Sales Engineer

Empirical Security; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Empirical Security in Chicago is seeking a Sales Engineer to be the technical conscience of enterprise deals. You will partner with account executives to run demos, scope proofs of value, and answer the hardest questions a CISO can ask.

You will own the technical side of the sales cycle from discovery through close, translate model outputs into actionable language, and design proofs of value that compare CVSS, KEV, or competitor scores to a customer’s current approach.

Qualifications

• Three+ years as a sales engineer, solutions architect, or technical account manager at an enterprise security software company.
• Ability to discuss ROC curves, calibration, and base rates with a security director without a full statistics lecture.
• Hands-on comfort with vulnerability management stacks and ticketing/workflow tools such as Tenable/Qualys/Rapid7, ServiceNow, and Jira.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical side of the sales cycle from discovery through close, working with an account executive on every named opportunity.
• Run live demos of models against a prospect's CVE list and translate scores into actionable language for practitioners.
• Design and execute proofs of value that compare Empirical against CVSS, KEV, or competing scoring products.
• Write the technical response to RFPs, security questionnaires, and architecture reviews without lengthy internal reviews.
• Bridge between customer and Empirical's data science and product teams to incorporate deployment feedback into the roadmap.
• Present at trade shows, customer roundtables, and analyst briefings when a technical voice is needed.

Skills

ROC curves

Calibration

Base rates

Python

SQL

Tools

Tenable

Qualys

Rapid7

ServiceNow

Jira

Job description

Sales Engineer

Empirical Security is a quantum leap forward in exposure management, building custom models at scale to help organizations predict and prioritize the threats most likely to endanger them. Enterprises can no longer keep up with the flood of potential exploits caused by the AI era; only Empirical gives resource‑strapped security teams the predictive capabilities to punch way above their weight class.

We're looking for a dedicated, experienced, and basically brilliant Sales Engineer to be the technical conscience of every enterprise deal. You'll partner with account executives to run demos, scope proofs of value, and answer the hardest questions a CISO or head of vulnerability management can throw at a modeling company. This is the role for someone who wants to sell, but wants to sell on the merits of the math.

What you'll do:

• Own the technical side of the sales cycle from discovery through close, working shoulder‑to‑shoulder with an account executive on every named opportunity.
• Run live demos of the Empirical Global and Local models against a prospect's own CVE list, and translate what the score is doing into language a practitioner can act on.
• Design and execute proofs of value that measure Empirical against whatever the customer is using today, whether that is CVSS, KEV, a competing scoring product, or a homegrown model.
• Write the technical response to RFPs, security questionnaires, and architecture reviews without needing three weeks and a red team of internal reviewers.
• Serve as the bridge between the customer and Empirical's data science and product teams, feeding real deployment friction back into the roadmap.
• Present at trade shows, customer roundtables, and analyst briefings when the situation calls for a technical voice in the room.

You would be an excellent candidate if...

• You have three or more years as a sales engineer, solutions architect, or technical account manager at an enterprise security software company.
• You can hold your own in a conversation about ROC curves, calibration, and base rates, and you can explain any of them to a security director who does not want a statistics lecture.
• You have hands-on comfort with the vulnerability management stack, including scanners like Tenable, Qualys, or Rapid7, and ticketing and workflow tools like ServiceNow and Jira.
• You can write enough Python or SQL to pull a customer's data into a notebook, run a comparison, and put a chart in front of the account team the same afternoon.
• You are comfortable in front of a whiteboard with a skeptical CISO, and you know when to push back on a bad requirement rather than nod through it.
• You have worked at a smaller startup, or you are genuinely excited about what it takes to help a phenomenal one grow.

Extra credit if:

• You have run a bake‑off between prioritization methods before, and you know how to construct one that a customer will actually trust.
• You have familiarity with EPSS, the Prioritization to Prediction research series, or the broader body of work on exploit prediction.
• You have worked with regulated buyers in financial services, healthcare, or critical infrastructure, and you understand the audit questions that come with them.

A Final Word

Don't check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please throw your hat in the ring anyway. Studies have shown that marginalized communities, such as women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. Empirical Security is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role, or for another one of our openings.