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Explore our vision: Incredible, effortless recruitment
£40k-£60k
Typical base salary
12 wks
Replacement guarantee
Genuine technical depth
They have to hold their own with your customers' engineers. Surface-level knowledge gets found out fast, so test the technical side properly.
Commercial instinct
Technical people who can also sense a buying signal and move a deal are gold. Ask how they've turned a technical win into a commercial one.
Translation skill
The core of the job is explaining complex things simply. Get them to explain your product to a non-technical buyer and listen.
How to run the hire
1. Define the technical bar.
Decide exactly how deep the technical knowledge needs to be, because that sets who you're looking for.
2. Score both sides.
Build a scorecard that weights technical credibility and commercial instinct equally - the whole point of the role is the blend.
3. Source from your world.
Look for people from your sector or an adjacent technical field, and use approaches, not just adverts.
4. Double-panel the interview.
Have an engineer test the depth and a salesperson test whether they can move a deal. A candidate who passes only one will frustrate half your business.
5. Test translation.
Ask them to explain your product to a non-technical buyer, and reference how they've turned a technical win into a commercial one.
Fees typically run 18-22% of first-year base salary, capped and agreed upfront.
Nothing is due until your hire starts. The band reflects how truly hard the technical-plus-commercial blend is to find - this is not a quick shortlist to build.
Around 6-10 weeks, sometimes longer.
The scarcity is the driver: people who are both technically deep and commercially sharp are rare, so the search is more targeted and headhunt-led than a straight sales role.
Closely related - pre-sales is often part of the role, covering demos, scoping and technical answers during the sale.
Some Sales Engineer roles also carry a commercial target and own deals more directly. We scope exactly where the line sits for your business so the shortlist matches.
Manufacturing, industrial, technical distribution and software among others.
The common thread is a product complex enough that customers' own engineers need convincing. We match the depth of technical background to how demanding your product truly is.
A Sales Engineer bridges your product's technology and the customer's need.
They handle the technical side of the sale - demos, scoping, answering an engineer's questions, and designing the solution - while helping move the deal commercially. It's a rare blend of genuine technical depth and selling instinct, which is why the role is hard to fill.
Get both an engineer and a salesperson to ask. Useful questions:
Explain our product to me as if I'm a non-technical buyer.
Tell me about a deal where your technical input won it.
Talk me through how you'd scope a solution for this scenario. and Where's the line between your role and the account manager's?
Tell us about your role and a specialist sales recruiter will call you. No fee until your hire starts.
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