How to hire a sales engineering manager

How to hire a sales engineering manager, step by step

Here's a step-by-step sales engineering manager hiring guide:

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

What does a sales engineering manager do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your sales engineering manager job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a sales engineering manager for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a sales engineering manager to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a sales engineering manager that fits the bill.

   The following list breaks down different types of sales engineering managers and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Sales Engineering Manager	Description	Hourly rate
   Sales Engineering Manager	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.	$42-80
   Product Manager/Sales	A sales product manager is responsible for monitoring the sales performance of a specific product and ensuring that the marketing strategies adhere to market standards and client requirements. Sales product managers work closely with the marketing and public relations team to enhance the product's brand image on various market platforms to reach the target audience... Show more	$36-75
   Business Development Sales Manager	A business development sales manager is in charge of securing sales by reaching out to clients through calls, correspondence, or appointments. Their responsibilities often revolve around performing research and analysis to identify new leads and sales opportunities, offering different products and services, and creating proposals and price quotes for potential clients... Show more	$32-86

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Cloud
   • Pre Sales
   • Customer Satisfaction
   • Post Sales
   • Business Development
   • Sales Process
   • Technical Expertise
   • Product Knowledge
   • CRM
   • Product Demonstrations
   • Pre-Sales
   • Saas
   • Project Management
   • Product Development

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Develop and implement OEM SaaS hosting model with ISP/ASP partners which lead to new revenue and partnership opportunities.
   • Coordinate and manage installation of VoIP & networking solutions.
   • Manage RFP technical responses for large computer and/or telecommunication projects.
   • Lead team of sales engineers to provide B2B host solutions and SaaS.
   • Architect solution for either a cloud or hybrid hosting model depending on customer needs.
   • Provide technical support/consultation for sales staff and channel partners with regards to deploying various IP services.

   More sales engineering manager duties

3. Make a budget

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

   • Location. For example, sales engineering managers' average salary in hawaii is 48% less than in virginia.
   • Seniority. Entry-level sales engineering managers earn 47% less than senior-level sales engineering managers.
   • Certifications. A sales engineering manager 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 sales engineering manager's salary.

   Average sales engineering manager salary

   $122,397yearly

   $58.84 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level sales engineering manager salary

   $89,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 20, 2025

   Average sales engineering manager salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$148,942	$72
   2	District of Columbia	$137,860	$66
   3	Colorado	$137,177	$66
   4	Arizona	$130,929	$63
   5	New York	$130,134	$63
   6	Texas	$125,678	$60
   7	New Jersey	$125,560	$60
   8	Massachusetts	$120,650	$58
   9	Oregon	$118,488	$57
   10	Georgia	$117,137	$56
   11	Illinois	$113,305	$54
   12	Washington	$107,579	$52
   13	Florida	$104,641	$50
   14	Utah	$103,923	$50
   15	North Carolina	$99,599	$48
   16	Minnesota	$98,216	$47
   17	Michigan	$96,945	$47

   Average sales engineering manager salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$169,870	$81.67	120
   2	Sunrun	$165,878	$79.75
   3	Safran	$148,796	$71.54	36
   4	Yahoo	$142,675	$68.59
   5	8x8	$142,534	$68.53	4
   6	Rubrik	$141,892	$68.22	364
   7	Recorded Future	$139,683	$67.16
   8	Zscaler	$138,013	$66.35	7
   9	Pwc	$136,236	$65.50	650
   10	Acronis	$135,938	$65.35
   11	Deloitte	$134,197	$64.52	856
   12	Dell	$133,016	$63.95
   13	TIBCO Software	$131,109	$63.03
   14	Motorola Solutions	$130,616	$62.80	46
   15	Allyis	$127,637	$61.36
   16	Arrow Electronics	$126,615	$60.87	91
   17	Carboline	$126,014	$60.58	3
   18	Savvis	$124,745	$59.97
   19	Genuine Parts	$123,762	$59.50	15
   20	Sonus	$122,820	$59.05

4. Writing a sales engineering manager job description

   A job description for a sales engineering manager role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a sales engineering manager job description:

   Sales engineering manager job description example

   It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing!
   
   We're committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business.
   
   Corporate Overview Proofpoint is a leading cybersecurity company protecting organizations' greatest assets and biggest risks: vulnerabilities in people. With an integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, Proofpoint helps companies around the world stop targeted threats, safeguard their data, and make their users more resilient against cyber attacks. Leading organizations of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 1000, rely on Proofpoint for people-centric security and compliance solutions mitigating their most critical risks across email, the cloud, social media, and the web.We are singularly devoted to helping our customers protect their greatest assets and biggest security risk: their people. That's why we're a leader in next-generation cybersecurity.Protection Starts with People. ProofpointThe Role and the Team Proofpoint is looking for a Senior Sales Engineering Manager (Sr. SEM) to lead a team of sales engineers focused on both Large Enterprise opportunities, as well as smaller commercial (Inside Sales) customers throughout Latin America. This will be our first Sales Engineering leader to join our fast-growing Latin America Sales team in Brazil!Candidates for this role should be tri-lingual (Portuguese, Spanish and English) and be located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Our Senior SEMs lead from the front, are customer facing, are hands on technical, and focused on enabling and empowering their teams to be successful. Additionally, a Senior Manager is a leader amongst peers, helping to improve processes and programs, and mentoring newly hired or promoted managers. Candidates should have experience managing sales engineering teams, prior experience as a sales engineer, and a track record of being involved in complex customer deals. We prefer a background in cyber-security, cloud security, or risk & governance.You will coach, enable and empower a team of Sales Engineers:Strengthen the team by setting shared goals, information sharing, and establishing mentoring relationships Develop and mentor your team to help them achieve their career goals, ideally here at ProofpointPrioritize and resource team escalations to ensure timely and satisfactory resolution Critical part of issue escalation chain, with extra responsibility of prioritization and resource assignments Works closely with Sales Directors to help determine targeted account penetration strategies for specific verticals and/or territories, and helps to share that message with the broader SE team Works with SE leadership to help determine areas for process improvement, training, etc.Partner with Recruiting and HR to attract, hire and retain top talent to support our rapid growth Be customer facing! Frequently attend meetings with members of your team!Participate in ongoing technical training alongside your team Evangelize the Proofpoint vision to customers and prospects at all levels, from technical to C-suite.Put your individual contributor hat on when needed, engage with customers, and help formulate strategies for target accounts Partner with other groups such as Professional Services and Customer Success to help us continue our tradition of an outstanding customer experience and industry leading customer retention Become a student of our security and risk platform Job Requirements6+ years of experience leading sales engineering teams, ideally in the cyber-security industry Previous experience as a sales engineer Strong, related technical background in technology, with cyber-security such as email security, incident response, cloud security a bonus Proven track record of mentoring and developing team members and guiding them to success Solid sales acumen, and ability to partner with account teams to drive new customer sales as well as add-on revenue.Lead from the front style, and ability to roll up your sleeves and get technical Previous experience determining areas of improvement for sales and sales engineering process, as well as creating/designing/executing department level programs You can thrive in a fast paced, high-energy environment Ability to work independently, adapt quickly and maintain a positive attitude Proven ability to command a room, lead complex technical and business conversations with C-suite executives, as well as technical staff Bachelor's or advanced degree in relevant field, or equivalent experience Must speak fluent/advanced Portuguese, Spanish and English
   
   Why Proofpoint
   Protecting people is at the heart of our award-winning lineup of cybersecurity solutions, and the people who work here are the key to our success. We're a customer-focused and a driven-to-win organization with leading-edge products. We are an inclusive, diverse, multinational company that believes in culture fit, but more importantly ‘culture-add', and we strongly encourage people from all walks of life to apply.
   
   We believe in hiring the best and the brightest to help cultivate our culture of collaboration and appreciation. Apply today and explore your future at Proofpoint! #LifeAtPFPT
   
   #LI-RR1
   
   If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!

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5. Post your job

   To find sales engineering managers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any sales engineering managers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level sales engineering managers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your sales engineering manager job on Zippia to find and recruit sales engineering manager candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting sales engineering managers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates 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 sales engineering manager

   Once you've selected the best sales engineering manager candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new sales engineering manager first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

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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