How to hire a technical sales engineer

How to hire a technical sales engineer, step by step

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

What does a technical sales engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a technical sales 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

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   Hiring the perfect technical sales engineer also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list presents technical sales engineer salaries for various positions.

   Type of Technical Sales Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Technical Sales 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.	$30-58
   Sales Development Representative	A sales development representative qualifies leads at the sales funnel's initial stages. Sales development representatives need to conduct research for prospective clients and qualify the leads before handing them to the sales team... Show more	$16-37
   Territory Representative	A territory representative is responsible for selling the company's goods and services within a designated area, negotiating offers with potential clients, and identifying business opportunities according to market trends and customer demands. Territory representatives analyze the sales performance and strategize techniques to reach sales targets by coordinating with the whole sales team... Show more	$14-24

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Sales Process
   • Product Line
   • Pre Sales
   • Technical Knowledge
   • Technical Expertise
   • Account Management
   • Technical Solutions
   • Project Management
   • Excellent Interpersonal
   • Cloud Computing
   • CRM
   • Trade Shows
   • Customer Support

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage and maintain CRM database, including entering new opportunities into system and periodically updating existing customer profiles.
   • Steer RFP, RFQ, and bid management activities for new and existing customer engagements together with sales operations.
   • Establish back-office systems from scratch, including implementing order fulfillment system, CRM, and QuickBooks.
   • Educate the internal teams on the competitive landscape of cloud solutions as well as new partners.
   • Prepare request for proposal (RFP) responses in conjunction with the appropriate sales team as necessary.
   • Configure computer, server, and IP telephony system quotes per given requirements for current and potential customers.

   More technical sales engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your technical sales engineer job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A technical sales engineer can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, technical sales engineers' average salary in kentucky is 43% less than in oregon.
   • Seniority. Entry-level technical sales engineers 48% less than senior-level technical sales engineers.
   • Certifications. A technical sales engineer with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a technical sales engineer's salary.

   Average technical sales engineer salary

   $88,623yearly

   $42.61 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level technical sales engineer salary

   $63,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 22, 2025

   Average technical sales engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$117,892	$57
   2	Virginia	$104,526	$50
   3	Texas	$96,473	$46
   4	Colorado	$96,366	$46
   5	Montana	$95,238	$46
   6	New Jersey	$95,231	$46
   7	New York	$92,083	$44
   8	North Carolina	$89,763	$43
   9	Washington	$87,501	$42
   10	Massachusetts	$82,888	$40
   11	Georgia	$81,518	$39
   12	Illinois	$80,955	$39
   13	Florida	$77,627	$37
   14	Pennsylvania	$75,906	$36
   15	Ohio	$73,912	$36
   16	Michigan	$73,311	$35
   17	Indiana	$66,219	$32

   Average technical sales engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$143,074	$68.79	195
   2	Texas Instruments	$127,066	$61.09	28
   3	Cadence Design Systems	$125,771	$60.47	22
   4	Palo Alto Networks	$122,415	$58.85	125
   5	Ziff Davis	$119,974	$57.68
   6	Arrow Electronics	$115,227	$55.40	43
   7	Amazon	$114,263	$54.93	510
   8	Altium	$113,278	$54.46	6
   9	Nike	$111,905	$53.80	7
   10	Teradyne	$105,820	$50.88	34
   11	Visa	$104,997	$50.48	21
   12	Autodesk	$103,209	$49.62	18
   13	Cigniti Technologies	$101,667	$48.88
   14	IBM	$101,134	$48.62	232
   15	Iris Software	$100,987	$48.55	4
   16	iGATE Global Solutions	$100,109	$48.13
   17	Netcracker	$99,807	$47.98
   18	Cameron International	$99,750	$47.96
   19	Amphenol	$99,370	$47.77	22
   20	Polaris Software Lab India Limited	$99,323	$47.75

4. Writing a technical sales engineer job description

   A job description for a technical sales 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 technical sales engineer job description:

   Technical sales engineer job description example

   As a Sales Engineer your primary responsibilities are to prepare and deliver technical presentations explaining products or services to customers and prospective customers. Sales Engineers collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements and provide sales support and confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements.
   Primary Responsibilities: Work with sales teams to interpret customer requirements Develop and deliver product demonstrations and sales presentations that explain key technical aspects of solutions that will benefit customers and prospects Provide answers to client questions about our product, servicing, and other technical aspects of products and services Work closely with the customer to set up and maintain a successful demo period, being available to answer questions and troubleshoot as needed. Be able to think critically and suggest improvements Arrange and, at times, lead training for customers Work with compliance to ensure all legal requirements are met Provide feedback to the team as well as R&D for process or product improvements as required Condense information into reports for a wide variety of uses from marketing and sales to engineering and R&D Provide clear and accurate responses for RFPs and/or contribute technical solutions directly to proposals Work in tandem with the sales team on presentations to ensure accuracy Requirements: Associates or equivalent experience in Information Technology Knowledge of servers, workstations, laptops, printers and scanners Knowledge of commonly used business software platforms Knowledge of networking including switching, routing and cabling Knowledge of general cybersecurity best practices Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills to facilitate interactions with business clients and members of other technology teams Ability to communicate, and present verbally and written Strong analytical and problem solving skills Excellent technical documentation skills The ability to work under pressure and to deadlines Commitment to keep up-to-date with IT trends and developments Valid Driver’s license in the United States, reliable transportation Maintain a clean, neat professional appearance Experience with the Following Brands and Products Preferred: Microsoft Office 365 Azure Dell EMC SonicWall Aruba Networks Extreme Networks Mitel Avaya Cisco Applicants should also be customer service oriented and have good communication skills. Working hours will be Monday through Friday, 8 AM until 5 PM with occasional after hours work needed based on current projects. Company DescriptionAdvantage Technology is the largest full-service Information Technology consulting company headquartered in West Virginia, with offices in Charleston, Bridgeport and Williamsport, MD.
   
   Our professionals have decades of real-world, hands-on experience in all forms of technology, and our firm has an emphasis on architecture, data center, cloud computing, network management, software development and cybersecurity. We provide IT services for over 850 professional companies and organizations across the United States and Canada.
   
   Over the years, Advantage Technology has built a solid reputation and core competencies assisting law firms, energy companies, and healthcare organizations, among others, in providing professional information technology services. The organization has grown rapidly over the last four years nearly doubling in size, and recently made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
   
   Advantage Technology is not simply an IT infrastructure company, and has assembled a core group of accomplished IT executives with years of experience from a wide range of industries. Having this broad spectrum of capabilities allows Advantage Technology to bring in experts with the proper area of business expertise to assist our customers in their projects. Our people have advanced degrees in business management, electrical and computer engineering and computer science. We pride ourselves in being in-tune with our clients and having the agility to create and mature service offerings, as the market demands.
   
   What that all means to our customers is that Advantage Technology has a team with superior and specialized experience, along with a broad knowledge base to find the exact tech solution that they need.
   
   Our Advantage is Our People.

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5. Post your job

   To find technical sales engineers 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 technical sales engineers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level technical sales engineers 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 technical sales engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit technical sales engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with technical sales engineer candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of 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 technical sales engineer

   Once you've decided on a perfect technical sales engineer candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

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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How much does it cost to hire a technical sales engineer?