Sales Engineering Manager

Socket.dev; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Port is seeking a high-ownership leader to build and scale the US Sales Engineering team and own the pre-sales motion across the Americas. You’ll coach and grow engineers, run sharp POCs and compelling demos, and help close 6-7 figure enterprise deals.

Based in Boston, you will manage 5+ SEs, partner with GTM, Product, and Sales leadership to drive strategy and technical excellence. This role shapes how the SE function operates globally.

Qualifications

• 2+ years managing a team of Sales Engineers or Solutions Consultants at a software company.
• 4+ years enterprise SE experience, closing large, complex deals.
• Experience in developer tooling or DevOps is a plus.
• Strong hiring and team development track record.
• Hands-on with demos and architecture discussions with executives.
• Based in Boston, in-office 3 days/week.

Responsibilities

• Lead US SE team and set strategy.
• Coach and grow 5+ Mid Market, Enterprise SEs across Americas.
• Run 1:1s and deal reviews to sharpen skills and judgment.
• Own POCs, demos, and 6-7 figure enterprise deals.
• Collaborate with GTM and Product on roadmap feedback.
• Be escalation point and field voice.

Skills

Leadership

Sales Engineering

POC demos

Hiring

Executive communication

Job description

About Port

Port is the Agentic SDLC Platform. The way engineering teams build software is constantly evolving and every new wave of AI operating across the SDLC makes engineering more powerful, but also more complex and chaotic. Port turns that chaos into control: one platform to build, govern, and operate the software development lifecycle, so every team can move as fast as technology allows.

Following our $100M Series C, we're in an exciting stage of significant growth and global expansion. As a product-led company, we believe the recipe for success is a world-class product that speaks for itself.

The Role

Developers, platform engineers, SREs, and security engineers are navigating a fundamental shift in how software gets built: more AI, more complexity, more pressure to move fast. Port exists to bring order to that chaos, and the SE team is at the center of making that vision land with some of the world's most sophisticated engineering organizations.

We're building out US SE leadership as we scale, and we need someone who knows what it takes to win technical deals and is ready to put most of their energy into nurturing & growing a team of SEs. You'll own the pre-sales technical motion across the Americas, set the standard for how great SE work gets done, and make sure your team has everything they need to run sharp POCs, deliver compelling demos, and close 6-7 figure enterprise deals.

Your primary job is to coach, develop, and build the team and jump in on customer calls for competitive situations, escalations, and strategic accounts when it matters. This is a fast-moving, high-ownership role at a company that's growing fast and still early enough that what you build here will shape how the function operates globally.

About Your Day-to-Day

• Lead and develop the US SE team
• Manage, coach, and grow a team of 5+ Mid Market, Enterprise and channel SEs across the Americas
• Run 1:1s and deal reviews that sharpen both technical skills and commercial judgment
• Build a culture of technical excellence, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement

Be the technical authority when it counts

• Maintain deep enough fluency to jump in on critical demos, POC escalations, or competitive calls when the team needs it
• Partner with AEs, Sales leadership and product on deal strategy for strategic and complex accounts
• Serve as an escalation point, not a first responder

Build the team you want to have

• Own US SE hiring end-to-end: work with recruiters, interviewing, and closing great candidates
• Work closely with the technical enablement team to maintain & improve onboarding that gets new SEs up to speed quickly and sets them up for success from day one

Set the standard for how SEs operate

• Define and continuously refine SE best practices: POC frameworks, qualification criteria, discovery methodology, and handoff standards
• Influence the playbooks and processes that make the team consistent and scalable
• Champion the use of AI and automation within the SE workflow
• Partner with GTM Automation to identify and deploy tooling that gives the team real leverage

Close the loop with Product

• Synthesize deal-level insights into structured, actionable feedback for Product and Engineering
• Be a credible voice from the field that helps shape roadmap priorities

Who You'll Work With

You'll report directly to the Director of Sales Engineering and work closely with US Sales leadership, the AE teams, Technical Success, and support teams. Your counterparts in EMEA and APJ are part of the broader SE leadership team that you'll plug into. You'll have a regular seat at the table in Product and Engineering discussions, bringing the field perspective where it matters. You'll partner with GTM Automation on the tooling that helps your team punch above their weight.

Requirements

• 2+ years of experience managing a team of Sales Engineers or Solutions Consultants at a software company, preferably in a startup environment
• 4+ years of strong enterprise SE experience. You've run technical evaluations, led POCs, and helped close large, complex deals
• Experience in developer tooling, DevOps, platform engineering, or an adjacent technical domain is a strong plus
• A track record of hiring and developing SE talent, not just inheriting a team
• Hands-on technically: you're comfortable taking over a demo, covering a POC check-in call, or whiteboarding architecture when it counts
• Comfortability in front of executives. You've described the value of software you've sold to rooms full of executives at large and small companies. You can describe this value in any given customer's terms easily
• Builder mindset: you create process and structure, not just manage it
• Based in Boston with ability to be in-office 3 days per week