Sr. Staff Sales Engineer - Central US

The next era of software won’t operate at human scale. Applications will create applications. Systems will coordinate with systems. Data and decisions will move faster than teams can react to them. The infrastructure powering that world cannot be fragile, reactive, or limited by the assumptions of the past.  Cockroach Labs exists to build what comes next — before the world requires it.

We created CockroachDB to survive failures, scale without compromise, and adapt to changing conditions automatically. Now we’re helping define a future where complexity fades into the background and infrastructure simply works, no matter the scale.

This is the kind of challenge that attracts people who want to shape industries, not just participate in them. The work is ambitious, the standards are high, and the impact is real.

We are looking to grow our rapidly expanding sales engineering team. As a Sales Engineer, you will help qualify and close opportunities with customers and partners and provide technical expertise through sales presentations, product demonstrations, and supporting technical evaluations. While location for this role is flexible, you must be based in the Central territory to be eligible for this role. 

• Work alongside the sales team to introduce CockroachDB to our potential customers. As a trusted advisor, you will help educate prospects on the unique capabilities of CockroachDB and design solutions to meet a wide variety of challenges.
• Lead product and solution briefings, build proof-of-concepts (POC), run live product demos, and prototype CockroachDB integrations.
• Partner with Cockroach Labs product management, engineering and support teams to solve customer challenges and improve CockroachDB.
• Identify and address customers' key technical objections and develop the engineering strategies strategy to resolve those blockers to adoption. 

In your first 30 days, you will immerse yourself in CockroachDB and our sales motion. We believe that it's important for you to take this first month to become familiar with our company, technology and message.

During this time you will be an active listener on customer calls and build relationships with various teams at Cockroach Labs. As you gain confidence in the message and technology, you will be called upon to lead meetings with support from the team.

After 90 days, you should be ready to lead customer meetings without support and conduct POCs.  You should be working closely with Account Managers in your territory to build regional go to market strategies and account plans for key prospects. 

• 10-12+ years of prior experience collecting requirements, developing solution architectures, leading presentations and teaching prospective users or project teams how to use software similar to CockroachDB. 
• Developed software or infrastructure for scalable, distributed systems in the past and want to stay close to the code.
• A passion for working on complex technical problems and have a strong understanding of modern infrastructure and database technologies.
• A strong ability to build relationships with our partners, customers, and open-source users.
• A demonstrated practice of integrating AI tools into your daily workflow to improve speed, quality, and decision-making.
• Fluency with AI across core tasks — research, drafting, analysis, planning — used as a default, not an exception.
• A collaborative spirit and enjoy making sure that each team gets customer feedback to keep improving CockroachDB.
• The flexibility to travel to meet customers, attend events or conferences or wherever the work takes you. 

Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at accessibility@cockroachlabs.com.

Cockroach Labs has a hybrid work model, with Roachers that are local to one of our offices coming in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and working flexibly the rest of the week. While we’ve learned valuable lessons working remotely, nothing can replace the connection, creativity, and fun that occurs when Roachers get together and we are committed to fostering a workplace that encourages collaboration and allows us all to do our best work.