Principal Sales Engineer

Principal Sales Engineer

US - Headquarters

Direct Sales /

Reg - Full-Time /

On-site

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Why join Upscale, Inc.

Upscale, Inc., is building the high-performance infrastructure powering the next generation of artificial intelligence. Backed by over $300M in funding and rapid global adoption, we are scaling systems designed for the world's most demanding AI workloads.

We focus on first-principles engineering across silicon, systems, and networking-where performance, scale, and execution are critical. Our team is talent-dense and high-performing. We value ownership, technical rigor, and speed, and we offer the opportunity to work on foundational problems with immediate, real-world impact.

If you're looking to do high-impact work, move fast, and help define the infrastructure behind the future of AI-Upscale is where you can produce meaningful work at the frontier-and operate at a high standard.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly motivated and technically proficient Sales Engineer to drive complex solution sales across cutting-edge AI infrastructure markets. In this role, you will serve as the technical lead throughout the sales process, partnering with Account Managers, Product, and Engineering teams to understand customer requirements, design innovative solutions, and deliver compelling technical presentations and demonstrations.

The ideal candidate has a strong grasp of ASIC/semiconductor-level design and tradeoffs and deep, hands-on expertise in scale-up networking and interconnect technologies alongside a solid understanding of traditional scale-out networking and modern network operating systems (e.g., SONiC, EOS, Junos). You should be fluent in the xPU/NIC ecosystem and competitive offerings, and conversant in emerging scale-up/interconnect standards such as ESUN, UALink (UAL), and SUE.

You will work closely with customers to architect solutions that align with their business and technical goals, while representing their feedback internally to shape our product roadmap.

This is an opportunity to make a significant impact in a fast-paced, high-growth environment, with exposure to strategic customers, emerging technologies, and industry-shaping innovations.

Responsibilities

• Manage high-value global customer accounts in partnership with the Account Manager.
• Drive complex, full-cycle solution sales from ASIC-level to system-level and rack-scale deployments.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customers, drawing on chip, board, and system-level expertise to guide them through solution design, evaluation, and adoption.
• Design and propose solutions leveraging Upscale's product portfolio.
• Lead technical discovery, gather customer requirements, and develop proof-of-concept validation and demos to demonstrate product and solution capabilities across AI clusters - GPU, NIC, xPU, and switch tray platforms.
• Deliver compelling technical presentations, product demonstrations, and feature deep-dives to customer stakeholders.
• Identify and develop new business opportunities within both existing and prospective accounts.
• Collaborate with Sales and Product teams to respond to RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, and other sales proposals with tailored technical input on ASIC, scale-up interconnect, and networking architecture.
• Partner cross-functionally with engineering, product management, and operations teams to deliver on customer requirements and align product roadmaps with market needs, including emerging standards such as ESUN, SUE, ETH, IP and UALink.
• Represent Upscale at industry events, conferences, and technical forums; contribute thought leadership through white papers and technical publications on AI scale-up networking and semiconductor architecture.
• Continuously invest in professional development by pursuing technical training and staying informed about industry trends, technologies, and competitive offerings.

Requirements

• Minimum of 10 years of pre-sales experience as a Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or Solutions Architect in the AI infrastructure, semiconductor, or networking sector. Candidates coming from a Field Application Engineering (FAE) background with strong customer-facing experience are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Proven track record in selling or supporting complex network infrastructure and semiconductor/ASIC solutions to hyperscalers, enterprise customers, and cloud providers.
• Bachelor''s, Master''s, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent industry experience.
• Strong foundation in ASIC/semiconductor architecture, with the ability to speak fluently to chip-level tradeoffs (power, thermals, SerDes, packaging) as they relate to system design.
• Hands-on experience with scale-up networking and interconnect technologies as well as scale-out data center and WAN networking.
• Working knowledge of major network operating systems such as SONiC, Arista EOS, Juniper Junos, Cisco IOS, etc.
• Fluency with the GPU/NIC ecosystem and familiarity with competitive xPU offerings and vendors.
• Familiarity with emerging scale-up and interconnect standards, including ESUN, UALink (UAL), and SUE.
• Clear understanding of AI-driven workloads and associated data center and network architecture requirements, including frontend and backend AI network design.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively engage with technical and executive stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams in sales, product, and engineering.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 25%, including international travel.

$239,000 - $266,000 a year

Where you fall within that range depends on your experience, skills, and impact-we benchmark against internal levels to keep things fair and consistent.

Equal Opportunity

Upscale, Inc., is building a team that reflects a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. We're proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or veteran status.

Accessibility & Accommodations

We're committed to making our hiring process accessible to everyone. If you need accommodations at any stage, just reach out to us at [email protected]-we're happy to help. Note: This inbox is only for accommodation requests.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

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