Sr. Project Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering

SailPoint Technologies Holdings, Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 103,000 - 173,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and wellness coverage

401(k) Savings with company matching

Paid time off

Job summary

SailPoint Technologies Holdings, Inc. is seeking a Senior Project Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering to orchestrate and optimize pre-sales engagements across modernization and net-new opportunities.

You will coordinate discovery workshops, manage timelines, and track deal velocity to accelerate customer value. In this role you’ll lead cross-functional teams, partner with Sales Leadership, and provide executive-facing pipeline reports, ensuring readiness of technical prerequisites and

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in pre-sales operations, sales project management, or solutions engineering coordination within the enterprise software space.
• Deep expertise in navigating complex enterprise software sales cycles and coordinating technical pre-sales resources.

Responsibilities

• Act as the central point of contact for the global sales organization to intake, triage, and schedule all FDE pre-sales requests for modernization and net-new opportunities.
• Coordinate and manage the logistics of pre-sales technical engagements, including discovery workshops, architecture deep-dives, and strategic roadmap sessions.
• Maintain a comprehensive, real-time tracking system for all active FDE pre-sales opportunities, monitoring deal stages, FDE involvement, and next steps.
• Build and manage timelines for complex pre-sales engagements, ensuring technical validations and pipeline phases do not stall the broader sales cycle.
• Proactively identify and mitigate bottlenecks in the pre-sales FDE pipeline, ensuring sales reps and technical stakeholders are aligned on timelines and deliverables.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Organization

Problem-solving

Pre-sales coordination

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

Salesforce

Smartsheet

Jira

Job description

Why SailPoint? Love what you do. And love where you do it. Smart people, fun culture, innovative work, beautiful offices — oh, and everyone’s really nice. That’s what people say about SailPoint. We’re known as the company where everyone wants to work, and we have the awards to prove it. If you’re passionate about outsmarting cybercriminals and working at a company where you can truly have an impact, and we want you to join our team. SailPoint empowers the largest, most complex organizations by putting identity at the Center of Security and IT. Our 2,000+ customers include global financial institutions, government entities, and pharmaceutical organizations and more.

Who You Are:

You are a self-directed, highly motivated, and experienced professional that thrives while overseeing multiple projects and prospective client opportunities. It is easy for you to build and maintain professional working relationships, and you are comfortable interacting with people at all levels within an organization. You possess strong leadership, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills and can balance both team and individual workloads. You are an exceptional multitasker, with the ability to meet and manage moving deadlines, gauge risks, and creatively resolve unexpected issues that arise. By leveraging your experience, you can identify.

Role Summary:

Operating at the intersection of Solution Engineering, Professional Services and Product Management, the Forward Deployed Engineering team (FDEs) leverages state-of-the-art AI tooling alongside deep implementation expertise and industry knowledge to build foundational solutions, solve complex problems, accelerate our customers' time-to-value and decrease the cost of traditional services. The Senior Project Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering, is a critical pre-sales operational leader responsible for orchestrating and managing the pipeline of all FDE engagements, encompassing both legacy modernization initiatives and complex net-new customer opportunities. Operating in the pre-sales lifecycle, this role acts as the "air traffic controller" for the Forward Deployed Engineering team. Reporting to the Director of FDE, you will coordinate technical discovery workshops, manage the timelines of pre-sales FDE engagements, and track deal velocity. You will provide direct tactical support to both the Director and the Engagement Manager by ensuring that all FDE pre-sales activities—regardless of whether they are for an existing customer or a net-new prospect—are perfectly structured and seamlessly executed.

Responsibilities:

Pre-Sales Pipeline Management & FDE Orchestration

Act as the central point of contact for the global sales organization to intake, triage, and schedule all FDE pre-sales requests for both modernization and net-new opportunities.

Coordinate and manage the logistics of pre-sales technical engagements, including discovery workshops, architecture deep-dives, and strategic roadmap sessions.

Maintain a comprehensive, real-time tracking system for all active FDE pre-sales opportunities, monitoring deal stages, FDE involvement, and next steps.

Sales Alignment & Velocity Tracking

Build and manage timelines for complex pre-sales engagements, ensuring technical validations and pipeline phases do not stall the broader sales cycle.

Proactively identify and mitigate bottlenecks in the pre-sales FDE pipeline, ensuring sales reps and technical stakeholders are completely aligned on timelines and deliverables.

Partner with Sales Leadership to provide regular FDE pipeline status updates, FDE resource utilization metrics, and deal velocity reports across all engagement types.

Operational Support for the Engagement Manager & Director

Act as the logistical counterpart to the Engagement Manager; while the EM manages the scoping frameworks and standardizes the SOWs, you will ensure they have the necessary meeting notes, technical prerequisites, and stakeholder alignment to keep deals moving quickly.

Assist the Director in preparing for executive-level pre-sales presentations, managing presentation assets, and coordinating FDE resources for high-priority strategic deals.

Manage the scheduling and coordination of the FDE team’s pre-sales enablement sessions for internal sales and partner teams.

Significantly reduce the Director and Engagement Manager's day-to-day administrative and scheduling burden, allowing them to focus entirely on technical strategy and programmatic scale.

Required Skills & Experience:

Experience

6+ years of experience in pre-sales operations, sales project management, or solutions engineering coordination within the enterprise software space.

Pre-Sales Expertise

Deep expertise in navigating complex enterprise software sales cycles and coordinating technical pre-sales resources (e.g., Sales Engineers, FDEs, Architects) for both net-new logos and existing customer expansions.

Project Management Methodologies

Strong command of project tracking tools and CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce, Smartsheet, Jira). PMP or equivalent certification is a plus.

Collaborative Leadership

Proven ability to "lead without authority" by coordinating cross-functional pre-sales teams, holding sales reps accountable to technical prerequisites, and keeping deals on track.

Technical Aptitude

Ability to understand high-level software architecture and identity security concepts to effectively schedule and track technical discussions (IAM experience is preferred but not required).

Communication & Organization

Excellent executive-level reporting skills, with a track record of bringing order to high-volume, fast-paced sales pipelines.

Success Milestones

1 Month In

Onboarding, Training, and Discovery Complete internal corporate onboarding and integrate with the Forward Deployed Engineering team.

Complete Product Training: Successfully finish the Identity Security Leader and the Identity Security Administrator (Identity Security Cloud) training paths via SailPoint Identity University, establishing a strong baseline knowledge of Identity Security principles and core platform functionality.

Shadow the Director and Engagement Manager on active pre-sales calls, discovery sessions, and internal deal strategy meetings to understand the current pre-sales FDE motion for both existing and net-new customers.

Take inventory of the current FDE pre-sales pipeline and evaluate the methods used for tracking FDE deal involvement and resource allocation.

3 Months In

Taking Ownership and Establishing Rhythms Fully own the intake and scheduling process for all FDE pre-sales requests globally, operating as the primary logistical liaison to the sales team.

Implement a standardized tracking system (e.g., Salesforce dashboards, Smartsheet) to monitor health, FDE stage, and next steps for all pre-sales FDE engagements.

Successfully facilitate the logistical coordination of discovery workshops and technical deep-dives, ensuring the FDE team has exactly what they need to engage productively.

Assume responsibility for weekly FDE pre-sales pipeline reporting to the Director.

6 Months In

Optimization, Governance, and Scale Fully govern the FDE pre-sales project lifecycle, ensuring consistent, high-quality, and predictable FDE engagement across all global sales regions and customer types.

Autonomously anticipate FDE resource bottlenecks and independently execute mitigation plans to keep the sales pipeline moving.

Serve as the trusted operational leader for the global sales organization regarding FDE availability, pre-sales timelines, and engagement prerequisites.

Travel

Ability to travel up to 15%

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.

Benefits and Compensation

Benefits and Compensation listed vary based on the location of your employment and the nature of your employment with SailPoint. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the SailPoint Corporate Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission, along with potential eligibility for equity participation. SailPoint maintains broad salary ranges for its roles to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect SailPoint’s differing products, industries, and lines of business. Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity. We estimate the base salary, for US-based employees, will be in this range from (min-max, USD): $102,700 - $173,106.00 Base salaries for employees based in other locations are competitive for the employee’s home location.

Benefits Overview

• 1. Health and wellness coverage: Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 2. Disability coverage: Short-term and long-term disability
• 3. Life protection: Life insurance and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D)
• 4. Additional life coverage options: Supplemental life insurance for employees, spouses, and children
• 5. Flexible spending accounts for health care, and dependent care; limited purpose flexible spending account
• 6. Financial security: 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company matching
• 7. Time off benefits: Flexible vacation policy
• 8. Holidays: 8 paid holidays annually
• 9. Sick leave
• 10. Parental support: Paid parental leave
• 11. Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Care Counselors
• 12. Voluntary benefits: Legal Assistance, Critical Illness, Accident, Hospital Indemnity and Pet Insurance options
• 13. Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution

Equal Opportunity Statement

SailPoint is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome all qualified candidates to apply to join our team. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other category protected by applicable law.

Alternative methods of applying for employment are available to individuals unable to submit an application through this site because of a disability.

Company Policy and Diversity

SailPoint is a leading provider of identity security for the modern enterprise. Enterprise security starts and ends with identities and their access, yet the ability to manage and secure identities today has moved well beyond human capacity. Using a foundation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the SailPoint Identity Security Platform delivers the right level of access to the right identities and resources at the right time—matching the scale, velocity, and environmental needs of today’s cloud-oriented enterprise. Our intelligent, autonomous, and integrated solutions put identity security at the core of digital business operations, enabling even the most complex organizations across the globe to build a security foundation capable of defending against today’s most pressing threats.

The employment policy of SailPoint is to provide equal opportunity to all persons, and it is SailPoint’s policy to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. It is SailPoint’s policy to recruit, hire, train and promote qualified individuals in all job titles, and ensure that all other personnel actions are administered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, military and/or veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status, and we will ensure that all employment decisions are based only on valid job requirements.

SailPoint does not discriminate on the basis of national origin or citizenship status as provided under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Employees and applicants shall not be subjected to harassment, intimidation, threats, coercion, or discrimination because they have engaged in or may engage in any of the following activities: Filing a complaint; Assisting or participating in an investigation, compliance evaluation, hearing, or any other activity related to the administration of the affirmative action provisions of Section503, VEVRAA, or any other Federal, State or local law requiring equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities or protected veterans; Opposing any act or practice made unlawful by Section503, VEVRAA, or the implementing regulations in this part, or any other Federal, State or local law requiring equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities or protected veterans; or Exercising any other right protected by section503, VEVRAA or the implementing regulations.

SailPoint will also provide reasonable accommodation to known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified employee or applicant for employment, unless the accommodation would impose undue hardship on the operation of our business.

SailPoint’s affirmative action program contains an audit and reporting system which enables us to measure the effectiveness of our program, indicate any need for remedial action, determine the degree to which our objectives have been attained, determine whether protected veterans and individuals with disabilities had had the opportunity to participate in company-sponsored activities, measure our compliance with the program’s specific obligations, and document actions taken to comply with these obligations.