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Sales Engineer

Sift, California, MO, United States


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

Core Requirements The Skillset You’ll Bring

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 assetsExperience 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.

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