If you’re a Sales Engineer (SE), you know the drill: You’re the technical expert, the problem-solver, and often the deal-closer behind the scenes. Your work is critical to revenue growth, yet challenges like training and enabling sales, repetitive tasks, and disparities in pay and perks persist.
The 2025 Sales Engineering Compensation & Workload Report dives deep into these realities, providing a data-driven look at where SEs stand today—and what needs to change.
With insights from 600+ professionals across presales and sales leadership, this report doesn’t just highlight the issues. It’s a playbook for SEs looking to advance their careers and for companies aiming to build stronger, more effective presales teams.
Here are some of the most compelling takeaways from this year’s report:
1. Sales Engineers Earn Competitive Pay—With Clear Growth Potential
Sales Engineers (SEs) are among the highest-paid technical roles, with an average salary of $123,946.14 and $43,336.66 in commissions. While this is strong compensation, the next step toward management shows even more earnings potential. Presales Managers (SMs) earn $157,216.11 in salary and $63,244.74 in commissions.
SE compensation scales significantly with experience. A Senior IC SE earns roughly $20,000 more annually than a typical IC SE—and this trend has remained consistent since our 2024 survey. Understanding these benchmarks can help SEs chart a path to higher earnings and career growth.
2. Presales Has Never Been More Embedded in the Business
Presales isn’t just a supporting act anymore—it’s a core driver of deal success. Our research shows that 70% of sales deals REQUIRE presales support. That’s not just a stat—it’s a signal.
Presales is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a critical function that spans the entire buyer journey. From technical validation to solution alignment, presales is the team ensuring buyers don’t just see a product—they see how it solves their problems.
This is why we talk about scaling the genius of presales. It’s not just about handling more deals—it’s about embedding presales expertise across the business. Sales, marketing, and customer success all benefit when presales insights are amplified.
3. Time-Intensive Workflows Are Slowing SEs Down
SEs spend most of their time on demos and discovery—the high-impact activities that drive deals forward. That said, manual processes and unqualified demos (according to our report, 35% of demos are unqualified or underqualified) are eating into that time, creating inefficiencies that slow down sales cycles.
Investing in demo automation, AI-powered qualification, and better alignment between presales and sales teams can drastically reduce wasted effort and free SEs to focus on the strategic work that moves the needle.
4. SEs Want Perks and Incentives on Par With Sales Roles
SEs aren’t just looking for better compensation—they also want equal perks and incentives compared to their sales counterparts.
In fact, SEs ranked “equal perks and incentives with sales roles” as the second most impactful way to improve their work life. When companies fail to recognize SEs with the same benefits as AEs and SMs, it creates a misalignment that can lead to dissatisfaction and higher turnover.
5. SEs Change Jobs More Frequently Than Presales Managers
Retention is a major issue in presales. SEs are more likely to switch organizations, often lured away by higher salaries or affected by layoffs.
65% of SEs were hired externally, while presales managers showed greater stability—65% of them were promoted internally. This trend suggests that companies investing in internal career growth for SEs can significantly boost retention while keeping valuable presales expertise in-house.
6. Growing Teams and Repetitive Tasks Are Fueling Burnout
Burnout is a real and growing problem for SEs.
Teams with 6+ AEs tend to see higher levels of burnout, as SEs struggle to keep up with growing demo demands. What’s even more interesting? SEs at larger enterprise companies seemed to experience MORE burnout than their resource-strapped counterparts.
Meanwhile, repetitive, time-consuming demo workflows are a major contributor to fatigue. The solution? More automation, better resource allocation, and a stronger focus on work-life balance.
What’s Next for Sales Engineering?
These insights make one thing clear: SEs are invaluable, but they’re still fighting for efficiency, recognition, and parity in the sales organization.
The good news? Companies that invest in better compensation, automation, and career growth for their presales teams will gain a major competitive advantage—not just in closing deals, but in attracting and retaining top SE talent.
If you’re an SE looking to level up your career, or a sales leader seeking to optimize your presales function, now is the time to take action.
📖 Download the full report to dive deeper into the data and discover how to drive meaningful change in your presales organization.
