Principal Sales Engineer

Madrona Venture Labs; United States; On-site; USD 170,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401K plan

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Dropzone AI is hiring a Principal Sales Engineer to drive technical discovery, deliver compelling demos, and design customer solutions across the full sales cycle. You will translate complex concepts for diverse audiences and collaborate with product, engineering, and success teams.

We offer a remote-friendly environment with generous compensation and equity grants, plus benefits. The role emphasizes fast‑paced execution, data‑driven decisions, and stakeholder management across enterprise

Qualifications

• 3+ years in Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or similar pre‑sales role.
• Strong ability to translate technical concepts for technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Experience supporting complex, multi‑stakeholder sales cycles.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Account Executives to support the full sales cycle from discovery through close.
• Lead technical discovery to understand customer requirements, use cases, and success criteria.
• Deliver product demonstrations, technical presentations, and proof‑of‑concepts.
• Design solution architectures aligned to customer environments and constraints.
• Respond to technical questions in RFPs, RFIs, and security questionnaires.
• Act as the technical SME during sales engagements.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering and Customer Success to relay feedback.
• Support pilot programs and evaluations.
• Maintain technical documentation, demo environments, and competitive insights.
• Help enable Sales through training, best practices, and technical collateral.

Skills

Sales engineering

Pre-sales

Technical demos

Communication

Discovery & needs

Tools

APIs

Cloud platforms

Job description

About Dropzone AI

Dropzone’s mission is to scale cybersecurity beyond human limits, and augment every single human security engineer/analyst with an army of AI security specialists. Humans alone cannot sufficiently protect our digital future, and AI augmentation is the only way for defenders to reclaim the high ground. We are an award winning company disrupting the $200B+ cybersecurity market.

Powered by Gen AI advancements, our technology offloads repetitive day-to-day work and frees human analysts to focus on real threats and higher-value projects. We are venture-backed, and our team has a rare blend of deep experience across cybersecurity, AI/ML, and SaaS product development. Join us if you want to be on the ground floor of using Gen AI to transform cyber defense. Learn more at www.dropzone.ai.

About the role

The Principal Sales Engineer partners closely with Sales to drive technical discovery, deliver compelling product demonstrations, and design solutions that meet customer needs. This role bridges business and technology, translating complex technical concepts into clear value for prospects and customers throughout the sales cycle.

What you'll do

• Partner with Account Executives to support the full sales cycle, from discovery through close
• Lead technical discovery to understand customer requirements, use cases, and success criteria
• Deliver product demonstrations, technical presentations, and proof-of-concepts
• Design solution architectures aligned to customer environments and constraints
• Respond to technical questions in RFPs, RFIs, and security questionnaires
• Act as the technical subject-matter expert during sales engagements
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to relay customer feedback
• Support pilot programs and evaluations
• Maintain technical documentation, demo environments, and competitive insights
• Help enable Sales through training, best practices, and technical collateral

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience as a Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or similar pre‑sales role
• Strong technical foundation (software, cloud, APIs, data, security, or enterprise systems)
• Ability to explain technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences
• Experience supporting complex, multi‑stakeholder sales cycles
• Excellent presentation and communication skills
• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced, customer‑facing environment
• Early‑stage startup mindset. You thrive on ambiguity and move with lightspeed execution
• Being data‑driven is part of your DNA.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience with SaaS, cloud platforms, or enterprise software
• Familiarity with modern architectures (REST APIs, microservices, cloud infrastructure)
• Experience responding to RFPs and security assessments
• Domain experience (e.g., cybersecurity, AI/ML, data platforms, DevOps, govtech)
• Prior experience working with federal, regulated, or enterprise customers

Work Environment/Travel

We are a 100% remote company where you will work from your home with company‑provided equipment to set you up for success. Semi‑frequent travel to professional office settings and other events locally and nationally; some overnight travel expected.

Compensation

In the spirit of pay transparency, we are excited to share the base salary range below, exclusive of fringe benefits or potential bonuses. In addition, all compensation packages include significant above market new hire equity grants because we believe in rewarding long term value creation. If you are hired at Dropzone your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as geographic location, skills, education, and/or experience. In addition to those factors, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as a part of any final offer. Please keep in mind that hiring at the maximum of the range would not be typical to allow for future and continued salary growth. We also offer a generous benefits package, including company paid health insurance, 401K Plan with employer match, Self-Managed PTO, parental leave, and more.

The base pay range for this role is:

$170,000 - $195,000 USD

The variable pay for this role is:

$70,000 - $80,000 USD