Sales Engineer

Overview

You demo and provide technical validation for Syncari's "Agentic MDM" platform - a next-gen Master Data Management system that syncs data bidirectionally across enterprise tools. You work alongside AEs in consultative sales cycles, typically joining after initial discovery to handle technical deep-dives, architecture questions, and proof-of-concept work. You're selling to data teams, RevOps, IT, and occasionally technical champions in go-to-market functions who are frustrated with their current data sync/integration setup.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Appears early growth stage (exact funding unknown, but expanding team suggests Series A/B)

Size: Small team based on "expanding" language

Growth: Actively hiring for core GTM roles; focusing on market education

Market Position: Category challenger - positioning against traditional MDM (Informatica, Talend) and modern data integration tools (Fivetran, Segment) with a unified, bidirectional approach

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 30% Inbound - whitepaper downloads, webinar attendees, product-led interest from technical content about data architecture challenges
• 60% Outbound - AEs targeting RevOps leaders, CRMs, data engineering teams at mid-market to enterprise B2B companies with messy data stacks
• 10% Partner/referrals - integration partners, consultants

SDR/AE Structure: Likely small team with AEs doing some self-sourcing; SDRs if they exist are booking technical discovery calls, not just product demos

SE Support: You're one of very few (maybe the only) SE, so you're covering all technical evaluation across multiple deals simultaneously

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Traditional MDM: Informatica MDM, Talend, SAP Master Data Governance (expensive, slow to implement)
• Modern iPaaS/Integration: Workato, Tray.io, Zapier (handle workflows but not true MDM)
• Reverse ETL: Census, Hightouch (warehouse-first, not bidirectional across all systems)

How They Differentiate: "Agentic MDM" suggests AI/automation + true multi-directional sync without requiring a data warehouse as the source of truth. Positioned as more flexible than legacy MDM, more powerful than point-to-point integrations.

Common Objections:

• "Why not just use our existing iPaaS/Workato setup?"
• "Our data warehouse is our source of truth - why do we need this?"
• "How do you handle data conflicts in bidirectional sync?"
• "We already have [Salesforce + Marketo sync / HubSpot operations hub / homegrown scripts]"
• "This sounds like it could break our systems if sync logic fails"

Win Themes:

• Unified approach vs stitching together multiple tools
• Real-time sync vs batch ETL delays
• No-code/low-code for business users vs requiring data engineering for every change
• Better handling of complex B2B data models (accounts, contacts, opportunities across many systems)

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Custom Demos (30%) | Technical Discovery (25%) | POC Support (20%) | Internal Prep/Training (15%) | Deal Strategy (10%)

Key Activities

• Technical Discovery Calls: You join AE calls with data/RevOps teams to map out their current architecture - what systems they use, where data lives, what sync issues they're hitting, what they've tried. You're sketching diagrams, identifying integration points, and figuring out if Syncari can actually solve their problem. Some prospects have 15+ tools in their stack.

• Custom Demo Preparation: You build tailored demos showing how Syncari would sync their specific systems - often Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Outreach, Gong, Zendesk, NetSuite, etc. You're configuring sync rules, showing data mapping, demonstrating conflict resolution. Each demo takes 4-8 hours to prep because you're showing their exact use case, not a generic pitch.

• Technical Objection Handling: You field questions about reliability ("what if sync fails?"), performance ("can it handle our data volume?"), security ("how is data encrypted in transit?"), and architecture fit ("does this replace our CDP/data warehouse/iPaaS?"). Many objections require written technical responses or architecture diagrams.

• Proof-of-Concept Management: For larger deals, you run 2-4 week POCs where you actually connect to their live (or sandbox) systems and demonstrate real sync. You're the one setting it up, troubleshooting when their API credentials don't work, and proving the platform can handle their edge cases. POCs take significant hands-on time.

• Internal Product Feedback: Because you're in customer weeds daily, you're the voice feeding "this prospect needs X feature" or "this integration is too complex" back to product/engineering. You'll join product calls and document gaps you're seeing in the field.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• You're Educating a New Category: Most prospects don't wake up thinking "we need Agentic MDM." They think they need better Salesforce-to-Marketing sync or a data warehouse. You spend a lot of time explaining why MDM is different from iPaaS/ETL/CDP, and some prospects never get it.

• Technical Complexity is High: You're dealing with API limitations, data model mismatches, rate limits, and sync conflicts. Demos can break live if a prospect's sandbox has weird data. POCs surface edge cases that require engineering escalation. You need to be comfortable saying "let me research that architecture question and get back to you."

• You're Spread Thin: If you're the only/one of few SEs, you're context-switching between 8-12 active deals at different stages. You'll have a POC in week 3, a first demo tomorrow, and a technical deep-dive next week - all for different industries/use cases. It's hard to go deep when you're constantly switching.

• Long Sales Cycles with Stalls: MDM purchases involve IT, data engineering, RevOps, security, and procurement. Deals drag because someone new enters the conversation, or they decide to evaluate competitors, or they want to see a roadmap feature before committing. You'll rebuild the same demo three times for different stakeholders.

What Success Looks Like

• You maintain a 65%+ win rate on deals where you run a POC (meaning your technical validation convinces them)
• AEs specifically request you for their strategic deals because you can handle the complex technical questions
• You influence product roadmap - engineering actually builds features you identify as deal blockers
• You reduce time-to-POC by building reusable demo environments for common tech stacks (Salesforce + HubSpot + Outreach, etc.)

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• RevOps Leaders / Director of Revenue Operations (often economic buyer): Care about data accuracy across CRM/marketing/sales tools, reducing manual data entry, improving attribution
• VP of Data/Analytics / Data Engineering Leads (technical evaluator): Care about architecture fit, data governance, sync reliability, not adding another fragile integration layer
• IT / Enterprise Architecture (approver for enterprise deals): Care about security, scalability, compliance, vendor risk

What They Care About:

• Data Accuracy & Trust: "Will this actually keep our Salesforce and HubSpot in sync, or will we still have mismatches?"
• Ease of Maintenance: "Can our RevOps person manage this without engineering writing custom scripts?"
• Risk: "What happens if the sync breaks? How do we rollback? What's the blast radius?"
• Integration Coverage: "Does it connect to all 12 tools we use, or just the common ones?"
• Proof It Works: "Show us it works with our data in our systems, not a canned demo"

Requirements

• 3-5+ years as an SE, solutions consultant, or technical implementation role selling B2B SaaS infrastructure/data tools
• Strong understanding of CRM, marketing automation, and data integration concepts - you've worked with Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo APIs or similar
• Comfortable doing live demos and technical discovery without a script - you can whiteboard architecture and think on your feet
• Experience running POCs or technical trials - you know how to scope them, set success criteria, and troubleshoot when things break
• Ability to translate technical concepts for business buyers and explain business value to technical buyers
• Familiarity with data concepts: APIs, webhooks, ETL/reverse ETL, data modeling, conflict resolution, idempotency (you don't need to code, but you need to understand how data moves)
• Bonus: Experience in the MDM, iPaaS, data integration, or RevOps tools space
• Self-sufficient - you're often the only technical person in the (virtual) room and need to figure things out independently