Sales Engineer

At SIFT, we’re redefining how modern machines are built, tested, and operated. Our platform gives engineers real-time observability over high-frequency telemetry—eliminating bottlenecks and enabling faster, more reliable development.

SIFT was born from our work at SpaceX on Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship—where scaling telemetry, debugging flight systems, and ensuring mission reliability demanded new infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Google, and Palantir, SIFT is built for mission-critical systems where precision and scalability are non-negotiable.

About the Role

We’re hiring an experienced Sales Engineer to help shape and scale how SIFT sells technically. This is not a typical pre-sales role. You will operate at the intersection of engineering, product, and go-to-market—owning technical conversations with customers, building custom demos, guiding evaluations, and shaping how we win complex deals. This role is ideal for someone who can both go deep technically and drive customer conversations with confidence and clarity.

In This Role, You’ll

• Work directly with Account Executives, Forward Deployed Engineers, and leadership

• Lead technical discovery with engineering teams and stakeholders

• Translate ambiguous customer problems into clear technical solutions

• Own pre-sales technical engagements, including pilots and evaluations

• Build and deliver tailored product demos using real customer data

• Support data onboarding, ingestion, and initial integrations during evaluations

• Partner with Sales to navigate and close complex technical opportunities

• Create reference architectures and reusable demo patterns

• Represent SIFT at customer meetings, onsite visits, and industry events

• Develop technical content (demos, guides, prototypes) to accelerate sales cycles

• Provide structured feedback to Product and Engineering based on customer needs

The Skillset You’ll Bring

Core Requirements

• Experience in a technical pre-sales role (Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Solutions Architect, Forward Deployed Engineer), or strong engineering experience with clear customer-facing exposure

• Ability to lead technical conversations with engineers and executives

• Strong communication and storytelling skills—able to simplify complex systems

• Experience building demos, prototypes, or integrations for customers

• Comfort working with APIs, data pipelines, and technical products

• Proficiency in Python (or similar) for data manipulation and scripting

• Ability to operate independently in ambiguous, fast-paced environments

Technical Strength

• Data pipelines and ingestion patterns (batch + streaming)

• Time-series or high-volume data systems

• Distributed systems fundamentals (storage, indexing, scaling)

• Working with messy, real-world customer data

• Debugging and iterating quickly during live customer engagements

Bonus Points

• Experience selling technical products (data infrastructure, observability, databases, developer tools)

• Background working with or selling into hardware-heavy industries (aerospace, autonomy, robotics, manufacturing)

• Experience running pilots / POCs and driving technical wins

• Ability to build reusable demo infrastructure and assets

• Experience simulating complex hardware systems

• Experience helping define or scale Sales Engineering processes

• Strong product intuition and ability to influence roadmap

What Success Looks Like

• You can independently run a full technical sales cycle (discovery → demo → pilot → close)

• You build trust quickly with technical customers

• You create demos that make complex systems feel intuitive

• You help customers get to value quickly during evaluations

• You contribute to building SIFT’s Sales Engineering function from the ground up

Location & Travel

SIFT’s headquarters is in Marina del Rey, CA. We collaborate in person Monday through Thursday, with Friday being a remote day. Ability to travel up to 50% required. Varies by location and customer needs.

Salary range: $120,000 - $180,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.

Eligibility

US Person Required: Must be a U.S. Citizen or Green Card Holder due to ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) compliance requirements.