Director of Sales Engineering

Department: Sales

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Remote

Description

Portnox is a fast-growing, VC-backed cybersecurity company delivering a mission-critical cloud platform for secure network and application access. We are seeking a Director of Sales Engineering to lead, scale, and mature our global Sales Engineering organization as we enter our next phase of growth. 

Portnox is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with a globally distributed remote workforce. While Austin-based candidates are preferred, we are also open to candidates located in Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Virginia.  Off-world candidates will not be considered. 

The Role This is a senior leadership role responsible for owning the strategy, operating model, and effectiveness of the Sales Engineering function. The Director of Sales Engineering ensures that Portnox’s technical value, differentiation, and evaluation experience are consistently and effectively delivered throughout the pre-sales lifecycle. 

You will be accountable for how Portnox is technically evaluated in the market, how our solutions are demonstrated and proven, and how Sales Engineers are enabled to support predictable, scalable revenue growth. This role is focused on building and optimizing the system, team, and standards that power sales execution, not on carrying deals directly. 

As a core leader within the Sales organization, you will serve as a strategic partner to Sales, Product, Marketing, and Customer Experience, and as an internal authority on buyer evaluation patterns, competitive dynamics, and technical objections in the field. 

Key Responsibilities

Sales Engineering Strategy and Operations 

• Own the vision, structure, and operating model for the global Sales Engineering organization 
• Define engagement models, coverage strategy, and prioritization frameworks aligned to revenue goals and sales motions 
• Establish scalable, repeatable standards for demos, proofs of concept, and technical evaluations across segments and regions 
• Define, track, and evolve KPIs for Sales Engineering effectiveness, efficiency, and impact, using data to drive continuous improvement 

Team Leadership and Development 

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of Sales Engineers, including hiring, onboarding, performance management, and career progression 
• Establish clear role expectations, skill frameworks, and growth paths for individual contributors and senior SEs 
• Build a culture of technical excellence, customer empathy, accountability, and continuous learning 

Enablement and Narrative Ownership 

• Own onboarding and ongoing technical enablement for Sales Engineers and broader customer-facing teams 
• Ensure consistent technical positioning, messaging, and differentiation across buyer personas and stages of the sales cycle 
• Partner with Product Marketing to shape how Portnox is positioned against competitors and alternatives such as VPNs, NAC incumbents, and ZTNA or SASE offerings 

Cross-Functional Leadership 

• Serve as a strategic partner to Sales leadership on deal strategy, resource planning, and forecast risk related to technical evaluations 
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to provide structured field feedback that influences roadmap, integrations, and usability 
• Partner with Customer Experience to ensure continuity between pre-sales expectations and post-sales success 

Technical Escalation and Market Insight 

• Act as the senior technical escalation point for complex evaluations, strategic opportunities, or high-risk deals when required 
• Provide guidance on architecture, security posture, and deployment models without becoming a default deal-level contributor 
• Maintain deep awareness of how customers evaluate Portnox in real-world environments and how competitors position against us 

Systems, Process, and Documentation 

• Ensure accurate and consistent documentation of technical activity, outcomes, and insights within Salesforce and related systems 
• Drive adoption of tools, templates, and automation that improve consistency, visibility, and scale 

Skills, Knowledge, and Expertise

Leadership and Experience 

• 3 to 5 years of people leadership experience managing and scaling Sales Engineering or highly technical customer-facing teams 
• 5 to 7 years o