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Senior pre-sales engineer vs field sales engineer

The differences between senior pre-sales engineers and field sales 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 senior pre-sales engineer and a field sales engineer. Additionally, a senior pre-sales engineer has an average salary of $115,532, which is higher than the $90,950 average annual salary of a field sales engineer.

The top three skills for a senior pre-sales engineer include pre sales, technical liaison and sales process. The most important skills for a field sales engineer are HVAC, customer satisfaction, and technical support.

Senior pre-sales engineer vs field sales engineer overview

Senior Pre-Sales EngineerField Sales Engineer
Yearly salary$115,532$90,950
Hourly rate$55.54$43.73
Growth rate6%6%
Number of jobs23,38785,486
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 75%Bachelor's Degree, 79%
Average age4444
Years of experience66

What does a senior pre-sales engineer do?

A senior pre-sales engineer is the technical pillar of sales in an organization. They employ their business acumen and leadership in designing, proposing, demonstrating, and marketing business values to customers. Their responsibilities include delivering technical demos and presentations with a special focus on the consumer's business requirements, converting prospects to customers and customers to product evangelists, building a win-win relationship with customers and internal departments, creating technical architecture designs, assisting sales qualification, and presenting workshops.

What does a field sales engineer do?

Usually, a field sales engineer prepares and delivers technical representations explaining a company's products or services to clients. Field sales engineers confer with engineers and customers for the assessment of the necessary equipment and in the identification of the required system. They conduct research and report the status of engineering projects. It is the duty of the field engineers to ensure everything in the field works efficiently and smoothly and that the engineering designs are followed.

Senior pre-sales engineer vs field sales engineer salary

Senior pre-sales engineers and field sales engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Pre-Sales EngineerField Sales Engineer
Average salary$115,532$90,950
Salary rangeBetween $87,000 And $152,000Between $65,000 And $125,000
Highest paying City-San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state-New York
Best paying company-Vuzix
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between senior pre-sales engineer and field sales engineer education

There are a few differences between a senior pre-sales engineer and a field sales engineer in terms of educational background:

Senior Pre-Sales EngineerField Sales Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 75%Bachelor's Degree, 79%
Most common majorComputer ScienceElectrical Engineering
Most common collegeStanford UniversityStanford University

Senior pre-sales engineer vs field sales engineer demographics

Here are the differences between senior pre-sales engineers' and field sales engineers' demographics:

Senior Pre-Sales EngineerField Sales Engineer
Average age4444
Gender ratioMale, 93.6% Female, 6.4%Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 1.6% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 5.8% White, 78.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%Black or African American, 1.7% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.3% Asian, 5.7% White, 77.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage7%7%

Differences between senior pre-sales engineer and field sales engineer duties and responsibilities

Senior pre-sales engineer example responsibilities.

  • Coach new engineers and manage IP telephony sales in relation to branch office quota.
  • Architect solutions to support cloud computing IaaS, PaaS and SaaS infrastructures and help customers achieve SLA's.
  • Demonstrate ROI against Kofax solution.
  • Run tight POC and demos, keeping business value and success criteria in mind.
  • Engage channel partners in the analysis and design of custom CRM solutions for channel clients.
  • Coordinate, design, install, and maintain Unix base computer systems for Quotron systems customers.
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Field sales engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage merchandising and POS materials at the retail store level ensuring meticulous compliance with all current corporate initiative regulations.
  • Assign Vlans on different IP subnets.
  • Test storage configurations utilizing iSCSI over IP in HDS test labs.
  • Work directly with large OEM accounts (agriculture, marine, automotive, mobile off-highway, medical, etc . )
  • Develop account relationships at all levels including procurement, technical and senior management level within the OEM and distributor channels.
  • Consult, repair and troubleshoot electrical/electronic control circuits.
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Senior pre-sales engineer vs field sales engineer skills

Common senior pre-sales engineer skills
  • Pre Sales, 26%
  • Technical Liaison, 12%
  • Sales Process, 7%
  • Linux, 4%
  • Technical Expertise, 3%
  • POC, 3%
Common field sales engineer skills
  • HVAC, 5%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 5%
  • Technical Support, 5%
  • Product Line, 5%
  • Trade Shows, 5%
  • Semiconductor, 4%