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Sales Engineers

Sales and Related · SOC 41-9031

32.2% AI Exposure — Very High
$124,900
Median Annual Salary
Average
O*NET Outlook
7,900
Proj. Annual Openings
51,790
Employment (OEWS 2025)
-3.4%/yr
Empl. growth (2019–2025)
68/100
AI Resiliency Score

AI exposure from the Anthropic Economic Index (2025); salary from BLS; skills from O*NET. See /sources.

Decision card

Career Evidence Passport

SOC 41-9031 evidence across exposure, wages, projections, postings, certified LCAs, skills, and transitions.

Proxy / seed data labeledDescriptive-only
SOC exposure
32.2%
Very High · Anthropic AEI
Automation friction
51/100
Moderate friction; broad SOC seed ORS job-requirements coverage.
Wages
$124,900
H-1B offered wage $144,735; LCAs are filings.
Projected openings
7,900
BLS EP 2024–2034; employment change +5.5%.
Observed/proxy demand
2,436
FY2025 certified LCAs; 11,321 postings in 2025.

Skill evidence

SpeakingPersuasionReading ComprehensionActive ListeningCritical Thinking
  • H-1B values are certified Labor Condition Applications, not visa approvals.
  • Job postings are seed-static / seed-derived; treat as provider-ready proxy coverage until observed provider data is wired in.
  • Transition matches are directional skill-overlap context, not placement guarantees.
  • This release is a FutureGrid broad-SOC seed derived from public BLS ORS requirement concepts and categories, not direct occupation-level ORS survey estimates. It describes job requirements, not worker ability, AI capability, or displacement probability. Automation friction is a FutureGrid derived score and should be read alongside exposure, demand, wage, and projection signals.

Best transitions from here

Explore all pathways

Lower AI-exposure roles that reuse your skills, ranked by a transition score (skills that transfer, safety gain, pay and retraining effort).

AI Exposure Analysis

AI Exposure32.2%
AI Resiliency68/100
Exposure BandVery High
Sector Avg. Exposure27.4%

Across AI measures

Multiple exposure lenses for this occupation.

58.1%
Consensus
Actual adoption · Anthropic32.2%
AI capability · OpenAI51.1%
AI ability · AIOE90.9%
Automation baseline (2013) · Frey & Osborne0.4%

AI could do ~51.1% of this role but only ~32.2% is currently done with AI — a large capability-vs-adoption gap.

Top Skills

1.Speaking
2.Persuasion
3.Reading Comprehension
4.Active Listening
5.Critical Thinking

H-1B Visa Sponsorship Demand

View full H-1B trends →

Certified H-1B Labor Condition Applications naming this occupation, FY2016–FY2025. A descriptive high-skill labor-demand signal — employer filings, not visa approvals or individual outcomes. Note: one LCA can cover multiple worker positions.

21,363
Decade Total (Certified LCAs)
2,436
FY2025 Volume
0% of all H-1B filings in FY2025
$144,735
Median Offered Wage (Latest Year)
#31 of 776
Rank by Total Volume
H-1B filing volume, FY2016–FY2025

O*NET occupation profile

What this work involves

Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering.

Common titles: Business Development Engineer, Inside Sales Engineer, Product Sales Engineer, Sales Applications Engineer, Sales Engineer, Technical Marketing Engineer

Representative Tasks

  • Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including request for proposal responses and industry-specific solutions.
  • Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support.
  • Create sales or service contracts for products or services.
  • Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages.
  • Keep informed on industry news and trends, products, services, competitors, relevant information about legacy, existing, and emerging technologies, and the latest product-line developments.

Detailed Work Activities

  • Sell products or services.
  • Develop proposals for current or prospective customers.
  • Share sales-related or market information with colleagues.
  • Prepare sales or other contracts.
  • Contact current or potential customers to promote products or services.

Tools & Technologies

Amazon Web Services AWS software · hotMicrosoft PowerPoint · hotApple iOS · hotIBM DB2 · hotJavaScript · hotMicrosoft SQL Server · hotMicrosoft Windows Server · hotOracle Database · hotOracle PeopleSoft · hotPHP · hot

Related Occupations

Employment Projections & AI Exposure

15
Occupations Shown
25.5%
Avg AI Exposure
7
Bright Outlook
Horizontal bar chart showing occupations with the highest projected annual openings. Each bar length represents annual projected openings. Color uses a gradient from violet (lower) to cyan (higher). Summary statistics are shown above the chart.

Employment & Wage Trend

BLS OEWS, 2019–2025


Occupation Employment & Wage TrendMulti-year BLS OEWS history for SOC 41-9031: 2019 — employment: 63,550, median wage: $103,900; 2020 — employment: 63,780, median wage: $108,830; 2021 — employment: 59,550, median wage: $103,710; 2022 — employment: 59,700, median wage: $108,530; 2023 — employment: 59,340, median wage: $116,950; 2025 — employment: 51,790, median wage: $124,900.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). See /sources.

Sector Comparison

MetricThis CareerSector Average
AI Exposure32.2%27.4%
OutlookAverage35% Bright
Median Salary$124,900N/A
AI Resiliency68/100N/A