Director of Sales Engineering

Motorola Solutions; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and bonus

Holiday entitlement + bank holidays

Company pension scheme

Employee stock purchase plan

Life assurance

Wellbeing support

Learning and development opportunities

CSR initiatives

Employee discounts

Job summary

Motorola Solutions is seeking a Director of Sales Engineering in the UK to lead our technical pre-sales engineering and field application engineering teams. You will be the technical authority in the sales cycle, translating customer needs into credible CRFS-based solutions and guiding the UK-based team, including two Pre-Sales Engineers and their manager, to drive opportunities and customer success.

You will serve as the senior technical voice on deals, influence the product roadmap from field

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in pre-sales, application engineering, or systems engineering leadership.
• Proven track record of managing technical teams and multi-disciplinary functions.
• Experience engineering, selling, or supporting hardware/software integrated solutions.
• Excellent English communication; able to present to diverse technical and non-technical audiences.
• Willingness to travel within the UK and internationally (roughly 25–50%).

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale the Technical Sales team with Pre-Sales and Field Application Engineers.
• Drive commercial expansion by strengthening relationships with existing customers and spotting new opportunities.
• Serve as the primary conduit between sales, product, and engineering to align on customer needs and market signals.
• Engage with strategic accounts as senior technical sponsor in meetings, workshops, and live demonstrations.
• Oversee technical qualification and solution design from initial qualification to contract award.
• Standardise how the team builds and demonstrates solutions and tests product capabilities against customer requirements.

Skills

Pre-Sales Leadership

Hardware & Software Acumen

Customer-Facing Skills

Education

Degree in Electronic Engineering or related

Job description

Company Overview

At Motorola Solutions, we believe that everything starts with our people. We’re a global close-knit community, united by the relentless pursuit to help keep people safer everywhere. We build and connect technologies to help protect people, property and places. Our solutions foster the collaboration that’s critical for safer communities, safer schools, safer hospitals, safer businesses, and ultimately, safer nations. Connect with a career that matters, and help us build a safer future.

Department Overview

TBC

Job Description Role Summary

We are seeking a strategic and highly experienced Director of Sales Engineering to lead our technical pre-sales engineering and field application engineering teams. In this role, you will be the ultimate technical authority in the sales cycle, helping turn customer requirements into credible solutions built around CRFS products. You will lead and manage a growing UK-based technical team, directly managing two Pre-Sales Engineers while overseeing the entire Field Application Engineering (FAE) team through their dedicated manager. This role serves as the critical bridge uniting the Technical, Sales, and Product teams. While you will not oversee the Sales or Product teams directly, you will be the link that ensures these groups operate in total alignment. We need a leader who has grown up in the pre-sales space, someone who can drive high-level strategy, step in as the senior technical voice on active deals to help get them over the line, while also deepening relationships with current clients to spot new opportunities for the sales team. You must have the practical hardware and software knowledge needed to earn the respect of our most technical clients.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and Scale the Technical Sales team: Direct a blended team of Pre-Sales and Field Application Engineers. Mentor direct reports, empower the FAE manager, and build a high-performance culture focused on technical excellence.
• Commercial Expansion & Relationship Building: While you will not carry a direct sales quota, you will play a vital commercial role. You will be responsible for expanding and deepening relationships with existing customers, identifying new technical challenges, and uncovering new opportunities to feed back to the sales team.
• Cross-Functional Bridge: Act as the primary conduit between the sales team, the product teams, and your engineering staff, helping ensure customer needs and market signals flow effectively in all directions. You will influence the product roadmap based on field intelligence without taking on direct product management responsibilities.
• Executive Customer Engagement: Act as the senior technical sponsor for strategic accounts. Lead or contribute to customer meetings, presentations, workshops, and live demonstrations, tailoring your communication to audiences ranging from senior military officers and procurement leads to hands-on analysts.
• Drive Pre-Sales Strategy: Oversee the technical qualification and solution design process from initial qualification through to contract award. Ensure your team effectively translates what customers need into solutions that are technically sound.
• Operational Excellence: Standardise how the team builds and demonstrates solutions, tests product capabilities against specific customer requirements, and assesses compatibility with third-party systems. Ensure the team maintains composure and methodology when troubleshooting under pressure, during a demo, or in the field.

What We’re Looking For

• A Pre-Sales Background: You must have built your career in pre-sales and sales engineering. We are looking for someone who has lived the pre-sales lifecycle and understands the nuances of the role, not someone who has only managed it from afar.
• Hardware & Software Acumen: You must have demonstrable experience engineering, selling, or supporting solutions that involve complex integrations of both hardware and software.
• Customer-Facing Capability: Technical knowledge alone isn’t enough; you need to be someone customers trust, enjoy working with, and want to see again. You must be skilled at listening—understanding not just what a customer is asking for, but what they actually need.

Basic Requirements

• Extensive experience in the technology sector, with a strong background in pre-sales, application engineering, or systems engineering leadership.
• Proven track record of managing technical teams, including managing managers or leading multi-disciplinary technical functions.
• Demonstrable expertise spanning both hardware and software technology domains.
• Degree (or equivalent) in Electronic Engineering, RF/Telecommunications Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or a closely related discipline.
• Confident presenting and demonstrating to audiences ranging from small technical working groups to large conference settings.
• Clear, precise written and spoken English, with the ability to oversee high-quality technical documents and proposals.
• Willingness to travel extensively within the UK and internationally (estimated 25-50% of time).
• Eligibility to obtain and maintain UK security clearance (SC minimum).

Desirable Requirements

• Significant experience working within the defence industry or government customer environments.
• A military background is considered a huge bonus and highly advantageous.
• Background knowledge of RF principles, spectrum monitoring, electronic warfare, SIGINT, or COMINT concepts.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and bonus schemes.
• Two weeks additional pay per year (holiday bonus).
• 25 days holiday entitlement plus bank holidays.
• Attractive defined contribution pension scheme.
• Employee stock purchase plan.
• Life assurance.
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay.
• Career development support and wide-ranging learning opportunities.
• Employee health and wellbeing support including EAP and wellbeing guidance.
• Carbon neutral initiatives and goals.
• Corporate social responsibility initiatives including support for volunteering days.
• Well-known companies discount scheme.

Travel Requirements

25-50% Relocation Provided None

EEO Statement

Motorola Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally-protected characteristic. We are proud of our people-first and community-focused culture, empowering every Motorolang to be their most authentic self and to do their best work to deliver on the promise of a safer world.

If you’d like to join our team but feel that you don’t quite meet all of the preferred skills, we’d still love to hear why you think you’d be a great addition to our team.

MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS OVERVIEW

At Motorola Solutions, we believe that everything starts with our people. We’re a global close-knit community, united by the relentless pursuit to help keep people safer everywhere. We build and connect technologies to help protect people, property and places. Our solutions foster the collaboration that’s critical for safer communities, safer schools, safer hospitals, safer businesses, and ultimately, safer nations. Connect with a career that matters, and help us build a safer future. Learn more at www.motorolasolutions.com.