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Role hub · Sales Engineers

Sales Engineer: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of sales engineers earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$124,900
Hourly
$60.05
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Sales Engineers sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering. The median pay is $124,900 a year ($60.05 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a bachelor's degree (57% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$124,900
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
51,790
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 4 of 5
considerable preparation
Most common education
Bachelor's Degree
57% of workers
Key facts

Sales Engineers at a glance

  • Sales engineers in the United States earned a median annual wage of $124,900 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for sales engineers in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of sales engineers in the United States to grow 2.8% from 2025 to 2035, with about 3,800 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimated that 51,790 people were employed as sales engineers in the United States in May 2025, not counting the self-employed.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

Explore the role

Every page for Sales Engineers

SalarySales Engineer salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeSales Engineer how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumeSales Engineer resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Interview questionsSales Engineer interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What sales engineers do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including request for proposal responses and industry-specific solutions.
  2. Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support.
  3. Create sales or service contracts for products or services.
  4. Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages.
  5. Keep informed on industry news and trends, products, services, competitors, relevant information about legacy, existing, and emerging technologies, and the latest product-line developments.
  6. Identify resale opportunities and support them to achieve sales plans.
  7. Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements.
  8. Plan and modify product configurations to meet customer needs.
Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all sales engineer jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Professional, scientific, and technical services24.7% of all jobs in this occupation · +8.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $144,910
  2. Merchant wholesalers, durable goods21.8% of all jobs in this occupation · +0.6% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $121,730
  3. Computer and electronic product manufacturing6.7% of all jobs in this occupation · -0.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $137,560
  4. Machinery manufacturing6.1% of all jobs in this occupation · -4.5% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $101,340
  5. Wholesale trade agents and brokers4.8% of all jobs in this occupation · -6.6% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $132,350
  6. Telecommunications4.0% of all jobs in this occupation · -11.9% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $117,860

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

PersuasioncoreSpeakingcoreSocial PerceptivenesscoreJudgment and Decision MakingReading ComprehensionActive ListeningCritical ThinkingNegotiationComplex Problem Solving

Knowledge areas: Customer and Personal Service, Sales and Marketing, Engineering and Technology, English Language, Mathematics, Administration and Management.

Tools and technology

Software sales engineers use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Ansible softwareExpert system softwareHot technology
  • Apache CassandraData base management system softwareHot technology
  • Apache HadoopData base management system softwareHot technology
  • Atlassian JIRAContent workflow softwareHot technology
  • Autodesk AutoCADComputer aided design CAD softwareHot technology
  • Border Gateway Protocol BGPSwitch or router softwareHot technology
  • Dassault Systemes SolidWorksComputer aided design CAD softwareHot technology
  • DockerApplication server softwareHot technology
  • Extensible markup language XMLEnterprise application integration softwareHot technology
  • KubernetesApplication server softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft Active DirectoryInternet directory services softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft VisioProcess mapping and design softwareHot technology

Also called: Sale Engineer, Business Development Engineer, Inside Sales Engineer, Product Sales Engineer, Sales Applications Engineer, Technical Marketing Engineer.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.