Lead Sales Engineer — NC Sound About NC Sound NC Sound is a North Carolina-based low-voltage systems integrator helping schools, government agencies, and businesses operate safer, smarter, and more connected through integrated security and communication technology. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Goldsboro/Pikeville, with additional offices in Wilmington and Winston-Salem, NC Sound designs, installs, services, and supports access control, video surveillance, structured cabling, paging and mass notification, and hosted telephone systems tailored to each customer's environment. NC Sound supports a wide range of customers across North Carolina and South Carolina, including K-12 and higher education, healthcare organizations, state and local government, and commercial businesses. NC Sound is part of Cobalt Service Partners' national platform of security and low-voltage integrators. About the Role We are seeking an experienced Lead Sales Engineer to lead our Sales Engineering team while continuing to carry a personal opportunity workload, a hands-on leadership role, not a purely administrative one. This is a role for a technical leader who can personally engineer complex opportunities and coach others through theirs. The Lead Sales Engineer splits time between direct sales engineering work; managing opportunities from qualification through proposal; and team leadership , coordinating workload, coaching Sales Engineers, and reviewing high-risk scopes and proposals before they go out the door. What you'll Do Manage an assigned portfolio of opportunities from qualification through proposal and handoff — engaging customers on needs, budgets, schedules, and site conditions through surveys, inspections, and pre-bid meetings. Review drawings, specs, RFPs/RFQs to develop scopes, system designs, BOMs, labor estimates, and proposals, selecting products and architectures that fit NC Sound standards and customer needs. Support Account Executives with technical discovery, presentations, and complex customer conversations, including follow-up on technical questions, substitutions, and value engineering. Support project kickoff and provide technical clarification to Project Managers and Operations during execution; keep all opportunities and documentation current in Q360. Provide day-to-day leadership and workload balancing for the Sales Engineering team, serving as the first escalation point for technical, design, scope, and proposal issues, and reviewing high-risk work before submission. Set Sales Engineering standards, processes, templates, and best practices; coach and mentor SEs and support onboarding of new SEs and Associate SEs, coordinating training needs with the Director of Business Development. Report to the VP of Sales on team capacity, performance, and process gaps; run team cadence around workload, priorities, and deadlines, and hold the team accountable for timely follow-up and proposal quality. Partner with Operations/PM to resolve recurring estimating, scope, and design issues; maintain preferred-product standards and drive standardization/automation to improve SE efficiency and Q360 usage. What We're Looking For 5 -7 years of progressive experience in sales engineering, systems design, estimating, technical sales, or a related role within the low-voltage systems integration industry Prior experience providing technical leadership, mentoring, coaching, or day-to-day direction to other engineers or technical professionals strongly preferred. Demonstrated ability to personally manage and engineer complex customer opportunities while simultaneously supporting the work of others. Demonstrated ability to interpret construction documents, specifications, drawings, RFPs, RFQs, and related project requirements. Strong competency in system design, product selection, bill-of-material development, labor estimating, scope development, exclusions, and proposal preparation. Strong customer-facing communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business solutions. Demonstrated leadership, coaching, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution capabilities. Experience with CRM, ERP, estimating, and opportunity-management systems; experience with Q360 is preferred. What We Offer Paid Time Off Company Paid Holidays Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage Company Paid Life/AD&D Insurance Voluntary short term and long term disability options

Pay:

$94,902.84 - $114,291.59 per year

Benefits:

401(k) Dental insurance Health insurance Paid time off Vision insurance

Work Location:

In person