Headline risk
24%
Moderate RiskSales engineers
United States AI Work Index tracks this occupation on the shared structural baseline and then layers on local demand resilience, wages, and confidence.
Why This Score
Share of job tasks that overlap with current AI capabilities
Median annual wage
Projected employment change over 10 years
Typical preparation needed for this occupation
Occupation profile
Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering.
Task evidence
100% weighted task match · 29% effective coverage
Scores combine AI task overlap, human advantages, and local demand. How it works
United States Now
Median Wage
USD 121,520
Employment 2024
56.8K
Projected Change (2024–34)
5.5%
Openings (2024–34)
5.0K
Wage distribution
Demand outlook
Employment of sales engineers is projected to grow 5 percent from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all occupations.
Role Profile
Tasks
- 1. Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including request for proposal responses and industry-specific solutions. AI use: 88%
- 2. Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support. AI use: 97%
- 3. Keep informed on industry news and trends, products, services, competitors, relevant information about legacy, existing, and emerging technologies, and the latest product-line developments. AI use: 0%
- 4. Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements. AI use: 72%
- 5. Create sales or service contracts for products or services. AI use: 0%
- 6. Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages. AI use: 0%
Technologies
Requirements
Work context
Worker profile
Median age 42.6 · 58K employed
Under 25: 3% · 25–54: 74% · 55+: 22%
Related
Source coverage
11/11 source families · O*NET 30.2 / OEWS 2024 / ORS 2025 / OOH 2025-08-28 / Projections 2024-34 / CPS 2025 / Anthropic task penetration
Mapping quality
major_group_fallback · employment series present
Narrative & sources
Sales engineers sell business products or services, such as software or support, that require technical expertise.
Sales engineers typically work in an office setting and often travel to meet with customers. Most sales engineers work full time.
To enter the occupation, sales engineers typically need a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field. Sales engineers combine technical knowledge of the products or services they are selling with strong interpersonal skills.
The median annual wage for sales engineers was $121,520 in May 2024.
Employment of sales engineers is projected to grow 5 percent from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all occupations.
Published limitations
This page shows the local country layer, not realised individual job outcomes. The global structural baseline is shared across countries; only the local demand and wage layer changes here.
Built from O*NET occupation descriptions, task statements, technology skills, work context, Job Zones, Anthropic task penetration, BLS OEWS wages, BLS projection tables, BLS ORS requirements, BLS OOH narrative content, BLS skills data, and BLS CPS occupation age tables.