Sales Engineering Manager

Port

$135K — $160K *
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years of enterprise Sales Engineering experience
  • 2+ years of experience managing a team of Sales Engineers
  • Strong background in developer tooling, DevOps, or platform engineering
  • Proven track record of hiring and developing SE talent
  • Technically hands-on with the ability to lead demos and technical discussions
  • Experience presenting software value to diverse audiences
  • Builder mindset focused on creating effective processes

Responsibilities

  • Lead and grow the US Sales Engineering (SE) team
  • Conduct regular 1:1s and deal reviews to enhance team skills
  • Foster a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement
  • Jump in on critical demos and strategic account discussions when needed
  • Own the hiring process for the US SE team end-to-end
  • Develop SE best practices and refine operational processes
  • Provide actionable feedback from the field to the Product and Engineering teams

Benefits

  • Opportunities to shape the global SE function
  • Access to cutting-edge tools and automation resources
  • Culture that emphasizes technical excellence and knowledge sharing
  • Collaborative environment with direct access to Product and Engineering teams
  • Potential for career advancement in a fast-growing company
Full Job Description
Description

The Role

Developers, platform engineers, SREs, and security engineers are navigating a fundamental shift in how software gets built: more AI, more complexity, more pressure to move fast. Port exists to bring order to that chaos, and the SE team is at the center of making that vision land with some of the world's most sophisticated engineering organizations.

We're building out US SE leadership as we scale, and we need someone who knows what it takes to win technical deals and is ready to put most of their energy into nurturing & growing a team of SEs. You'll own the pre-sales technical motion across the Americas, set the standard for how great SE work gets done, and make sure your team has everything they need to run sharp POCs, deliver compelling demos, and close 6-7 figure enterprise deals.

Your primary job is to coach, develop, and build the team and jump in on customer calls for competitive situations, escalations, and strategic accounts when it matters. This is a fast-moving, high-ownership role at a company that's growing fast and still early enough that what you build here will shape how the function operates globally.

About Your Day-to-Day

Lead and develop the US SE team

  • Manage, coach, and grow a team of 5+ Mid Market, Enterprise and channel SEs across the Americas
  • Run 1:1s and deal reviews that sharpen both technical skills and commercial judgment
  • Build a culture of technical excellence, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement


Be the technical authority when it counts

  • Maintain deep enough fluency to jump in on critical demos, POC escalations, or competitive calls when the team needs it
  • Partner with AEs, Sales leadership and product on deal strategy for strategic and complex accounts
  • Serve as an escalation point, not a first responder


Build the team you want to have

  • Own US SE hiring end-to-end: work with recruiters, interviewing, and closing great candidates
  • Work closely with the technical enablement team to maintain & improve onboarding that gets new SEs up to speed quickly and sets them up for success from day one


Set the standard for how SEs operate

  • Define and continuously refine SE best practices: POC frameworks, qualification criteria, discovery methodology, and handoff standards
  • Influence the playbooks and processes that make the team consistent and scalable
  • Champion the use of AI and automation within the SE workflow
  • Partner with GTM Automation to identify and deploy tooling that gives the team real leverage


Close the loop with Product

  • Synthesize deal-level insights into structured, actionable feedback for Product and Engineering
  • Be a credible voice from the field that helps shape roadmap priorities


Who You'll Work With

You'll report directly to the Director of Sales Engineering and work closely with US Sales leadership, the AE teams, Technical Success, and support teams. Your counterparts in EMEA and APJ are part of the broader SE leadership team that you'll plug into. You'll have a regular seat at the table in Product and Engineering discussions, bringing the field perspective where it matters. You'll partner with GTM Automation on the tooling that helps your team punch above their weight.

Requirements

  • 6+ years of strong enterprise SE experience. You've run technical evaluations, led POCs, and helped close large, complex deals
  • 2+ years of experience managing a team of Sales Engineers or Solutions Consultants at a software company, preferably in a startup environment
  • Experience in developer tooling, DevOps, platform engineering, or an adjacent technical domain is a strong plus
  • A track record of hiring and developing SE talent, not just inheriting a team
  • Hands-on technically: you're comfortable taking over a demo, covering a POC check-in call, or whiteboarding architecture when it counts
  • Comfortability in front of executives. You've described the value of software you've sold to rooms full of executives at large and small companies. You can describe this value in any given customer's terms easily
  • Builder mindset: you create process and structure, not just manage it
  • Based in Boston with ability to be in-office 3 days per week

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