Sales Engineer Salary: Your 2025 Guide

Sales engineers sell technical-related and scientific products to businesses. They are a well-paid profession with opportunities for career growth and a median wage that increases with experience. A sales engineer's salary often includes commission and a base salary, which can help increase earning potential. 

Below, explore the average sales engineer salary and how factors like location, education, and experience affect how much you could earn. Then, you can use that information to plan for the best steps forward in your professional journey. 

Read more: What Is a Sales Engineer? (And How to Become One)

What is a sales engineer?

A sales engineer is a sales professional who sells goods and services that require technical understanding. They typically help demonstrate, troubleshoot, and answer potential customers' questions. These products and services could come from a variety of industries, including the commercial, industrial, and technical sectors.

Through their knowledge and experience in engineering, technology, and science, sales engineers can explain to customers the technical aspects of their products. They also have a range of workplace skills, including excellent communication, customer service, and creativity.

How much does a sales engineer make?

The median annual salary for a sales engineer is $116,950, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) [1]. While this suggests strong earning potential, gaining a comprehensive view of the possible salary you can expect by comparing the data from multiple popular job listing websites, including Glassdoor, Indeed, and Zippia, can be helpful. 

The table below lists the salaries posted on these websites:

Factors that impact sales engineer salary

Salary information varies quite dramatically, and the actual salary you receive depends on several factors, including your location, industry, personal skills, education, and experience, as well as the commission you earn. Let’s take a look at these factors in more detail.

Education

Sales engineers generally have a bachelor’s degree, typically in engineering. Still, it is possible to secure a position if you have the technical training or relevant experience. Engineering is a popular degree program for sales engineers, and you'll find that many of them specialize in a specific type of engineering, such as chemical, computer hardware, or mechanical engineering. You also may choose to take business courses to round out your studies.

According to Zippia, sales engineers with a bachelor's degree earn an average salary of $101,864, and those with a master's degree earn an average of $105,849 [5].

Certification and Professional Certificates

Gaining certifications can positively affect your salary. Continual professional development and keeping up with new technologies are essential in this role, and studying for a certificate is a great way to demonstrate that you are remaining up-to-date with current technical knowledge.

Sales engineer certificate options include the following: 

• Certified Professional Sales Consultant (CPSC)

• Engineer in Training Certificate (EIT)

• Professional Certified Marketer (PCM)

Read more: What Does a Technical Sales Engineer Do? Your Guide

Experience

To become a sales engineer, you need sales experience and technical know-how. You can build up experience by starting in an entry-level sales role, such as a sales representative, before moving on to more senior roles like sales manager.

Your salary will likely also evolve and increase as you gain experience. The table below outlines different sales engineer levels and the associated annual average wage according to Glassdoor [2]: 

Skills

You can build valuable skills while studying for a degree and gaining professional experience. These skills may help you secure more senior positions and higher salaries. Below, you’ll find some popular skills and the salary you can negotiate when you master them, as reported by Payscale [6]:

• Customer relationship management (CRM): $76,157

• Project management: $78,177

• Sales engineering: $79,394

• Technical sales: $79,816

• Presentations: $84,081

Commission

Like in many sales roles, working as a sales engineer means you typically can earn a commission on your sales in addition to a base salary. The commission you earn typically depends on the number of sales you make, your performance reviews, and the commission structure. The commission structure varies from company to company. 

Glassdoor reports that additional pay for a sales engineer is an average of $68,225 [2]. This may include a combination of commission, bonuses, and profit sharing.

Location

Salaries can vary according to geographical location, so you should research salaries based on different cities. According to the BLS, the highest-paying metropolitan areas for sales engineer roles are [8]: 

1. Boulder, CO: $211,620

2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California: $170,080

3. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California: $161,760

4. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ: $155,050

5. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, CD-VA-MD-WV: $153,630

Read more:

Industry

Like location, the industry you choose can also factor into your income. Some industries are more lucrative than others. According to BLS data, the following is a list of industries and the average annual salary you can expect [7]:

• Computer system design: $147,990

• Software publishers: $127,400

• Wholesale brokerage: $106,080

• Merchant wholesale: $104,840

• Manufacturing: $102,690

Company

Different companies pay different rates and have different values for their commission structures. The differences in salary generally lie in the company’s business model and what they deem important. According to Zippia, the five highest-paying companies that employ sales engineers are the following [4]: 

1. Meta: $149,271

2. Google: $145,644

3. Apple: $141,380

4. Mixpanel: $140,093

5. NVIDIA: $138,850

Related job titles

The skills, education, and experience you need to work as a sales engineer also apply to many similar jobs. Examples include the following: 

• Senior sales engineer: $136,271

• Regional sales manager: $100,294

• Technical sales engineer: $108,181

• Lead sales engineer: $118,921

• Director of sales: $120,282

• Industrial engineer: $88,521

• Computer hardware engineer: $95,104

• Marketing sales consultant: $70,741

*All base salary data is taken from Glassdoor as of November 2024

Job outlook

According to the BLS, the job outlook for a sales engineer is good. The anticipated growth rate is 6 percent between 2023 and 2033, which is faster than average and equates to around 5,800 projected job openings per year on average [1]. While it can be an exciting job with targets to achieve and commissions that change depending on performance, you may find the rewards—higher salary and work opportunities—are worth the effort.

Next steps in sales engineering

Sales engineering is a great option if you have a background in engineering and sales skills and are looking for a higher-than-average salary. To maximize your salary, build your education, skills, and experience, as well as consider your working location.

Building your technical skills is a great place to focus when planning a sales engineering career. For example, consider taking the Mathematics for Engineering Specialization from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to sharpen your math skills. You can also build your software application development and engineering knowledge by earning the IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Professional Certificate. You’ll find these options and more on Coursera.