Sales Engineer

Job Description

Sales Engineer

Washington, DC Metro · Full time · Active TS/SCI required · U.S. travel for demos and pilots

About the company

My client is building an AI-driven mirror of the internet for national security. Its platform turns publicly available and open-source information into persistent, structured data that analysts can use.

The company is venture-backed, has a small senior team, and already supports deployments across DoD and the Intelligence Community. It reached more than 100 users in its first year and has partnerships with leading U.S. systems integrators. Recent contract wins are driving more demand for pilots than the team can currently support.

The role

This is the company’s first dedicated Sales Engineer and the presales counterpart to its Mission Success function. Today, the CEO and Head of Growth lead demos, answer technical questions, and manage pilot users. You’ll take ownership of that work: tailor demos to the people in the room, run pilots on the ground, and keep customer questions and follow-ups moving.

You’ll work directly with the CEO, Head of Growth, Mission Success, and engineering on a small, fast-moving team.

What you’ll do

• Run tailored demos. Learn about each user and their mission before the meeting, then shape the demo around what matters to them.
• Own pilots on the ground. Pilots typically run five business days with about ten end users. You’ll coordinate logistics, onboard users, answer questions, lead check-ins, and surface confusion early.
• Keep deals moving. Own meeting follow-ups and turn them around quickly so the team isn’t slowing down its own sales process.
• Answer technical questions. Explain how the product works and fits into user workflows, and know when to bring in engineering.
• Hand off new customers cleanly. Make sure Mission Success and engineering have what they need, including what the team learned during the pilot.
• Support the pipeline between pilots. Help move deals forward and bring user feedback back to the product team.

Basic Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance and U.S. citizenship.
• 5+ years of relevant experience; military experience may count.
• A proactive, self-directed approach to customer work.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to build trust with analysts, operators, and senior leaders.
• A real interest in whether users get value from the product, along with thoughtful product feedback.
• Enough technical fluency to understand user workflows and explain how the product supports them. This is not a software engineering role, and coding is not required.
• Based in the DC Metro area.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on analyst experience in government, the military, or the Intelligence Community.
• Prior military service.
• Experience at an early-stage startup.
• Sales engineering, solutions engineering, pilot, or deployment experience with software in defense or national security.
• Familiarity with capture or program management.

Location, travel, and compensation

This role is based in the DC Metro area. There is no formal office yet, so expect to spend time across the DMV; an office and in-person expectations will come later. Travel is mostly short trips for demos and pilots, primarily in the NCR and always within the U.S.

Base salary is $140,000–$180,000, plus meaningful early-stage equity and health, dental, and vision benefits.

Interview process

Three conversations over 7–14 days: a conversation with the COO, an in-person interview with the Head of Growth, and a conversation with the CEO.

My client is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.

Interested candidates can apply to this role or email View email address on ziprecruiter.com for consideration.