HPE Networking - Sales Engineering Manager, Commercial

The Presales Consulting Manager for Commercial leads a team of inside Presales Engineers supporting the Commercial Sales organization focused on Small and Medium Business (SMB) and Mid-Market customers in an inside sales operating model. 

This role partners closely with Sales leadership to align technical resources with business priorities, pipeline opportunities, customer needs, and growth initiatives. The manager is responsible for people leadership, technical sales execution, resource management, talent development, and operational excellence. 

Operating within a high-volume Commercial environment, the manager develops scalable Presales coverage through a combination of direct technical engagement, repeatable sales motions, partner leverage, digital engagement, automation, and AI-assisted selling. 

The successful candidate combines technical credibility with strong business and people leadership and is capable of operating as a trusted partner to Sales while developing a high-performing Presales organization. 

Responsibilities 

Business & Sales Execution 

• Lead Presales coverage across assigned SMB and Mid-Market sales teams, territories, and opportunities. 

• Partner with Inside Sales leadership on pipeline development, opportunity prioritization, territory planning, and technical sales strategy. 

• Align Presales capacity and resources with business priorities, customer demand, pipeline potential, and opportunity complexity. 

• Coach the team on discovery, consultative selling, competitive positioning, solution design, and communicating technical and business value. 

• Participate directly in selected strategic, competitive, or technically complex opportunities where management involvement can influence the outcome. 

• Identify and remove technical barriers that could delay opportunities and help uncover new use cases and cross-portfolio opportunities. 

• Use business and operational data to continuously improve coverage, productivity, resource utilization, and technical cost of sale. 

People Leadership & Development 

• Lead, coach, and develop Presales Engineers across technical, business, customer-facing, and consultative-selling competencies. 

• Establish clear expectations for performance, customer engagement, technical execution, collaboration, and professional development. 

• Conduct regular coaching, performance management, career development, and skills assessments. 

• Identify skill gaps and implement development plans aligned with evolving technologies and business requirements. 

• Recruit, onboard, develop, and retain Presales talent. 

• Develop emerging leaders and create career pathways into senior Presales, specialist, field, channel, and leadership roles. 

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, technical curiosity, customer focus, and continuous learning. 

Scalable Presales Execution 

• Develop repeatable Presales motions appropriate for a high-volume Commercial business. 

• Establish scalable approaches to discovery, demonstrations, solution design, configurations, proposals, proof-of-concepts, and technical validation. 

• Determine when opportunities require direct Presales engagement versus partner-led, specialist, digital, self-service, or automated support. 

• Drive adoption of AI, automation, digital selling, and productivity tools that increase Presales capacity and improve customer and seller experience. 

• Promote creation and reuse of reference architectures, demonstrations, technical content, competitive guidance, and best practices. 

• Continuously identify opportunities to increase Presales-influenced revenue and customer coverage while maintaining an efficient technical cost of sale. 

Customer, Partner & Cross-Functional Leadership 

• Build trusted relationships with key customer and partner technical stakeholders. 

• Participate in strategic customer engagements, escalations, competitive opportunities, workshops, and technical events when appropriate. 

• Collaborate with Channel and Partner Presales teams to extend technical reach and enable partner-led execution. 

• Partner across Sales, Specialists, Product Management, Business Units, Marketing, Customer Success, Services, and other technical organizations. 

• Represent Commercial field requirements and provide feedback on recurring customer needs, competitive trends, product gaps, and opportunities for improvement. 

Success Measures 

Success is measured through a combination of business results, Presales effectiveness, operational efficiency, and people development, including: 

• Contribution toward assigned sales quota and revenue growth. 

• Presales-influenced pipeline and revenue. 

• Pipeline progression and technical win rates. 

• New-logo and whitespace opportunity support. 

• Presales coverage, productivity, utilization, and technical cost of sale. 

• Adoption of repeatable, digital, automated, and partner-led sales motions. 

• Customer, partner, and Sales stakeholder satisfaction. 

• Team technical readiness, performance, engagement, retention, and career development. 

Education and Experience 

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience. 

• Typically 6–10+ years of experience in Presales, Solutions Engineering, Sales Engineering, network engineering, solution architecture, or a related technical customer-facing role. 

• Leadership experience ranging from demonstrated technical/team leadership to 2+ years of direct people management, depending on position level. 

• Experience mentoring, coaching, or developing technical professionals. 

• Demonstrated experience supporting quota-bearing Sales organizations and contributing to successful customer and business outcomes. 

• Experience partnering with Sales leadership on pipeline prioritization, opportunity strategy, and resource allocation. 

• Experience supporting SMB, Mid-Market, Commercial, Inside Sales, or similarly scaled customer segments strongly preferred. 

• Strong understanding of enterprise networking and adjacent technologies such as wireless, switching, routing, security, data center, cloud, automation, and AI-driven operations. 

• Juniper Networks and/or HPE Networking knowledge or experience preferred. 

• Relevant industry technical certifications are desirable. 

Position Level, Knowledge & Skills 

Successful candidates should demonstrate: 

• Leadership, coaching, communication, and talent-development capabilities. 

• Ability to build productive relationships across sales, product & partner orgs. 

• Technical credibility and a strong understanding of the Presales sales cycle. 

• Customer-facing presentation, discovery, and consultative-selling skills. 

• Ability to translate technical solutions into customer business outcomes. 

• Business acumen across pipeline management, forecasting, coverage, productivity, and resource allocation. 

• Ability to use data to make effective decisions regarding Presales capacity, prioritization, and business impact. 

• Strong organizational, analytical, prioritization, and project-management skills. 

• Ability to operate effectively in a high-volume Commercial environment where speed, scale, and prioritization are critical. 

• Experience adopting and driving CRM, digital collaboration, AI, automation, and sales productivity technologies. 

The successful candidate must demonstrate the ability to operate as a people leader, Sales business partner, technical coach, and operational leader within a scaled Commercial Presales organization.