Director, Presales Engineering

About Us: Proofpoint is a global leader in human- and agent-centric cybersecurity. We protect how people, data, and AI agents connect across email, cloud, and collaboration tools. Over 80 of the Fortune 100, 10,000 large enterprises, and millions of smaller organizations trust Proofpoint to stop threats, prevent data loss, and build resilience across their people and AI workflows. Our mission is simple: safeguard the digital world and empower people to work securely and confidently. Join us in our pursuit to defend data and protect people.

How We Work: At Proofpoint you’ll be part of a global team that breaks barriers to redefine cybersecurity guided by our BRAVE core values: Bold in how we dream and innovate Responsive to feedback, challenges and opportunities Accountable for results and best in class outcomes Visionary in future focused problem-solving Exceptional in execution and impact

About the Role

The Director, Presales Engineering Excellence and Innovation will lead a high impact global function at the intersection of Sales Engineering, technical escalation management, field productivity, and product advocacy. This leader will step into a role that supports complex presales motions, advanced proof of concept execution, field escalation triage, AI driven workflow transformation, and strategic cross functional coordination across Sales, Product, Engineering, Enablement, Support, Security, Legal, and IT. The mandate is not only to maintain current operational continuity, but to modernize how Presales Engineering scales expertise, resolves ambiguity, governs technical access, and uses AI safely to improve customer outcomes. The ideal candidate is a technical operator, field strategist, transformation leader, and trusted escalation partner. They can move from executive level strategy to detailed operational execution, while building durable systems that reduce dependency on tribal knowledge.

Your Day to Day

Lead the evolution of Presales Engineering escalation strategy, including routing models, intake boundaries, ownership clarity, technical decision paths, and measurable service expectations. Drive AI forward transformation across the Presales Engineering organization, including prompt libraries, AI agents, approved connector strategy, custom GPT governance, MCP based workflows, knowledge retrieval systems, and field automation patterns. Own or coordinate complex technical escalation paths for high value opportunities, production evaluations, proof of concept blockers, product readiness gaps, access issues, and field facing technical ambiguity. Partner with Sales Engineering leadership to define and operationalize the future PSE model, including what the team owns, guides, declines, automates, or routes. Build scalable systems for technical knowledge capture, including reusable playbooks, enablement assets, intake forms, escalation runbooks, product signal loops, owner registries, and review cadences. Partner with Product and Engineering to convert recurring field issues into structured advocacy, including affected deals, ARR impact, technical gaps, workarounds, owning PMs, and requested outcomes. Stabilize and improve support coverage for emerging product areas such as Data Security, Insider Threat Management, AI Security, and other fast moving Proofpoint portfolios. Lead access governance coordination for Presales Engineering, including least privilege patterns, CyberArk and SailPoint workflows, lab and demo infrastructure access, queue ownership, approval paths, and exception handling. Coordinate globally across AMER, EMEA, and APJ stakeholders to ensure presales support coverage, distribution list ownership, onboarding readiness, and escalation visibility. Mentor senior technical contributors and team leads, helping them scale judgment, documentation quality, customer impact, and cross functional influence. Translate experimental AI tooling into governed, repeatable operating models that are secure, measurable, supportable, and aligned to Proofpoint’s field and customer priorities.

What You Bring

10 or more years of experience in Presales Engineering, Sales Engineering, Technical Consulting, Escalation Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Product Specialist, or related customer facing technical roles. 5 or more years leading technical teams, transformation programs, field enablement efforts, or cross functional technical initiatives in enterprise software or cybersecurity. Strong understanding of enterprise cybersecurity sales motions, including technical discovery, proof of concept execution, production evaluations, customer security architecture, objection handling, and executive level technical storytelling. Demonstrated ability to lead complex escalations involving Sales, Product, Engineering, Support, IT, Security, Legal, and executive stakeholders. Practical fluency with AI enabled workflows, LLM based tooling, knowledge retrieval, prompt engineering, agentic systems, governance models, and safe enterprise adoption patterns. Experience building operating models, intake systems, governance frameworks, enablement libraries, automation workflows, or internal tooling for distributed technical teams. Ability to distinguish experiments from production ready capabilities, and to define the controls needed to move from one to the other. Strong judgment around data access, least privilege, customer confidentiality, security review, compliance boundaries, and responsible AI usage. Excellent written communication skills, with the ability to produce crisp executive updates, technical runbooks, decision registers, operating models, and field ready guidance. A bias toward durable systems, clear ownership, measurable outcomes, and scalable enablement.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with Proofpoint products, Sales Engineering workflows, presales support operations, or enterprise cybersecurity field organizations. Experience with Data Security, Insider Threat Management, email security, cloud security, identity workflows, AI security, or enterprise collaboration security. Experience with tools such as Salesforce, Jira, Confluence, GitHub, Slack or Teams, Google Workspace, Workday, CyberArk, SailPoint, vector databases, MCP servers, or enterprise AI platforms. Experience creating governance for custom GPTs, internal AI agents, prompt libraries, knowledge pipelines, or connector based workflows. Experience managing global teams or distributed technical stakeholders across AMER, EMEA, and APJ.

Success Looks Like

Presales escalations have clear intake, routing, ownership, and closure paths. Field teams get faster access to accurate technical guidance, without relying on one person’s memory or informal channels. AI tooling becomes a governed multiplier for Sales Engineering productivity, not a shadow infrastructure risk. Product advocacy becomes structured, evidence based, and tied to customer and revenue impact. Access approvals, demo infrastructure, lab ownership, and technical queues have named owners and backups. New hires and internal transfers onboard through repeatable checklists and clear technical readiness paths. Leadership gets concise, reliable visibility into risk, workload, blockers, and investment needs.

Why Proofpoint?

At Proofpoint, we believe that an exceptional career experience includes a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Here are just a few reasons you’ll love working with us:

• Competitive compensation
• Comprehensive benefits
• Career success on your terms
• Flexible work environment
• Annual wellness and community outreach days
• Always on recognition for your contributions
• Global collaboration and networking opportunities

Proofpoint has been honored with six Best Places to Work Awards in 2024 by workplace culture leader Comparably, including Best Company Career Growth, Best Company Outlook, Best Global Culture, Best Engineering Teams, Best Sales Teams, and Best HR Teams. We are the leader in human-centric cybersecurity. Half a million customers, including 87 of the Fortune 100, rely on Proofpoint to protect their organizations. We’re driven by a mission to stay ahead of bad actors and safeguard the digital world.

Our Culture

Proofpoint is an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to View email address on click.appcast.io.

We’re building the future of human-centric cybersecurity, and that future belongs to all of us. We take ownership, move fast, and hold ourselves accountable—because that’s what it takes to stay ahead. And we do it together, winning as one. Be empowered to reach your full potential through meaningful challenges and personalized support—designed around you and your goals. Whether you're growing as a leader or leveling up from great to exceptional as an individual contributor, we’re here to help you get there.