5+ years in a customer-facing technical role, ideally in B2B data, analytics, or AI solutions.
Proactive mindset with the ability to anticipate deal needs and drive them forward.
Experience managing complex sales opportunities from discovery to close.
Strong presentation skills for engaging C-level audiences and handling tough questions.
Solid understanding of analytics, SQL, and cloud data platforms like Snowflake and Databricks.
Hands-on skills in prototyping with Python, SQL, and REST APIs.
Knowledge of AI systems and the ability to discern real advancements from hype.
Responsibilities
Lead technical discovery to evaluate customer goals and integration requirements.
Design tailored solutions and actionable recommendations for clients.
Conduct customized product demos and technical workshops for stakeholders.
Collaborate on technical content and customer expansion initiatives.
Define success criteria and manage Proofs of Concept (PoCs) to secure wins.
Align with Account Executives on deal strategy and technical validation.
Complete RFPs/RFIs and manage technical procurement processes.
Benefits
Collaborative work environment with cross-functional teams.
Hybrid work model with in-office days in San Francisco.
Opportunity for global collaboration with European teams.
Up to 20% travel for key conferences and partner events.
Full Job Description
About the Role
GoodData is hiring a Sales Engineer in San Francisco to win new deals and grow our US accounts. You'll be the technical lead on our US deals. That means confidently walking into a room with a CIO, a data engineering lead, and a skeptical architect, quickly understanding your audience, and leading a conversation that moves the deal forward. You're comfortable running customer demos and technical discussions independently, navigating tough questions, and building credibility with stakeholders at every level. You don't wait for the AE to tell you what's next. You anticipate technical challenges, develop solutions, and proactively drive the next steps.
This is far beyond a standard demo role. You will act as a strategic technical advisor and advocate, guiding enterprise customers on how GoodData's Agentic Serving Plane-including our semantic layer, agentic AI capabilities, embedded analytics, and flexible APIs-fits seamlessly into modern data architectures.
What you'll do
Own the technical sales cycle
Lead technical discovery: Evaluate customer business goals, data stack, AI roadmap, integration requirements, and security criteria.
Design tailored solutions: Formulate solution architecture, data modeling strategies, and AI/agentic workflows into actionable recommendations, interactive demos, and prototypes.
Deliver technical presentations: Conduct customized product demos and deep-dive technical workshops for prospect stakeholders and executive teams.
Support GTM initiatives: Collaborate on technical outbound content, customer expansion playbooks, and workshops to drive net new acquisition and cross-sell momentum.
Drive Proofs of Concept (PoCs): Define success criteria, build PoCs, manage check-ins, and deliver final technical readouts to secure technical wins.
Partner with Account Executives: Align on deal strategy, opportunity qualification, mutual action plans, and technical validation.
Manage technical procurement: Complete RFPs/RFIs, security questionnaires, and architecture reviews in coordination with cross-functional teams.
Be GoodData's technical voice in the US
Present at conferences, meetups, partner events, and webinars; deliver talks and live demos
Represent GoodData at customer dinners, executive briefings, and booth sessions
Work with US partners in the data ecosystem (e.g. Snowflake, Databricks, cloud providers) on joint demos and co-selling.
How we work
Collaborative Spirit: Partner with US-based Account Executives, Solution Engineering, and Customer Success teams while serving as the vital technical bridge to European technical sales, engineering and product leaders.
Hybrid Work: This position is based in San Francisco, CA. Connect in-person with colleagues at our SF office 2-3 days a week, with client and event travel as deal momentum demands.
Global Collaboration: Work closely with our European teams, requiring regular early morning availability starting at 7:00 AM PT, with occasional meetings as early as 6:00 AM PT. Afternoons are generally focused on US customer discovery and strategic meetings.
Travel: Up to 20% travel within North America for high-impact on-sites, key conferences, and partner events, with occasional trips to Europe. Depending on the progress of the deals, we sometimes visit prospects at later stages of the deal or for in-person discovery sessions.
What you bring
5+ years in a customer-facing technical role (Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Solution Architect, Field CTO, Forward-Deployed Engineer or similar), ideally selling B2B data, analytics, AI solutions, or developer platforms to US mid-market and enterprise buyers.
A proactive, owner's mindset: you anticipate what a deal needs next, whether that's a prototype, an executive briefing, or a hard conversation about fit, and you drive it forward before anyone asks.
Demonstrated experience independently managing the technical aspects of complex sales opportunities, from discovery and PoC through technical validation and close.
Presence: you're at ease running a live demo for a room or a C-level audience, handling hard questions, and steering a meeting that's going sideways.
Solid grounding in analytics and data: SQL, dimensional modeling, semantic layers, and cloud data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Redshift, Postgres).
Hands-on building skills: you can prototype with Python, SQL, REST APIs, SDKs, and/or React/TypeScript, using AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) as part of your daily work.
Practical knowledge of AI and agentic systems: LLMs, agents, MCP, RAG, tool use, evaluation, and guardrails, and the ability to tell what is real from what is hype.
Strong communication skills. You write briefs, recommendations, and handoffs that someone nine time zones away can act on without a follow-up call.
Nice to have
Experience with GoodData or comparable platforms (Looker, PowerBI, Sigma, etc.)
Experience selling AI, analytics, or data-related solutions to SaaS companies.
Experience building AI apps, agents, or copilots beyond a prototype
An existing network in the Bay Area data and AI community, or a history of speaking at events such as Data + AI Summit, Snowflake Summit, or local meetups.
Experience working with globally distributed engineering teams across time zones.
Cloud experience on AWS including marketplace and co-sell motions.
Early-stage experience: you have helped build a presales function in a new region or market.
Compensation: The annual base salary range is $150,000 - $170,000 plus variable incentive compensation and equity eligibility.
