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The differences between sales support engineers and solutions engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a sales support engineer and a solutions engineer. Additionally, a solutions engineer has an average salary of $95,482, which is higher than the $78,335 average annual salary of a sales support engineer.
The top three skills for a sales support engineer include CRM, product line and sales process. The most important skills for a solutions engineer are cloud, pre sales, and java.
| Sales Support Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $78,335 | $95,482 |
| Hourly rate | $37.66 | $45.90 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 118,608 | 123,287 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A sales support engineer assists customers by dealing with complex issues and concerns, resolving them using their technical expertise. They usually communicate with customers using calls and correspondence, and through this, they also develop and deliver sales proposals, answer inquiries, and provide price quotes. Moreover, a sales support engineer also works to assist sales teams by conducting research and analyses to develop procedures that will optimize operations, producing data and guidelines, and creating sales strategies for profit growth.
A solutions engineer is an individual who assists customers in identifying their computer software needs and generates customized business software solutions for them. Solutions engineers collaborate with other department engineers to create practical demonstrations of proposed solutions and showcase them to the other members of the team. They are required to test the installed software and fix programming bugs that create errors with the system. Solutions engineers also maintain customer relations by providing post-installation follow-ups.
Sales support engineers and solutions engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Support Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Average salary | $78,335 | $95,482 |
| Salary range | Between $52,000 And $116,000 | Between $68,000 And $134,000 |
| Highest paying City | Fort Collins, CO | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | California |
| Best paying company | Agilent Technologies | ByteDance |
| Best paying industry | Energy | Start-up |
There are a few differences between a sales support engineer and a solutions engineer in terms of educational background:
| Sales Support Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between sales support engineers' and solutions engineers' demographics:
| Sales Support Engineer | Solutions Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 84.8% Female, 15.2% | Male, 85.1% Female, 14.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 1.6% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.0% Asian, 8.2% White, 75.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 1.4% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 6.9% Asian, 10.8% White, 74.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |