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What is a sales engineer lead and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025
3 min read
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sales engineer lead. For example, did you know that they make an average of $57.97 an hour? That's $120,568 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 3,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
ScoreSales Engineer LeadUS Average
Salary
8.1

Avg. Salary $120,568

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level
7.3

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity
3.4
Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.33%

Asian 10.93%

Black or African American 1.43%

Hispanic or Latino 6.86%

Unknown 6.10%

White 74.35%

Gender

female 8.28%

male 91.72%

Age - 44
Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44
Stress level
7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level
8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance
4.2

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Sales engineer lead career paths

Key steps to become a sales engineer lead

  1. Explore sales engineer lead education requirements

    Most common sales engineer lead degrees

    Bachelor's

    70.4 %

    Associate

    14.1 %

    Master's

    11.1 %
  2. Start to develop specific sales engineer lead skills

    SkillsPercentages
    Pre Sales13.35%
    Sales Process12.07%
    ROI7.70%
    Network Design6.85%
    Customer Support6.76%
  3. Complete relevant sales engineer lead training and internships

    Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New sales engineers lead learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a sales engineer lead based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real sales engineer lead resumes.
  4. Research sales engineer lead duties and responsibilities

    • Create tools to manage customer projects, such as standardized proposals, technical templates, and SQL tracking database.
    • Design and implement storage, virtualization and cloud solutions.
    • Evangelize platform (SAAS) solution and hadoop implementation as technical value.
    • Tie several disparate products together to create a unique SaaS solution that competitively position the company against larger suppliers.
  5. Get sales engineer lead experience

    Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a sales engineer lead. The most common roles before becoming a sales engineer lead include sales engineer, systems engineer team lead and senior sales engineer.
  6. Prepare your sales engineer lead resume

    When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sales engineer lead resume.

    You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a sales engineer lead resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

    Choose from 10+ customizable sales engineer lead resume templates

    Build a professional sales engineer lead resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your sales engineer lead resume.
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
    Sales Engineer Lead Resume
  7. Apply for sales engineer lead jobs

    Now it's time to start searching for a sales engineer lead job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

    1. Browse job boards for relevant postings
    2. Consult your professional network
    3. Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
    4. Watch out for job scams

How did you land your first sales engineer lead job

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Average sales engineer lead salary

The average sales engineer lead salary in the United States is $120,568 per year or $58 per hour. Sales engineer lead salaries range between $89,000 and $161,000 per year.

Average sales engineer lead salary
$120,568 Yearly
$57.97 hourly

What am I worth?

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How do sales engineers lead rate their job?

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Sales engineer lead reviews

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A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2020
Pros

IF you have enough experience you get to walk around different manufacturing plants and tell them how you solution will impact their bottom line. every day is different.

Cons

Cold Call is pretty bad because your success rate is 1-2%. Surprises when a competitor sells to a company you did not know about and your marketing folks cant help find them.


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A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019
Pros

Requires many aspect to be combine in order to fulfill the job. business and technical knowledge are required in order to be successful pre sales engineer.

Cons

no general certification like PMP exists for pre sales engineer, they are all specified for one product. requires an absurd amount of concentration required for proposals writing if you don't have the adequate tools to help.


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A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019
Pros

Active Networking & Security Solutions

Cons

Presales tasks are usually working under Pressure, no enough time to improve skills


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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.