Sales Engineer (Remote) in Des Moines, Iowa

About SANS

SANS Institute (SANS) launched in 1989 as a cooperative for information security thought leadership, it is SANS’ ongoing mission to empower cyber security professionals with the practical skills and knowledge they need to make our world a safer place. We fuel this effort with high quality training, certifications, scholarship academies, degree programs, cyber ranges, and resources to meet the needs of every cyber professional. Our data, research, and the top minds in cybersecurity collectively ensure that individuals and organizations have the actionable education and support they need.

Join the SANS Team

At SANS, our culture is defined by Mission, Brand, People. Our goal is to hire people who understand the importance of continuing to fight against the cyber security threats (Mission) while delivering the highest quality training (Brand) to our students. We want employees whose personal values align well with our culture of fairness, honesty, customer focus, and pragmatic approach (People).

Summary of Position

We are seeking a Sales Engineer to join our North America Customer Success team. This role involves pre-sales activities primarily focused on growing revenue, driving customer utilization, and demonstrating the value of the full SANS product portfolio. There is also a component of post-sales activity in support of expanding sales expansion inside existing strategic accounts. The Sr. Sales Engineer must possess a winning combination of business and technical skills, the ability to confidently present and demonstrate our SANS solutions and articulate the value message to a broad spectrum of audiences from technical and business teams as well as the C-suite. In this role, account representatives will leverage your technical credibility to help assure SANS is considered a trusted advisor with these prospective customers. You will be applying your cybersecurity and technical knowledge for many related tasks including strategizing with Account Reps, building training roadmaps, conducting deeper customer conversations and demonstrations, and reaching across internal business units to support Sales enablement efforts.

If you are an experienced cybersecurity professional, self-motivated, passionate, results-oriented, and an innovative problem-solver come join our talented SANS team.

Key Responsibilities

• Support attainment of North America revenue goals through strategic and technical interactions with sales, prospects, and customers

• Operate autonomously to best meet unique sales needs for your territory.

• Partner with regional account reps to build account level sales strategy.

• Document success criteria from pre-sales activities to prepare the customer success team for transitions.

• Support the Sales process with RFI/RFQ completions and trials as necessary.

• Deliver a small number of technical services engagements with strategic customer accounts identified by leadership team as having the most growth potential.

• Create and deliver compelling demonstrations, presentations, and materials to drive revenue, utilization, value positioning, and cross-sell/upsell wins.

• Develop deep expertise of SANS product portfolio and be the technical product expert for the sales team for pre-and post-sales lifecycle.

• Support the sales team in overcoming common sales objections such as price, value, vendor comparisons, and other common business challenges with prospects and customers.

• Research, analyze, and communicate customers’ current training priorities, spend, and industry risk profile to provide tailored recommendations, multi-year developmental roadmaps, industry best practices, and expertise to drive customer growth, ROI value, and utilization.

• Partner with Sales to help them establish and strengthen strategic relationships within their customer set that are decision makers, influencers, and/or key stakeholders with focus on expanding contact reach to growth account revenue

• Understand different roles, responsibilities, and disciplines within cybersecurity to apply recommendations, resources, and insights to sales, customers, and prospects.

• Provide relevant updates and product/technical training sessions to sales team that are focused on enhancing their product knowledge, technical acumen, and technical sales skills to support revenue-generating activities.

• Participate in marketing collaboration efforts and events.

• Other job duties as assigned.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, cybersecurity, software engineering, and/or other related field or comparable work and/or technical experience

• 5+ years working in a sales/solutions engineering, consulting, and/or similar role

• Experience leading customer calls, delivering customer presentations, product demos, and creating materials to drive revenue, utilization, and value.

• Ability to articulate the importance of cybersecurity training in a simple way to B2B customers.

• Exceptional oral and written communication and interpersonal skills

• Well-organized and strong project management abilities

• Expert level experience creating data-focused, visually rich customer-facing PowerPoint presentations

• Communicate effectively with both business/functional and highly technical individuals.

• Ability to work well in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment and thrive on challenges.

• Highly self-motivated and has quality standards with attention to detail

• Demonstrated ability to understand customer needs, provide quality service, persuasively present ideas, and drive customer satisfaction

• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries and work harmoniously with a diverse group of people

• Aptitude for continuous learning and skill development

• Proficient with web-based collaborative tools such as Dropbox, Smartsheet, Salesforce, and Microsoft Office Suite

• Strong communication skills and the ability to adjust approach and communication style based on personalities and goals of prospects, customers, and key stakeholders

• Ability to travel for team meetings, training events, customer meetings, and/or other business needs

• Ability to present effectively, control attention, explain proposed solutions, and answer detailed and technical questions from customers

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in delivering services and/or sales engineering for training-based products

• Prior experience with lab-based and/or simulation-based products

• Prior experience with security awareness, risk-management, and other related cybersecurity products

• 2+ GIAC and/or other cybersecurity related certifications

Reporting Relationships

• This position will report to the SANS Head of Sales Engineering and has no direct reports.

Work Environment

Equal Opportunity Employer

SANS is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or to perform the essential functions of a position, please contact SANS Human Resources.

California residents for SANS privacy notice for California job applicants

The base salary range for this position is between $100,000 and $150,000. Base salary ranges may vary by geographic location and relevant experience, education, certifications, and years of experience. There is no guarantee an offer will be at the top of the posted range based on the salary analysis.

In addition, SANS provides the following benefits:

Medical

Dental

Vision

Short-Term Disability

401(k) with company match

Employee Assistance Program

Supplemental Life Insurance and AD&D

Paid Time Off

Company Paid Holidays

Volunteer Paid Time Off

Department

Business Development – Enterprise Sales

Employment Type

US Employee Full-Time

Minimum Experience

Experienced

Compensation

$100,000 – $150,000