756	$40
   17	Utah	$75,800	$36
   18	Indiana	$63,598	$31
   19	Missouri	$59,087	$28
   20	Florida	$55,903	$27

   Average professional services engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Gracenote	$130,539	$62.76
   2	Google	$127,891	$61.49	42
   3	NVIDIA	$127,706	$61.40	2
   4	Amazon	$126,376	$60.76	127
   5	Scality	$124,579	$59.89
   6	Marathon Oil	$124,012	$59.62
   7	Splunk	$121,484	$58.41
   8	NetApp	$119,280	$57.35	11
   9	Magic Leap	$118,073	$56.77
   10	Cisco	$117,817	$56.64	166
   11	Morgan Stanley	$117,705	$56.59	31
   12	Devon Energy	$117,669	$56.57	5
   13	Palo Alto Networks	$117,571	$56.52	53
   14	Turbonomic	$116,160	$55.85
   15	Redis Labs	$114,477	$55.04
   16	Medallia	$114,266	$54.94
   17	Accruent	$113,245	$54.44
   18	Baker Hughes	$112,960	$54.31
   19	Jive Software	$112,714	$54.19
   20	Tradeshift	$112,661	$54.16

4. Writing a professional services engineer job description

   A professional services engineer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a professional services engineer job description:

   Professional services engineer job description example

   Join us as we pursue our disruptive new vision to make machine data accessible, usable and valuable to everyone. We are a company filled with people who are passionate about our product and seek to deliver the best experience for our customers. At Splunk, we're committed to our work, customers, having fun and most importantly to each other's success.
   Role
   
   Are you passionate about groundbreaking technology and helping your customers and peers succeed? Would you like the opportunity to work at a fast-growing company that is changing the way that information is used to support business decisions all over the world? If you answered yes to these questions, then we have a home for you at Splunk!
   
   We are an engineering and product-focused company. Our engineers take a leading role in designing, architecting, building, and testing our product. Engineers at Splunk have a wide impact, from developing new capabilities like identity management to metrics ingestion and analysis to working with customers to see their work be used to solve real-world problems.
   
   You will become part of a global Professional Services team that provides technical and thought leadership through focused solutions to the PS and Partner organizations globally.In this role you will be joining a team of Global Services Field Engineers. You will work directly with our Lead Developer on crafting and building new and innovative solutions. Finally, you will have the opportunity to work directly with our Product Management, Engineering, and Support teams, to share your knowledge and experiences to ultimately improve our business and drive an improved customer experience.
   
   Responsibilities
   Collaborate with individuals across the company from Product Management, Product Marketing, Professional Services, Sales, Sales Engineering, Technical Enablement, Customer Success Management, and Support. Help to define the roadmap for product solutions. Work closely as a team, as well as cross functional collaboration across the Splunk when necessary. Build new tools to support Professional Services consultants. Able to work on tight timelines, effective at communicating, and excited to work as a part of a new cutting edge team. Embrace continuous learning, maintain up-to-date knowledge of Splunk products, functional knowledge, and industry best practices.
   Requirements
   8 years experience (6 years with a tech related masters degree) Deep knowledge of Python, knowledge of Ansible, JavaScript, Terraform and AWS services is a bonus. Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, GIT, and Splunk. Understanding of machine and application logs. Strong knowledge of Splunk administration and SPL. Strong open systems application and infrastructure knowledge. Organized with a healthy sense of urgency, able to set; communicate; and meet aggressive deadlines with competing priorities. Experience with both the Unix and Windows operating systems; comfortable on the command line interface. Preference for experience with at least two of the following cloud providers: AWS, Azure, GCP. Ability to stop, collaborate and listen with technical and non-technical consumers from application developers to more senior level partners. Self-motivated and self-educating, always interested in keeping up with technology and improving oneself. Comfortable operating in a virtual office environment (hosting and participating in virtual collaborations, meetings, etc.). Occasional travel may be required.
   Education :
   Bachelor's degree in a related discipline required or substantial relevant on the job experience
   We value diversity at our company. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics in the location in which the candidate is applying.
   
   For job positions in San Francisco, CA, and other locations where required, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.
   
   (Colorado only*) Minimum base salary of $115,000.00. You may also be eligible for incentive pay + equity + benefits.*Note: Disclosure per sb19-085 (8-5-201 et seq).
   
   Thank you for your interest in Splunk!

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find professional services engineers for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your professional services engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit professional services engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit professional services engineers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new professional services engineer

   Once you've decided on a perfect professional services engineer candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new professional services engineer. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a professional services engineer?