Sales engineers sell complex scientific and technological products or services to businesses. They must have extensive knowledge of the products’ parts and functions and must understand the scientific processes that make these products work.

Sales engineers often work under stressful conditions because their income and job security depend on successfully completing sales. Some sales engineers may work additional and irregular hours to meet sales goals and client needs.

Sales engineers typically need a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field. Successful sales engineers combine technical knowledge of the products or services they are selling with strong interpersonal skills.

Employment of sales engineers is projected to grow 7 percent from 2014 to 2024, about as fast as the average for all occupations. As a wider range of technologically sophisticated products comes on the market, sales engineers will be in demand to sell these products and services related to these products.

This occupation supported 66,000 jobs in 2012 and 69,900 jobs in 2014, reflecting an increase of 5.9%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to increase by 8.8% in 2022 to 71,800 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 67,100, compared with an observed value of 69,900, 4.2% higher than expected. This indicates current employment trends are better than the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to increase by 7.6% in 2024 to 74,900 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 72,900 jobs for 2024, 2.7% lower than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are better than the 2012 trend within this occupation.