IT Sales Engineer

Unified Technologies; Louisville (KY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Unified Technologies is seeking an IT Sales Engineer to translate customer requirements into deliverable IT solutions. You will own technical qualification, solution design, estimating, and the handoff to Operations, working with Sales, SMEs, TAMs, vendors, and Operations.

You will design complete IT solutions, build BOMs, write scopes of work, and review discovery for missing information. You’ll join customer meetings as needed and ensure accurate, implementable designs with thorough

Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands-on IT infrastructure experience.
• Experience designing and estimating IT solutions with BOM and assumptions.
• Deep experience in servers, virtualization, networking, cloud, Microsoft, security.
• Experience collaborating with vendors to validate licensing and pricing.
• Technical education or vendor certifications, or equivalent experience.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites as needed.

Responsibilities

• Design complete IT solutions from documented discovery, objectives, constraints, and budget.
• Build accurate BOMs and quote-ready requirements covering hardware, software, licensing, labor and exclusions.
• Write clear scopes of work that protect the company and guide Operations.
• Review discovery and identify missing information, decisions, and assumptions.
• Join customer meetings for deeper technical discovery or solution explanation as needed.
• Return or block opportunities when missing information could affect design or price.
• Own progression after opportunity acceptance, communicating status and blockers.
• Collaborate with Sales, SMEs, TAMs, vendors, and Operations for validation.
• Provide complete technical handoff to Operations with rationale and dependencies.
• Validate accuracy, labor assumptions, licensing quantities, and compatibility.
• Maintain current knowledge of related technologies and hold vendor certifications.

Skills

IT infrastructure

Solution design

Estimating BOM

Vendor coordination

Certifications

Travel readiness

Education

Technical education / certifications

Job description

The IT Sales Engineer converts qualified customer requirements into accurate, supportable, profitable, and executable IT solutions. The role owns technical qualification, solution design, estimating, scope, and handoff to Operations, working alongside Sales, SMEs, TAMs, Sales Support, vendors, and Operations.

The Sales Engineer is accountable for a clean, deliverable solution; Sales remains responsible for the close. Win rate on opportunities that meet the discovery standard is a shared measure.

• Design complete IT solutions from documented discovery, customer objectives, constraints, and known budget, offering phasing or good/better/best alternatives where they help.
• Build accurate bills of material and quote-ready requirements covering hardware, software, licensing, labor, dependencies, and exclusions, and document any assumptions that cannot be confirmed before proposal.
• Write clear scopes of work that protect Unified Technologies, set customer expectations, and give Operations enough direction to implement.
• Review discovery provided by the Sales Representative, IT Sales / SME, and/or TAM and promptly identify missing or contradictory information, required decisions, and material assumptions before or during solution development.
• Join customer meetings as needed alongside the assigned Sales Representative, IT Sales / SME, or TAM when deeper technical discovery, validation, or solution explanation is needed.
• Return or block opportunities when missing information could materially affect design, pricing, labor, or implementation, rather than making unsupported assumptions to keep the quote moving.
• Once an opportunity is accepted for technical design, actively own its progression, acknowledge ownership, communicate status and blockers, and engage the SME when customer information, assumptions, or requirements require validation.
• Collaborate with IT Sales / SMEs, TAMs, Technical Engineers, vendors, manufacturers, and operations, and seek implementation-specific validation when a design depends on current field knowledge.
• Provide a complete technical handoff so Operations understands what was sold, why it was designed that way, and which assumptions or dependencies remain.
• Validate technical accuracy, labor assumptions, licensing quantities, compatibility, supported-technology standards, feasibility, and customer alignment before release and after any revision.
• Maintain current knowledge of supported infrastructure, networking, security, virtualization, cloud, Microsoft, backup, licensing, and related technologies, hold relevant vendor certifications, and develop reusable design standards, templates, and discovery questions that improve consistency and turnaround.
• The assigned Sales Representative owns the customer relationship, purchasing decisions, sales progression, and close. The IT Sales / SME and TAM support the Sales Representative and customer relationship with technical and account context as needed.
• Sales Support owns deal registration, quote administration, pricing coordination, ConnectWise Sell entry, and proposal assembly.
• Operations owns implementation and provides validation when requested.
• The Sales Engineer owns the technical design. Unresolved scope, design, budget, or labor disagreements go to the Director of Sales Engineering, then follow the line-of-business leadership path; no one overrides the design unilaterally.

Engagement Criteria

The Sales Engineer is engaged when an opportunity includes any of the following:

• Project labor, implementation planning, or material change to the customer environment.
• Multiple technologies, complex licensing, migrations, servers, virtualization, network redesign, cloud services, cybersecurity, backup/recovery, or significant infrastructure replacement.
• Customer requirements that are incomplete, technically ambiguous, unusual, high risk, or dependent on documented assumptions.
• A need for technical discovery beyond the capability of the assigned Sales Representative, IT Sales / SME, or TAM.
• A budgetary concept that must be converted into a final executable solution.
• Routine hardware/software procurement without labor or solution design may be handled without Sales Engineer involvement under the approved exception process.

Required Qualifications

• Significant hands-on IT infrastructure implementation and support experience. Approximately 10 or more years of practical field experience is preferred.
• Demonstrated experience designing and estimating IT solutions that include hardware, software, licensing, labor, and implementation requirements, including the scopes of work and assumptions that go with them.
• Deep experience in [primary areas] and working knowledge of the rest: servers, virtualization, networking, cloud, Microsoft, security, backup/recovery, migrations, and endpoints.
• Experience working with vendors and manufacturers to validate product fit, licensing, pricing inputs, and technical best practices.
• Relevant technical education, vendor certifications, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• Ability to travel to customer sites as needed for technical discovery or site validation.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Solution architecture and systems thinking.
• Technical estimating and BOM development.
• Accurate, concise technical writing that documents decision points, risks, dependencies, and assumptions.
• Ability to identify missing information and challenge unsupported assumptions.
• Good judgment when balancing technical best practice, customer need, budget, profitability, and speed.
• Ability to explain technical decisions to sales, operations, vendors, and customer stakeholders.

Performance Expectations

• Complete quotes within 3-5 business days beginning when sufficient initial discovery and supporting documentation are available for technical design. Complex solutions that cannot reasonably be completed within this timeframe will be completed as quickly as feasible, with status, blockers, and expected next steps communicated to the appropriate stakeholders.
• Acknowledge accepted opportunities, actively progress assigned work, and communicate status, missing information, and blockers before a request becomes stagnant.
• Change orders and rework caused by scope gaps, duplicated or missing licensing, or unsupported assumptions.
• Compliance with supported technology, profitability, and approval requirements.
• Opportunities returned to discovery, and how many Sales accepts, tracked and reviewed regularly.
• Estimated versus actual labor hours on completed projects, reviewed with Operations quarterly to improve future estimates.
• Win rate on opportunities that met the sufficient-initial-discovery standard, shared with Sales.