Sales Engineer jobs: skills, pay and how to get hired
Updated 5 Nov 2026. Figures from the jobs in our search, not the whole market.
Contents
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What a sales engineer does
A sales engineer works with the account executive on a deal. The account executive owns the relationship and the commercial terms; the sales engineer owns the technical side: the first questions about the customer's systems and needs, the demo, a trial or proof of concept, answers to tenders and security questions, and a solution the customer's engineers believe in. After the signature the sales engineer hands the deal to the people who deliver it.
The job comes in two kinds. In software and cloud it is called pre-sales or solutions engineering, and most of the work is demos, integrations and trials. In industry, where German ads say Vertriebsingenieur, it means advising on machines, components or plants, reading drawings and preparing offers, and many came from mechanical engineering. The sales manager leads the commercial side; the IT consultant usually takes over after the sale to deliver. The steps from junior sales engineer to head of presales are in the career paths of this role.
The skills the ads ask for
We read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills they name. On a computer, hover a skill in the text to see its share; on a phone, the table has the same figures.
| Skill | Share of ads | What is expected |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-Sales | 10% | Find the customer's real problem, show how the product solves it and win the technical decision. |
| Sales | 59% | Know the sales process, the stages of a deal and what the account executive needs from you at each. |
| Customer orientation | 14% | Listen first, care about the customer's success after the signature, and say no when needed. |
| Presentation skills | 1% | Demonstrate and explain to a room of buyers with different interests, and adapt as you go. |
| CRM | 10% | Keep notes, next steps and technical risks of each deal in the CRM so the whole team can see them. |
| Negotiation | 6% | Hold the technical scope steady while price and terms are discussed, and know what you can give. |
| Proposals and Tenders | 10% | Answer requests for proposals and tenders: clear, complete, true and on time. |
| Salesforce | 3% | Log activities, read the pipeline and the opportunity history in one of the common CRMs. |
| Project management | 13% | Plan a proof of concept or a customer trial with dates, owners and success criteria. |
| REST APIs | 4% | Explain how the product connects to the customer's systems and what an integration will take. |
| AWS | 7% | Enough cloud knowledge to discuss hosting, security and data location with a customer's IT team. |
| AutoCAD | 3% | Read and mark up drawings in industrial sales, where the product must fit a machine or a plant. |
| Communication skills | 15% | Turn technical facts into business value for buyers and into clear notes for colleagues. |
| English | 68% | The language of international customers, product documents and many sales teams. |
| German | 56% | Asked for in most ads in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where buyers and engineers speak German. |
Shares of the sales engineer ads we read in the last 7 days, as of 5 Nov 2026. Our ads, not the whole market.
The sales skills lead: pre-salesAsked in 10% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Find the customer's real problem, show how the product solves it and win the technical decision. work, a sound grasp of the salesAsked in 59% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Know the sales process, the stages of a deal and what the account executive needs from you at each. process, customer focusAsked in 14% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Listen first, care about the customer's success after the signature, and say no when needed., presenting and demonstratingAsked in 1% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Demonstrate and explain to a room of buyers with different interests, and adapt as you go. and negotiationAsked in 6% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Hold the technical scope steady while price and terms are discussed, and know what you can give. on scope. Writing proposals and tender answersAsked in 10% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Answer requests for proposals and tenders: clear, complete, true and on time. and keeping each deal current in a CRMAsked in 10% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Keep notes, next steps and technical risks of each deal in the CRM so the whole team can see them. are daily work; ads name the CRMs side by side, such as SalesforceAsked in 3% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Log activities, read the pipeline and the opportunity history in one of the common CRMs., HubSpotThe CRM and marketing tool of many smaller software firms: deals, notes and sequences. or Microsoft Dynamics.
The technical skills depend on the product: APIs and integrationsAsked in 4% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Explain how the product connects to the customer's systems and what an integration will take. and cloud platforms such as AWSAsked in 7% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Enough cloud knowledge to discuss hosting, security and data location with a customer's IT team. in software, drawings in AutoCADAsked in 3% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Read and mark up drawings in industrial sales, where the product must fit a machine or a plant. or SolidWorks in industry. Planning a trialAsked in 13% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Plan a proof of concept or a customer trial with dates, owners and success criteria. with clear success criteria and communicationAsked in 15% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Turn technical facts into business value for buyers and into clear notes for colleagues. that turns technical facts into business value apply to both. EnglishAsked in 68% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).The language of international customers, product documents and many sales teams. opens international customers, and GermanAsked in 56% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Asked for in most ads in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where buyers and engineers speak German. is asked for in most ads in German-speaking countries.
Where the jobs are, country by country
Each country below has its own figures: which cities have the most jobs in our list, whether the number is going up or down, how often ads offer remote or hybrid work, the titles used in the country, and pay ranges from published research, in the local currency.
Germany
12% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 37% are fully remote.
Pay (Base salary)
- Entry level: €50,500 to €58,200 a year
- Mid-level: €58,200 to €71,714 a year
- Senior: €71,714 to €96,475 a year
Total pay: Payscale's German sales engineers report commission of about €13,000 to €30,000 and bonuses of about €2,000 to €31,000 a year, from few salaries; StepStone notes that some employers add a thirteenth salary or a yearly bonus.
Entry level runs from the low end of StepStone's range for sales engineers to its average, an estimate that does not say how many salaries it rests on; mid-level from that average to Indeed's average for Vertriebsingenieur ads; senior runs from that average to the top of Indeed's range, from 630 salaries in job ads. StepStone estimates an experienced sales engineer at about €85,000.
Sources: StepStone (2026), Indeed: Vertriebsingenieur (Oct 2026), Payscale (Nov 2025).
Pay researched on 4 Nov 2026.
Titles: German ads say Vertriebsingenieur, Technischer Vertrieb or Technischer Berater, mostly in industry, such as machinery, electrical components and automation, and Presales Engineer or Solutions Engineer in software. Many German industrial roles include customer visits and trade fairs, and a company car is common in the German field roles.
Language: most German ads ask for GermanAsked in 56% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Asked for in most ads in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where buyers and engineers speak German. next to EnglishAsked in 68% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).The language of international customers, product documents and many sales teams., because customers in Germany often expect talks and offers in German.
Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.
United States
8% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 67% are fully remote.
100% of the ads that say are full-time.
Pay (Base salary)
- Entry level: $61,000 to $76,959 a year
- Mid-level: $84,675 to $122,000 a year
- Senior: $120,316 to $171,000 a year
Total pay: Payscale gives sales engineers commission of about $6,000 to $45,000 and bonuses of about $2,000 to $27,000 a year, and senior sales engineers commission of about $17,000 to $73,000; the BLS gives sales engineers' wages with commission and bonus a lowest tenth below $73,870 and a top tenth above $195,270 (May 2025).
Entry level runs from the lower tenth of Payscale's sales engineer range to its figure for one to four years of work; mid-level from its average to the upper tenth; senior from Payscale's senior sales engineer average to the upper tenth of that range.
Sources: Payscale: sales engineer (Sep 2026), Payscale: senior sales engineer (Jul 2026), BLS (May 2025).
Pay researched on 28 Oct 2026.
How the work is offered: US ads mostly offer full-time employment with a base salary and a variable part; in US software sales the variable part is often a commission tied to the team's quota, and the ad or the offer says how it is split.
Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.
United Kingdom
9% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 48% are fully remote.
Pay (Base salary)
- Entry level: £26,000 to £32,526 a year
- Mid-level: £36,128 to £60,000 a year
- Senior: £43,995 to £66,353 a year
Total pay: Payscale gives UK sales engineers commission of about £2,000 to £32,000 and bonuses of about £1,000 to £10,000 a year.
Entry level runs from the lower tenth of Payscale's range to its figure for one to four years; mid-level from its average to the upper tenth; senior from Indeed's average for sales engineer ads to the top of its range. Payscale's UK page was last updated in 2025.
Sources: Payscale (Oct 2025), Indeed (Oct 2026).
Pay researched on 28 Oct 2026.
Pay and travel: UK roles usually combine a base salary with a bonus or commission plan, and field roles in the UK often include a car or a car allowance; the offer states the plan.
Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.
Switzerland
Pay (Base salary)
- Entry level: CHF 78,130 to CHF 90,304 a year
- Mid-level: CHF 90,304 to CHF 105,082 a year
- Senior: CHF 105,082 to CHF 141,331 a year
Total pay: Payscale gives Swiss sales engineers bonuses of about CHF 2,000 to CHF 21,000 a year, from few salaries.
Entry level runs from the low end of Indeed's range to Payscale's average, which rests on few salaries and was last updated in 2024; mid-level from that average to Indeed's average; senior from there to the top of Indeed's range, from 128 salaries.
Sources: Indeed (Oct 2026), Payscale (Jan 2024).
Pay researched on 28 Oct 2026.
Languages: Swiss customers expect German, French or Italian depending on the region, so Swiss ads often ask for two of them next to English; many roles cover the whole German-speaking region from one office.
India
Pay (Base salary)
- Entry level: ₹1.83 lakh to ₹3.57 lakh a year
- Mid-level: ₹4.17 lakh to ₹5.87 lakh a year
- Senior: ₹5.87 lakh to ₹9.83 lakh a year
Total pay: Payscale gives sales engineers in India commission of about ₹8,000 to ₹90,000 a year, and senior sales engineers about ₹33,000 to ₹1.8 lakh.
Entry level runs from the lower tenth of Payscale's sales engineer range to its figure for one to four years; mid-level from its average to Payscale's senior sales engineer average; senior from that average to the upper tenth of the senior range, from 43 salaries.
Sources: Payscale: sales engineer (Oct 2026), Payscale: senior sales engineer (Apr 2025).
Pay researched on 28 Oct 2026.
Where the roles are: in India, many sales engineers work in industrial companies selling through distributors and channel partners, and in software firms that sell from India to customers abroad; travel within a region is common.
A deal, step by step
- Discovery: questions that uncover the customer's problem, the systems around it and who decides.
- Demo: a demonstration of the few things that matter to this customer, not every feature.
- Proof of concept: a short trial with agreed success criteria, where the stakes justify it.
- Proposal or tender: the written solution, the technical answers and the scope, with the account executive owning price and terms.
- Handover: what was promised and why, passed on to the people who deliver.
In industry the same steps happen with drawings, samples, site visits and trade fairs instead of online demos. In both, the sales engineer's word is trusted only while it stays accurate, so a good one says plainly what the product cannot do.
Your CV for a sales engineer job
A sales engineer's CV is read twice: by hiring software that matches the ad's words, and by a head of presales who wants to know which products you sold, to whom, and what your part was in the deals. Give both: the keywords and the evidence.
Use the keywords the ads use
- Name the work as the ad does: "pre-sales", "solution design", "demos", "proof of concept", "RFP" or "tenders", and the CRM you used. The skills table above shows which keywords the ads use most.
- Say what you sold and to whom: the product, the industry and the size of customers.
- Give your share of results in the way your company counted them, such as deals supported, technical wins or trials converted, without confidential figures.
- Keep a line on your technical base, such as an engineering degree, a cloud platform or a product line, because buyers test it.
Prove each skill
A sales engineering line proves itself with a deal outcome or a better process: a trial that converted, a tender won, a demo the team reused, a handover with no surprises.
| Skill | Weak line | Strong line, with proof |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-salesAsked in 10% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Find the customer's real problem, show how the product solves it and win the technical decision. | Supported the sales team. | Ran discovery and demos for mid-sized manufacturers; most trials I set up ended in a signed order. |
| TendersAsked in 10% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Answer requests for proposals and tenders: clear, complete, true and on time. | Answered tenders. | Built a library of reviewed tender answers; replies went out days earlier and with fewer errors. |
| Proof of concept | Carried out proofs of concept. | Defined success criteria with the customer before each trial; trials ended on time with a clear yes or no. |
| DemosAsked in 1% of sales engineer ads (as of 5 Nov 2026).Demonstrate and explain to a room of buyers with different interests, and adapt as you go. | Gave product presentations. | Rebuilt the standard demo around three customer stories; account executives began to run the first demo themselves. |
| Handover | Handed projects to delivery. | Introduced a written handover for every won deal; the delivery team stopped finding promises nobody had recorded. |
Keep confidential figures out: no customer names without permission, no prices or margins.
How we read our data
- The jobs: the sales engineer jobs in our job search (sales, presales and solutions engineers, technical sales and the German titles Vertriebsingenieur and Technischer Vertrieb), matched by their titles the way the search matches them. Our list is not the whole market, so we give shares and rankings, never counts.
- The skills: every day we read a sample of these ads and count the skills in them with a fixed word list. Only the counts are kept, never the text of an ad.
- Pay: from published salary research, each source named with its date, as a range from entry level to senior. Our ads are not used for it.
- Dates: every figure is worked out again each day and shows the day it was worked out.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a sales engineer do?
- Leads the technical side of a sale: finds the customer's needs, demonstrates the product, runs trials, answers tenders and technical questions, and hands won deals to delivery.
- Is a sales engineer a salesperson or an engineer?
- Both. The account executive owns the relationship and the price; the sales engineer owns the technical fit and the customer's trust in it.
- Is a Vertriebsingenieur the same job?
- Mostly, in industry: technical advice and offers for machines, components or plants. In software the same work is often called pre-sales or solutions engineering.
- How are sales engineers paid?
- Usually a base salary and a variable part, such as a bonus or commission; the pay sources by country are listed above, and each offer states its own plan.
- What should a sales engineer's CV show first?
- What you sold and to whom, your part in the deals, and the technical base that makes buyers trust you.
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