General
Sales Engineer
Also written as SE, Pre-Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer
The technical half of a sales team — runs demos, answers the buyer's engineers' questions, and proves the product does what the salesperson claims.
Think of it like
Like the person at a car dealership who opens the bonnet and answers the mechanic you brought with you, while the salesperson handles the price.
Junior or senior?
Junior sounds like
Can demo the happy path.
Senior sounds like
Can lose a deal honestly — they'll tell you about a time they said the product wasn't a fit, and why that was the right call.
Ask them
“Tell me about a deal where you told the customer we weren't the right fit. What happened?”