MidMarket Sales Engineer - Chicago

Summary

Abnormal AI is seeking a Mid-Market Sales Engineer to join its growing Sales Engineering team. The role serves as a primary technical advisor to customers and partners with Account Executives to lead technical discovery, demonstrations, architecture discussions, and Proof of Value programs for email, identity, and AI security solutions.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority and primary technical decision partner in enterprise sales cycles, from discovery through close, including full ownership of Proof of Value (POV) success criteria and outcomes
• Lead architecture-level conversations with security, email, and identity teams
• Run technical discovery that uncovers risk, not just requirements
• Conduct technical and competitive landscape research to effectively address customer questions and objections
• Confidently answer architecture-level and modern threat questions without deferring to Product or Engineering
• Articulate why legacy secure email gateways fail against social engineering and identity-based attacks
• Educate and implement AI Security solutions across email, identity, and other verticals in the security stack
• Educate sales executives and partners on Abnormal Security’s products, platform, and security posture
• Obsessively drive customer satisfaction and successful business outcomes

Skills

• Ability to tie technology to measurable risk reduction and business outcomes at Enterprise scale
• Ability to influence senior security, IT, and executive stakeholders in both virtual and in-person settings
• High EQ; ability to read the room, engage stakeholders, demonstrate empathy, listen actively, and respond thoughtfully
• Ability to create value-driven presentations and tell compelling stories (PowerPoint, Google Slides)
• Strong discovery skills to uncover customer pain points, requirements, and strategic objectives
• Understand and construct presentations on new products and iterate rapidly
• Sales Engineering experience OR relevant industry experience OR can demonstrate technical aptitude
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical discovery and architecture discussions with security, infrastructure, identity and compliance teams
• Strong technical presentation and communication skills, both verbal and written
• Ability to see and present the “big picture,” uncover complex business challenges, and architect solutions to solve customer needs
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced, high-impact sales environment
• Positive attitude, strong customer focus, and a high sense of ownership over customer results
• Solid technical understanding of SaaS security models including multi-tenant cloud environments
• Working knowledge of DNS, TCP/IP, TLS, and enterprise networking concepts as they relate to email and SaaS security
• Curiosity to understand not only that a product works, but how/why it works
• Experience with enterprise email security platforms (Proofpoint, Mimecast, Cisco, Barracuda, etc.)
• Basic understanding of cyber security tools including: EDR, Firewall, SIEM, ITP, etc and how those tools work together
• Technical background in messaging and internet security principles
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Exchange Online / Microsoft 365 *or* Google Workspace
• Strong understanding of SMTP mail flow, MX records and mail routing
• Working knowledge of email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and common failure modes
• Strong understanding of Cloud SaaS infrastructure including identity services such as Azure AD / Entra ID / Google Identity
• Ability to explain identity-driven and modern social engineering attacks and controls at an architectural level
• Experience integrating SaaS platforms via OAuth and REST APIs
• Familiarity with SIEM platforms (Splunk, Sentinel) and SOC workflows
• Experience working with or alongside SOC incident response teams including creating incident response workflows
• Security certifications (CISSP, CEH, or equivalent) for credibility with enterprise buyers

Qualifications

Must Haves

• Ability to tie technology to measurable risk reduction and business outcomes at Enterprise scale
• Ability to influence senior security, IT, and executive stakeholders in both virtual and in-person settings
• High EQ; ability to read the room, engage stakeholders, demonstrate empathy, listen actively, and respond thoughtfully
• Ability to create value-driven presentations and tell compelling stories (PowerPoint, Google Slides)
• Strong discovery skills to uncover customer pain points, requirements, and strategic objectives
• Understand and construct presentations on new products and iterate rapidly
• Sales Engineering experience OR relevant industry experience OR can demonstrate technical aptitude
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical discovery and architecture discussions with security, infrastructure, identity and compliance teams
• Strong technical presentation and communication skills, both verbal and written
• Ability to see and present the “big picture,” uncover complex business challenges, and architect solutions to solve customer needs
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced, high-impact sales environment
• Positive attitude, strong customer focus, and a high sense of ownership over customer results
• Solid technical understanding of SaaS security models including multi-tenant cloud environments
• Working knowledge of DNS, TCP/IP, TLS, and enterprise networking concepts as they relate to email and SaaS security
• Curiosity to understand not only that a product works, but how/why it works

Nice to Haves

• Experience with enterprise email security platforms (Proofpoint, Mimecast, Cisco, Barracuda, etc.)
• Basic understanding of cyber security tools including: EDR, Firewall, SIEM, ITP, etc and how those tools work together
• Technical background in messaging and internet security principles
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Exchange Online / Microsoft 365 *or* Google Workspace
• Strong understanding of SMTP mail flow, MX records and mail routing
• Working knowledge of email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and common failure modes
• Strong understanding of Cloud SaaS infrastructure including identity services such as Azure AD / Entra ID / Google Identity
• Ability to explain identity-driven and modern social engineering attacks and controls at an architectural level
• Experience integrating SaaS platforms via OAuth and REST APIs
• Familiarity with SIEM platforms (Splunk, Sentinel) and SOC workflows
• Experience working with or alongside SOC incident response teams including creating incident response workflows
• Security certifications (CISSP, CEH, or equivalent) for credibility with enterprise buyers

Benefits

• This role may be eligible for bonus or incentive compensation.
• This role may be eligible for equity.
• This role may be eligible for a comprehensive benefits package.