Field Sales Manager

Altera; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 209,000 - 308,000; Full time

Job summary

Altera is seeking a Distribution Sales Manager to own the West Coast distribution business and act as the primary interface with distributor partners, field sales teams, FAEs, and regional leadership.

This hands-on, technically grounded role drives revenue growth, design registrations, pipeline development, and new customer acquisition through the channel, with travel to branch offices and customer sites as needed.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of semiconductor sales, distribution sales, channel management, or related roles.
• Experience with FPGA, SoC, embedded computing, ASIC, processor, networking, or related semiconductors.
• Proven track record of achieving revenue growth through distribution or channels.
• Strong presentation and relationship management skills.

Responsibilities

• Own and grow Altera's distribution business within the West Coast territory, delivering revenue, design-win, and new customer targets.
• Develop strategic business plans with distribution partners aligned with growth objectives.
• Drive demand creation through distributor sales teams, FAEs, events, and training programs.
• Conduct regular joint customer visits with distributor representatives to identify opportunities and influence decisions.
• Collaborate with sales, marketing, product management, and engineering to maximize pipeline.

Skills

Channel management

Technical sales

FPGA knowledge

Design-win

Negotiation

Partnership building

Travel willingness

Education

Electrical Engineering

Computer Engineering

Business

Tools

CRM systems

Forecasting tools

Job description

Job Details: Job Description: We are hiring a Distribution Sales Manager to own Altera's distribution business across a defined West Coast territory. You will be the primary interface between Altera and our authorized distribution partners, including field sales teams, FAEs, regional leadership, and branch management.

Success in this role will be measured by revenue growth, design registrations, pipeline generation, market share expansion, and new customer acquisition delivered through our distribution ecosystem.

This is a hands-on, technically grounded sales role. You will spend your time in branch offices, on joint customer calls, and in design reviews, not behind a dashboard.

The right person is comfortable talking through an FPGA architecture trade-off with an engineer in the morning and negotiating a quarterly demand-generation plan with a branch manager that afternoon.

You will be responsible for developing and executing territory-level distribution strategies, enabling partner sales and technical teams, driving design wins, and ensuring Altera remains top-of-mind within the channel.

Working closely with Altera’s direct sales, marketing, product management, and applications engineering teams, you will identify growth opportunities, accelerate customer engagements, and expand adoption of Altera FPGA, SoC FPGA, and software solutions across a diverse customer base.

The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment, enjoys building strong partner relationships, and has a proven track record of growing semiconductor business through distribution.

You are equally comfortable presenting executive-level business plans, leading training sessions for partner teams, and engaging directly with engineers to influence technical decisions that result in long-term design wins.

As Altera continues to accelerate growth as an independent company, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape channel strategy, build new customer relationships, and directly influence revenue growth in one of the company’s most strategic regions.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and grow Altera's distribution business within an assigned West Coast territory, delivering revenue, design-win, and new customer acquisition targets.
• Develop strategic business plans with distribution partners that align with Altera's growth objectives and target markets.
• Drive demand creation activities through distributor sales teams, FAEs, customer events, technical seminars, digital campaigns, and training programs.
• Conduct regular joint customer visits with distributor representatives to identify opportunities, influence technical decisions, and secure design wins.
• Build strong relationships with branch managers, regional sales leaders, FAEs, and executive leadership within distributor organizations.
• Enable partner teams on Altera FPGA, SoC FPGA, and software solutions through ongoing training, coaching, and technical engagement.
• Collaborate with Altera sales, marketing, product management, and engineering teams to maximize pipeline generation and customer success.
• Track business performance, including revenue, bookings, design registrations, customer engagement, pipeline health, and forecasting accuracy.
• Identify competitive threats, market trends, and emerging opportunities and provide actionable insights to internal stakeholders.
• Expand Altera's presence within strategic accounts while developing new customer relationships through the distribution channel.
• Ensure distributors are effectively positioning Altera solutions and executing against agreed-upon business plans.
• Represent Altera at industry events, trade shows, customer workshops, and partner conferences.

The compensation below is reflective of a sales role that includes a salary + incentive. Our compensation reflects the cost of labor within the US market. Actual compensation may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc.

$209.2K - $308.2K USD

We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Business, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in semiconductor sales, distribution sales, channel management, technical sales, field applications engineering, or related roles.
• Experience working with FPGA, SoC, embedded computing, ASIC, processor, networking, communications, or related semiconductor technologies.
• Proven track record of achieving or exceeding revenue and growth targets through distribution or channel partners.
• Strong understanding of design-win driven sales cycles and the semiconductor product development process.
• Experience engaging with both technical and business decision-makers, from design engineers to executive leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to develop territory plans, execute growth strategies, and drive measurable business outcomes.
• Strong presentation, communication, negotiation, and relationship management skills.
• Ability to travel regularly throughout the assigned territory to support customers and distribution partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience selling FPGA, programmable logic, embedded, AI, data center, networking, industrial, aerospace and defense, automotive, or communications solutions.
• Previous experience working with major semiconductor distributors such as Macnica, Arrow, Avnet, Future Electronics, Mouser, or DigiKey.
• Technical background supporting design-in, design-win, or applications engineering activities.
• Experience with CRM systems, pipeline management, forecasting, and channel performance metrics.
• Experience working within a high-growth semiconductor or technology company.

What You’ll Bring

• A passion for building partnerships and driving measurable business growth.
• The ability to translate complex technical capabilities into business value for customers and partners.
• Strong business acumen combined with technical credibility.
• A collaborative mindset and the ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• An entrepreneurial approach, customer-first mentality, and a strong sense of ownership.
• The energy, urgency, and resilience needed to help accelerate Altera’s growth and expand our leadership position in the programmable solutions market.

Job Type

Regular

Shift

Shift 1 (United States of America)

Primary Location

San Jose, California, United States

Posting Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.

About Altera

Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.