Sales Engineer Resume Example & Writing Guide

A sales engineer resume must show off your unique combination of technical, product, and sales skills. However, even with expertise selling software or systems, it can still be challenging to market yourself. That’s why we’re here to help.

In fact, Resume.io is a powerful resource for any job seeker, with resume guides and resume examples for 350+ professions, plus a user-friendly resume builder. We can help you sell your skills to your next boss confidently and easily.

This guide, plus its corresponding resume example, will explain the following topics:

• What does a sales engineer do?
• Tips for writing a sales engineer resume
• The best format for a sales engineer resume
• Advice on each section of your resume: summary, work history, education, and skills
• Resume layout and design hints

What does a sales engineer do?

The main goal of a sales engineer is to sell technical products or software, often to businesses. Sales engineers deliver technical presentations to explain products or tools to prospective customers, engage with these customers to understand their needs and how to meet them, and partner with the sales team to secure orders. From there, sales engineers often act as a technical support person to help customers solve issues with the product, recommend new or upgraded items, or assist in the development of new products.

Sales engineer job market and outlook

Given the technological advances of the past decades, there’s plenty of need for sales engineers to help evangelize and sell technology tools. 

The BLS states that sales engineer jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2022 to 2032, faster than the average of all jobs. They also note that approximately 5,900 sales engineer jobs open each year.

How to write a sales engineer resume

Before writing your sales engineer resume, you should understand the sections to include. Your CV should contain the following sections:

• A resume header
• A resume summary
• Employment history
• Skills
• Education

As we noted, a sales engineer is responsible for engaging with people to explain products, entice customers to buy those products, and offer technical support. These are exactly the skills you want to convey in your sales engineering resume. 

As you prepare your resume for sales engineer positions, think about the day-to-day role and the kind of impact you could make. Imagine the hiring manager is actually interviewing you. What questions might they ask? Aim to answer those through the content on your resume. 

Choosing the best resume format for a sales engineer

The resume format you choose should make it simple for hiring managers to understand your value. That’s why a sales engineer resume, much like many other professional resumes, should use a reverse chronological format. List your current or most recent job first and your oldest job last. 

Some individuals may benefit from using a functional resume format instead; for instance, a career changer who wants to draw attention to skills instead of job history might appreciate how a functional resume makes that possible. There is also a hybrid format that marries the two types. However, for the majority of sales engineers, reverse chronological is the way to go. 

Resume header

Start your resume with a header that displays your name, location, and contact information. This seemingly simple part of your resume is actually quite important: after all, this is how recruiters will get in touch with you to set up an interview.

Resume summary example

A resume summary (sometimes referred to as a profile or personal statement) is typically situated below the header. The purpose is to quickly convey an at-a-glance summary of your unique value proposition. 

When writing your summary, be concise and avoid personal pronouns like “I” or “my.” Use clear, dynamic language that goes beyond rehashing your daily duties. Instead, use verbs and metrics to explain how you’ve made an impact.

This is the most free-form part of your resume, so it can be challenging. If you’re feeling stuck, we offer more than just sales engineer resume examples; you may find inspiration in our:

Take a look at the summary from a sales engineer resume example below:

Employment history sample 

A quality sales engineer resume must reflect your sales and technology experience, and what better way to do that than by detailing your past sales engineer jobs? Using the aforementioned reverse chronological format, start with your most recent role and work backward.

Under each employer’s heading, detail your accomplishments in short bullet points (again omitting personal pronouns). Be specific and demonstrate tangible outcomes rather than simply a list of job duties. You might include things like quotas achieved, technologies leveraged, repeat customers or referrals, customer satisfaction, etc. Quantify as much as possible to make your value undeniable. 

See below for a sales engineer employment history resume example: 

CV skills example

Because the role of a sales engineer involves people skills and software skills, your CV should reflect both in the skills section. 

The CV skills list can include both hard skills (think: technologies or sales methodologies you use) and soft skills (things like negotiation, consultative sales, and other interpersonal-type skills). This combination will make it clear that you’re the best sales engineer for the job. 

Check out a resume sample for the skills section below.

Sales engineer resume education example

Per the BLS, a typical sales engineer job requires a bachelor’s degree in a field like engineering or business. That means your resume’s education section should clearly display your credentials. If you have a degree higher than a bachelor’s, make sure to add it as well. 

If you’ve undergone any training or certification in a particular technology or sales methodology, or even something like a project management certification, include that here, too. If you’re a recent graduate who is new to the workforce, consider swapping the order of your employment history and education sections so that education appears first. Below, you can see an education section from a sales engineer resume sample.

Resume layout and design

As we’ve mentioned, the goal of your resume is to sell your skills and abilities and land your next sales engineer job. Therefore, it’s important that the layout and design of your resume call attention to that important content rather than distracting from it.

This means you should have a clean, easy-to-follow resume that makes the content the focal point. You want a resume that packages your skills in a sleek, streamlined way—not one that confuses the reader with too many graphics or colors. 

It can feel overwhelming to design a resume, so if you’re feeling challenged, check out our numerous resume templates that will do some of the heavy lifting for you. 

Key takeaways for a sales engineer resume

1. Sales engineers require a unique combination of technical and interpersonal skills, as they spend their time supporting customers using technical products.
2. These skills also come in handy when creating sales engineer resumes, since a resume is essentially a sales document.
3. Make sure your resume reflects your achievements and accomplishments and uses language relevant to the job at hand.
4. Using an online resume maker can be a simple way to make the process faster, easier, and more enjoyable.