Unknown Company

Lead Sales Engineer

houston, tx • Posted 4 days ago
Onsite Full Time Engineering

SSL is hiring its founding Sales Engineer to build the technical presales function from the ground up. This is a high-ownership role for a technologist who can stand alone in front of enterprise prospects today and grow into leading the SE team tomorrow. You will own the technical side of the deal cycle - demonstrations, proof-of-concept evaluations, RFP/RFI responses, and solution design across SSL 's certificate and PKI portfolio - while establishing the playbooks, demo environments, and POC frameworks that future hires will run on. You will work shoulder-to-shoulder with Sales, Product, Engineering, and founders, and your technical judgment will directly shape how SSL wins against larger, PE-backed competitors. As the function scales, you will have the opportunity to step into a player-coach and then leadership role over the SE team you helped define.

What you will do

  • Own technical presales end to end as the first dedicated SE, partnering directly with sales reps and leadership to advance and close enterprise opportunities
  • Serve as the authoritative technical voice on SSL's solutions: TLS/SSL, code signing, document signing, S/MIME, hosted and private PKI, and cloud signing (eSigner)
  • Design and deliver compelling product demonstrations tailored to each prospect's environment and objectives
  • Architect and run proof-of-concept evaluations, including ACME and API-based certificate automation, and own technical close
  • Lead the functional and technical elements of RFP/RFI responses, and build reusable response assets the team can scale with
  • Translate customer requirements and compliance drivers into solution designs, and act as the trusted technical advisor through the sales cycle
  • Establish the SE function's foundation: demo infrastructure, POC playbooks, discovery frameworks, and technical enablement for the broader sales team
  • Capture structured product feedback from the field and partner with Product Management to influence the roadmap
  • As the team grows, help recruit, mentor, and lead additional Sales Engineers - setting the technical bar and operating model for the function
  • Travel as needed to customer sites and industry forums/conferences to support departmental objectives

What you will have

  • 5-7+ years in sales engineering, solutions architecture, or a senior technical role within cybersecurity, PKI, or a related domain
  • Demonstrated ability to own technical presales autonomously and carry enterprise deals without an established support structure
  • Deep, hands-on knowledge of public key infrastructure, X.509 certificates, TLS, and the full certificate lifecycle
  • Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science, cybersecurity, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
  • Strong command of IT environments across Windows, Linux, and macOS, including web servers (Apache, Nginx, IIS) and certificate deployment
  • Working knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and experience with APIs and automation protocols such as ACME
  • Excellent written and verbal communication, with the executive presence to lead technical conversations from practitioner to C-level
  • A builder's mindset: comfortable with ambiguity, biased toward creating structure where none exists
  • Leadership potential - interest and aptitude for mentoring and eventually leading a growing SE team
  • Customer-first orientation with strong ownership and accountability

#J-18808-Ljbffr
Back to Job Search