How to hire a solutions engineer

How to hire a solutions engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step solutions 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 solutions engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new solutions engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a solutions engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a solutions engineer, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   A solutions engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, solutions 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.

   The following list breaks down different types of solutions engineers and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Solutions Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Solutions 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.	$32-64
   Technical Services Engineer	A technical services engineer is responsible for assisting customers on their systems and network issues, providing them the best technical solutions, and guiding them on step-by-step procedures for troubleshooting. Technical services engineers must have excellent communication and technical skills, especially on identifying customers' system failures by asking them a few questions... Show more	$27-55
   Management Engineer	A management engineer specializes in designing and developing systems to optimize business or establishment procedures. Their duties typically revolve around coordinating with various departments to obtain necessary data, conducting observations and inspections to determine the strengths and weaknesses of existing processes, executing maintenance checks to ensure the efficiency of services, and performing research and analysis to come up with the ideal solutions... Show more	$31-60

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Cloud
   • Pre Sales
   • Java
   • Architecture
   • Customer Satisfaction
   • Infrastructure
   • Sales Process
   • C #
   • Cloud Computing
   • Python
   • Project Management
   • Emerging Technologies
   • AWS
   • Saas

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage NDS tree for CSRS and all TCP/IP resolve via DHCP.
   • Subject matter expert in SAAS solution sets, manage services and manufacturing/logistics.
   • Develop tools to automate troubleshooting tasks such as DNS resolutions and log collection.
   • Manage a small team thereby training the team on data center and VPN technologies.
   • Manage a team of 20 resources providing functional and technical CRM support to global customers.
   • Utilize Google docs & JavaScript or VBA to develop solutions to automate data processing for operation.

   More solutions engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your solutions engineer job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A solutions engineer salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a solutions engineer in Nebraska may be lower than in California, and an entry-level solutions engineer usually earns less than a senior-level solutions engineer. Additionally, a solutions engineer with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average solutions engineer salary

   $95,482yearly

   $45.90 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level solutions engineer salary

   $68,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 19, 2025

   Average solutions engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$136,238	$66
   2	Virginia	$109,151	$52
   3	District of Columbia	$108,162	$52
   4	New York	$105,566	$51
   5	Maryland	$104,342	$50
   6	Arizona	$101,571	$49
   7	Texas	$100,919	$49
   8	New Jersey	$100,551	$48
   9	Wisconsin	$95,133	$46
   10	New Hampshire	$94,768	$46
   11	Rhode Island	$91,750	$44
   12	Georgia	$91,641	$44
   13	Colorado	$91,566	$44
   14	Oregon	$91,451	$44
   15	Massachusetts	$90,379	$43
   16	Illinois	$89,057	$43
   17	Washington	$89,017	$43
   18	North Carolina	$85,348	$41
   19	Florida	$84,611	$41
   20	North Dakota	$83,754	$40

   Average solutions engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	ByteDance	$150,995	$72.59	2
   2	Flexport	$148,925	$71.60	17
   3	Meta	$146,939	$70.64	486
   4	Apple	$146,330	$70.35	196
   5	PayPal	$143,901	$69.18	14
   6	Roku	$140,313	$67.46	6
   7	Dotdash	$139,927	$67.27
   8	Google	$139,891	$67.26	133
   9	Pure Storage	$139,245	$66.94	50
   10	Bloomberg	$137,306	$66.01	13
   11	Asana	$136,877	$65.81	7
   12	NVIDIA	$135,737	$65.26	218
   13	VMware	$135,394	$65.09
   14	Box	$135,231	$65.01	28
   15	Sumo Logic	$134,122	$64.48	6
   16	Amazon	$133,947	$64.40	639
   17	Microsoft	$133,624	$64.24	137
   18	First Republic Bank	$133,378	$64.12
   19	AvePoint	$133,240	$64.06	7
   20	Cloudera	$132,840	$63.87	1

4. Writing a solutions engineer job description

   A job description for a solutions engineer 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 solutions engineer job description:

   Solutions engineer job description example

   Gallagher Bassett (GB) is a for-profit company with a positive social impact. We help injured workers get back to health (and back to work) faster, cheaper, and with less administrative burden. In broader terms, we're a company of experts navigating the complex world of claims management so that our clients can focus on their own businesses. GB has over 4,000 employees, with operations in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
   : Our Business Intelligence team is growing and looking for a Lead Data Solutions Engineer . In this role, you will provide guidance, leadership, and solid execution of data integration solutions as they relate to BI and AI project initiatives. Typically this role participates on multiple, technically complex, mission-critical, and/or high-profile data projects or initiatives. You'll do design and software development and will be responsible for developing and supporting various data ingestion, data extraction, business intelligence (BI) data solutions.
   
   You'll need a strong understanding of data integration concepts, processes and methodologies along with strong leadership skills, particularly the ability to make sound data architectural solutions and recommendations. We're looking for a self-starter with a very high work ethic.
   
   This position can be entirely virtual/remote/work from home and you can sit anywhere in the US.
   
   Responsibilities:
   Design, implement and support ETL solutions in a data warehouse environment Create, maintain, and optimize stored procedures, functions, inline SQL, database structures, and ETL processes to adapt to changes in needs and requirements; ensuring a high degree of data quality. As a senior team member, assume lead roles in the design and development of data integrations, oversee the work of junior developers, and participate in the strategic planning around future development of the data environments. Ensures acceptable levels of system performance, integrity and security Handle multiple highly complex projects concurrently and collaboratively Provide operational production support and flexible to manage high severity incidents/problem resolution during off business hours. Collaborate with functional group leaders and engineering team(s) to gather and analyze data requirement needs.
   Qualifications:
   The following technologies are important to us. Although we understand your level of experience may vary in certain areas, you will be expected to be advanced in a number of these areas: Azure: Azure Data Warehouse (Synapse), Azure SQL database, Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks Spark, SQL Server, T-SQL, SSIS Git, Octopus, knowledge on CICD 7+ years of experience in designing and building large applications utilizing SQL Server. Solid understanding of Azure DW, Azure SQL database, Microsoft SQL Server and other database technologies. 3+ years of progressive experience as senior data engineer with current and emerging data technologies and approaches. Strong understanding of massive parallel processing systems (MPP) Experience and knowledge in migrating code, database changes, data through the various stages of the development life cycle. A sound knowledge of both database and program code performance tuning. Sound communication skills with the ability to interface with management, development teams, vendors, systems administrators and other related service providers. Passion for technology and streamlining processes. Deep technical understanding of all things data, analytical problem solver.
   #LI-DK3
   #LI-Remote
   
   Gallagher believes that all persons are entitled to equal employment opportunity and does not discriminate against nor favor any applicant because of race, sex, color, disability, national origin, religion, creed, age, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, gender, gender identity / expression, actual or perceived sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. Equal employment opportunity will be extended in all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, transfer, demotion, compensation, benefits, layoff, and termination. In addition, Gallagher will make reasonable accommodations to known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified applicant with a disability, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business.
   
   Additional Information

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right solutions engineer for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

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

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit solutions 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. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   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 solutions engineer

   Once you have selected a candidate for the solutions engineer position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the 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.

   To prepare for the new solutions engineer 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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