Director, Sales Engineering

Job description

Parallel Domain’s mission is to enable our partners to bring autonomy and physical AI to the world faster, safer and with higher quality. We build sensor simulation and reconstruction software that helps teams developing autonomous vehicles, robotics, drones, eVTOL systems and other physical AI applications test and validate their technology at scale. Our platform turns real-world customer capture data into high-fidelity, physically valid simulation environments, then enables deterministic camera, lidar and radar simulation across the scenarios customers need to evaluate. In autonomy and physical AI, there is no margin for error. ### The Role Parallel Domain is hiring a Director of Sales Engineering to lead the technical side of our enterprise sales process. This is a hands-on, individual-contributor leadership role for someone who can earn credibility with highly technical buyers, uncover how customers develop and validate autonomous systems, and design evaluations that demonstrate measurable product value. You will partner closely with our OEM Enterprise Sales Director and Enterprise Sales Director across the full customer journey, from initial technical discovery and architecture review through demonstration, proof of concept, production deployment and expansion. You will work directly with perception engineers, ML engineers, simulation teams, data leaders, autonomy executives and other technical stakeholders. You will be expected to understand their workflows, identify where Parallel Domain fits within their development and validation infrastructure, and translate technical requirements into a clear path forward. As an early leader in the commercial organization, you will also build the sales engineering foundation Parallel Domain needs to scale. This includes discovery standards, demonstration environments, evaluation frameworks, reusable technical content, competitive positioning and the operating model between Sales, Product and Engineering. ### What You’ll Do ● Own the technical sales cycle for strategic enterprise and automotive OEM opportunities. ● Partner with Enterprise Sales Directors to qualify opportunities, shape account strategies and advance complex deals. ● Lead technical discovery with customer teams across perception, machine learning, simulation, autonomy, data infrastructure, validation and engineering. ● Understand how customers collect and manage sensor data, train and evaluate models, reconstruct environments, run simulation and validate autonomous-system performance. ● Translate customer workflows, technical requirements and business objectives into a clear Parallel Domain solution. ● Deliver technically credible product demonstrations tailored to specific customer use cases and architectures. ● Design and lead proof-of-concept and evaluation engagements with defined use cases, success criteria, stakeholders, timelines and paths to production. ● Ensure technical evaluations remain connected to commercial outcomes and expansion opportunities. ● Support customers in understanding how Parallel Domain integrates with existing autonomy stacks, APIs, development environments, data pipelines and CI/CD workflows. ● Navigate technical objections, architecture concerns, security questions, integration requirements and competitive alternatives. ● Partner with Product and Engineering to scope customer requirements without overcommitting or creating unsustainable one-off solutions. ● Represent the voice of the customer internally by providing structured feedback on product gaps, recurring use cases, market needs and competitive dynamics. ● Build repeatable sales engineering processes, including discovery frameworks, demo assets, technical qualification standards, POC templates and evaluation scorecards. ● Develop technical materials that support the sales process, including solution briefs, architecture diagrams, technical proposals, evaluation plans and responses to customer requirements. ● Support the transition from technical validation into onboarding, deployment and expansion. ● Represent Parallel Domain at customer meetings, automotive and autonomy conferences, technical events and industry forums. ● Help define the future structure, hiring profile and operating model for the Sales Engineering function as the company grows. ### What We’re Looking For ● 8+ years of professional experience in technical software, infrastructure, machine learning, simulation, autonomy, robotics, developer tools or a related field. ● 5+ years of experience in sales engineering, solutions architecture, customer engineering, technical consulting or another customer-facing technical role. ● Experience supporting complex enterprise sales cycles involving technical evaluations, proofs of concept, architecture reviews and multiple customer stakeholders. ● Demonstrated ability to work directly with engineering-oriented buyers and earn credibility through strong technical discovery and communication. ● Experience with one or more of the following: autonomous systems, AV or ADAS development, robotics, simulation, synthetic data, computer vision, machine learning infrastructure, sensor data, developer platforms or data infrastructure. ● Working knowledge of machine learning development and validation workflows. ● Ability to understand and discuss APIs, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines, model evaluation and software integration patterns. ● Strong ability to translate technical capabilities into customer value and measurable business outcomes. ● Experience defining evaluation success criteria and moving customers from proof of concept to production adoption. ● Excellent written and verbal communication skills across engineering, product, executive and commercial audiences. ● Strong judgment around when to configure, integrate, escalate, push back or involve Product and Engineering. ● Comfort operating in an early-stage environment with ambiguity, limited process and high ownership. ● Ability to build repeatable systems while remaining deeply involved in customer execution. ● Willingness to travel regularly within the United States. ### Strong Signals ● Prior experience as a software engineer, ML engineer, simulation engineer, solutions architect or technical product leader. ● Experience selling into automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, autonomy companies, robotics businesses, drone companies or other physical AI organizations. ● Familiarity with camera, lidar, radar or other sensor modalities. ● Understanding of perception development, model evaluation, scenario generation, closed-loop testing or software-in-the-loop simulation. ● Experience with Python, APIs, notebooks, cloud environments or technical prototyping. ● Experience with production deployments of developer-facing, infrastructure or data products. ● A record of helping close and expand six- or seven-figure enterprise contracts. ● Experience building an early sales engineering, solutions or customer engineering function. ### What Success Looks Like Within the first six months, you will: ● Establish a consistent technical discovery and qualification process. ● Build a repeatable evaluation and POC framework. ● Become a trusted technical partner to Parallel Domain’s enterprise sales team. ● Independently lead customer demonstrations, architecture discussions and evaluations. ● Reduce dependency on Product and Engineering during routine technical sales activity. ● Improve the quality, speed and commercial conversion of customer evaluations. Over time, you will help Parallel Domain create a scalable technical GTM function capable of supporting growth across automotive, robotics, drones, trucking, agriculture, defense and other physical AI markets. ### Compensation ● $200,000 base + $65,000 OTE + equity ● Performance-based variable compensation ● Equity ● Full benefits