How To Become A Director Of Sales Engineering: What It Is and Career Path

What is a director of sales engineering and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

For a Director of Sales Engineering, taking charge of the sales team is your number one priority. To make sure your team is at its full potential with high-performing members, you'll be relied on as a mentor, leader, and fellow coworker to build up your department. When it comes to demonstrating the integrity and value of your company's products, you're on the front line.

Your team is meant to go above and beyond for the company, surpassing quality standards while maintaining safety policies. As a Director of Sales Engineering, you're going to need exceptional motivation, communication, and leadership skills to keep your team on track.

Most companies will require you to have at least a bachelor's degree in business, computer science, or a similar field. Having a number of years with the team is also a great bonus since this will help you connect with the team members on a more personal level. However, as an incoming director, having at least five years in a sales management position or similar is necessary to have on your resume.

A Director of Sales Engineering makes between $112,000 - $180,000 a year, depending on the company and team size.

ScoreDirector Of Sales EngineeringUS Average

Salary

8.8

Avg. Salary $145,655

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.4

Growth Rate 5%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 6.96%

male 93.04%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress Level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.7

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.4

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a director of sales engineering

Explore director of sales engineering education requirements

Most common director of sales engineering degrees

Bachelor's

69.6 %

Master's

16.3 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific director of sales engineering skills

Skills	Percentages
Pre Sales	12.86%
Cloud	10.30%
Product Management	8.54%
Professional Services	5.25%
Sales Process	3.90%

Complete relevant director of sales engineering training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New directors of sales engineering learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a director of sales engineering based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real director of sales engineering resumes.

Research director of sales engineering duties and responsibilities

Manage the design and development of Kryterion software-as-a-service (SAAS) products.
Support the design and deployment of an IP multicast application by managing the pilot program.
Support multiple client web application in SaaS manage services environment.
Manage relationships with toll manufacturers and logistics providers to exceed cost reduction and inventory turn targets.

Get director of sales engineering experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a director of sales engineering. The most common roles before becoming a director of sales engineering include sales engineer, sales engineering manager team lead and senior sales engineer.

Prepare your director of sales engineering resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your director of sales engineering resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a director of sales engineering resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Director Of Sales Engineering Resume templates

Build a professional Director Of Sales Engineering resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Director Of Sales Engineering resume.

Apply for director of sales engineering jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a director of sales engineering job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

Average director of sales engineering salary

The average Director Of Sales Engineering salary in the United States is $145,655 per year or $70 per hour. Director of sales engineering salaries range between $104,000 and $202,000 per year.

Average Director Of Sales Engineering Salary

$145,655 Yearly

$70.03 hourly

How do directors of sales engineering rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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Director Of Sales Engineering reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019

Pros

Increase the revenue potential of an entire sales organization through repeatable, scalable, and predictable processes.

Cons

There's not much I dislike about the role, but the slow down from having to align multiple departments and functions together before being able to more forward with an initiative is a drain.