Sales
Sales engineer
Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering.
Median pay
$124,900
Growth to 2035
+3%
about as fast as average
Openings a year
3,800
Time to qualify*
6 months
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Sales engineer
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
- Prior experience
- None
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Sales engineer: 55% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including request for proposal responses and industry-specific solutions.
- Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support.
- Create sales or service contracts for products or services.
- Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages.
- Keep informed on industry news and trends, products, services, competitors, relevant information about legacy, existing, and emerging technologies, and the latest product-line developments.
- Identify resale opportunities and support them to achieve sales plans.
- Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements.
- Plan and modify product configurations to meet customer needs.
Also called: Business Development Engineer · Inside Sales Engineer · Product Sales Engineer · Sales Applications Engineer · Sales Engineer · Technical Marketing Engineer · Technical Sales Engineer
Outlook and AI
Sales engineers held 51,600 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 53,000 by 2035 (+3%, about as fast as average; all jobs: +3.5%).
Productivity change - share decreases as artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly integrated into workflows, allowing sales engineers to focus on direct sales activity.
Compare with
- Sales engineer vs. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products
- Sales engineer vs. Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel
- Sales engineer vs. Architectural and engineering managers
- Sales engineer vs. Logistician
- Sales engineer vs. Industrial engineer
- Sales engineer vs. Electronics engineers, except computer
- Sales engineer vs. Computer systems analyst
- Sales engineer vs. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products