For employers
Hire pre-sales talent that survives the PoC.
We recruit sales engineers, solutions engineers, solutions architects, solutions consultants and TAMs — and we publish the comp data we price them against.
Updated August 2026
Most failed pre-sales hires are priced wrong before they're briefed wrong. The national median OTE sits at $205k against an advertised median of $197k — a 4% gap that quietly kills offers at the final stage.
Start with the numbers, then hand us the role. Typical brief-to-offer on a calibrated search is around four weeks, with a 90-day replacement guarantee on every permanent placement.
Benchmark your budget before you post
The headline national figures we price every pre-sales search against.
Median base
$145,000
Fixed cash
Median OTE
$205,000
At 100% quota attainment
Accepted vs advertised
+4%
$197k posted → $205k accepted
Top decile OTE
$293,000
What you compete against for the best
Typical base-to-variable split
Budget bands by level
Use the band that matches the level you're actually hiring, not the title you've written.
| Level | Median base | Median OTE | Years of experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate / Junior SE | $115,000 | $128,000 | 0–2 yrs |
| Sales Engineer (mid) | $155,000 | $188,000 | 3–5 yrs |
| Senior SE | $185,000 | $239,000 | 6–9 yrs |
| Principal / Staff SE | $220,000 | $293,000 | 10+ yrs |
| SE Manager | $200,000 | $258,000 | 8+ yrs |
Want a modelled figure for a specific city, vertical and level? Run it through the salary calculator, then sanity-check the output against how much to pay a sales engineer.
Budgeting the same role under its other name? See what to pay a solutions engineer. Before you fix headcount, work out coverage with our guide to the sales engineer to AE ratio, and if you're unsure whether the gap is pre-sales or delivery, compare sales engineer against solutions architect. Once interviews start, score them with our sales engineer interview scorecard, or hand the search to specialist sales engineer recruiters.
What each band costs you in time
Where you set the band decides how long the search takes.
| OTE band | Typical days to fill |
|---|---|
| Under $188k OTE | 61 days |
| $188k–$205k OTE | 44 days |
| $205k–$293k OTE | 33 days |
| $293k+ OTE | 26 days |
Send us the role and get the matching numbers
Free, no obligation, and usually back with you the same business day.
Why employers use us
~4 weeks
Median time from brief to signed offer.
1,749
Verified pre-sales offers behind the published benchmarks.
90 days
Replacement guarantee on every permanent placement.
Already hiring and want candidates rather than data? Submit the vacancy instead.