Principal Sales Engineer (SE) – AI Security Solutions

Overview 

The Principal Sales Engineer (SE) – AI Security Solutions is a customer-facing technical expert responsible for driving adoption of Proofpoint’s AI-driven security portfolio. This role is a member of the AI Security solutions team and partners closely with Sales, Product, and Customer Success teams to articulate the value of our AI Security solutions.  

The ideal candidate blends strong cybersecurity expertise with knowledge of how AI is used in the agentic workspace and excels at translating complex technical concepts into business value. 

Proofpoint’s AI Security solutions enable organizations to discover, monitor, and govern AI usage—spanning human interactions, AI agents, and integrated systems—through intent-based security, runtime policy enforcement, and full auditability. 

The ideal candidate combines deep cybersecurity expertise with a strong understanding of AI/agentic security risks and can translate complex AI security concepts into clear business value. 

Customer Engagement 

• Build credibility with security, AI/ML, and IT stakeholders, including CISOs, security architects, and data leaders 

• Lead technical workshops on AI risk, governance, and secure adoption strategies 

• Support proof-of-value (POV) and proof-of-concept (POC) engagements focused on real-world AI use cases 

• Provide best practices for integrating AI security into existing security and data protection architectures 

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Partner with Product Management to provide field feedback on AI Security capabilities and roadmap 

• Collaborate with Marketing to develop thought leadership on AI security, agentic risk, and governance 

• Work with Customer Success to ensure successful onboarding and expansion of AI Security deployments 

Required Qualifications 

• 5+ years of experience in Sales Engineering, Solutions Engineering, or similar technical pre-sales roles 

• Strong background in cybersecurity  

• Experience discussing AI/ML concepts, AI risk, or emerging AI security challenges 

• Proven ability to deliver compelling technical presentations and product demonstrations 

• Strong consultative skills with the ability to map technology to business outcomes 

• Experience in enterprise software deployments on end user devices and cloud environments  

• Experience in AI Agent development in environments such as Amazon EKS, Google GKE and Azure AKS 

• Familiarity with networking concepts, including TCP/IP, Proxy, Firewall, CASB and SIEM 

Key Skills 

• AI security domain expertise 

• Technical storytelling and value articulation 

• Solution architecture and systems thinking 

• Customer-facing communication 

• Analytical and problem-solving skills