Sales Engineering Director

Position Summary

The Director of Sales Engineering is a critical leadership role responsible for managing and developing a team of Sales Engineers (ranging from Sales Engineer I to Senior Principal Sales Engineer). This position operates in a player-coach capacity, combining hands-on technical engagement with leadership responsibilities of direct individual contributors and SE Managers with individual contributors reporting up through the SE Manager to the Director of Sales Engineering. The Director will drive the strategic and tactical success of the team by fostering a high-performance culture, ensuring the delivery of world-class technical expertise to customers, and supporting the sales organization to meet and exceed revenue targets.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership and Development:

• Recruit, hire, and retain top talent within the Sales Engineering team.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and customer-centricity.
• Mentor and develop team members, providing regular feedback and tailored growth plans aligned with company objectives.
• Define and track team performance metrics, ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with business goals.
• Own key aspects of the technical sales process and demonstrate thought leadership in the art of giving a demo and conducting a POC. 

Strategic Contributions:

• Collaborate with cross-functional leadership, including Sales, Product Management, and Marketing, to influence product direction and align technical sales strategies with business priorities.
• Contribute to the development and execution of go-to-market strategies by leveraging technical expertise and market knowledge.
• Identify trends and emerging technologies to position the organization as a leader in the industry.
• Influence both internal and external decision-makers through presentations and briefings.
• Lead architecture design discussions and recommend an appropriate combination of technologies for production deployment.

Technical Engagement:

• Act as a senior technical advisor, supporting complex sales opportunities, including product demonstrations, proof-of-concepts (POCs), and RFP/RFI/RFx responses.
• Build and maintain deep relationships with key customer stakeholders, channel partners, and alliance partners.
• Guide the design and delivery of solution architectures that align with customer business needs and goals.
• Remove technology-related buying objections from the sales opportunity.
• Demonstrate products to technical and non-technical audiences, at executive and/or technical levels, and at pre- and post-sales meetings.

Operational Excellence:

• Standardize and continuously improve Sales Engineering processes, including demo narratives, POC workflows, and knowledge-sharing practices.
• Ensure accurate and timely usage of Salesforce (SFDC) to support forecasting and business insights.
• Partner with Product and R&D teams to relay customer feedback and drive product improvements.
• Assess prospective customer needs and uncover requirements for ExtraHop solutions. 

Required Qualifications

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years of experience in Sales Engineering or a similar technical pre-sales role, with at least 3 years in a leadership capacity.
• Proven track record of managing and mentoring high-performing teams.
• Extensive experience supporting large enterprise customers and managing complex technical sales cycles.

Technical Expertise:

• Deep understanding of enterprise networking technologies, including switches, routers, firewalls, and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Microsoft Azure).
• Expertise in IT operations, application monitoring, and security solutions.
• Ability to translate technical capabilities into business outcomes and value propositions.
• Broad understanding of enterprise information technologies: must be able to interpret network performance metrics quickly within diverse customer environments and relate them to troubleshooting and security.
• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and have an ongoing desire to stay current with the latest technologies.
• Deep understanding of enterprise-architecture concepts, risk management, the OSI model, and excellent working knowledge of key protocols across Layers 2-7 (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS, SSL/TLS, etc.).

Skills and Competencies

• Strong leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, with a passion for team success.
• Outstanding communication (verbal and written) and presentation skills with the ability to address both executive and technical audiences.
• Strategic thinker with a hands-on, proactive approach to problem-solving.
• Skilled in public speaking, writing technical documentation, and presenting to both technical and executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
• Ability to travel up to 50% (or as required) to support team members and engage in customer-facing activities.
• Solid understanding of network security, endpoint, and SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) technologies.

$180,000 - $200,000 with a 65/35 split + benefits