Director, Presales Engineering

Skip to main contentProofpoint uses cookies on this site to improve performance, for analytics and for personalization. Please see our Cookie Policy for details and information on how to adjust your cookies settings.  As a candidate for employment at Proofpoint, your personal data can be processed as described in our Privacy Policy.DeclineAccept CookiesSign InDirector, Presales Engineering page is loadedDirector, Presales EngineeringApplylocationsTexasFloridaPittsburgh, PAColoradoIllinoisView All 8 Locationstime typeFull timeposted onPosted 2 Days Agojob requisition idR14468About Us: Proofpoint is a global leader in human- and agent-centric cybersecurity. We protect how people, data, and AI agents connect across email, cloud, and collaboration tools. Over 80 of the Fortune 100, 10,000 large enterprises, and millions of smaller organizations trust Proofpoint to stop threats, prevent data loss, and build resilience across their people and AI workflows. Our mission is simple: safeguard the digital world and empower people to work securely and confidently. Join us in our pursuit to defend data and protect people.How We Work:At Proofpoint you’ll be part of a global team that breaks barriers to redefine cybersecurity guided by our BRAVE core values: Bold in how we dream and innovateResponsive to feedback, challenges and opportunitiesAccountable for results and best in class outcomesVisionary in future focused problem-solvingExceptional in execution and impactAbout the RoleThe Director, Presales Engineering Excellence and Innovation will lead a high impact global function at the intersection of Sales Engineering, technical escalation management, field productivity, and product advocacy. This leader will step into a role that supports complex presales motions, advanced proof of concept execution, field escalation triage, AI driven workflow transformation, and strategic cross functional coordination across Sales, Product, Engineering, Enablement, Support, Security, Legal, and IT. The mandate is not only to maintain current operational continuity, but to modernize how Presales Engineering scales expertise, resolves ambiguity, governs technical access, and uses AI safely to improve customer outcomes. The ideal candidate is a technical operator, field strategist, transformation leader, and trusted escalation partner. They can move from executive level strategy to detailed operational execution, while building durable systems that reduce dependency on tribal knowledge.Your Day to DayLead the evolution of Presales Engineering escalation strategy, including routing models, intake boundaries, ownership clarity, technical decision paths, and measurable service expectations.Drive AI forward transformation across the Presales Engineering organization, including prompt libraries, AI agents, approved connector strategy, custom GPT governance, MCP based workflows, knowledge retrieval systems, and field automation patterns.Own or coordinate complex technical escalation paths for high value opportunities, production evaluations, proof of concept blockers, product readiness gaps, access issues, and field facing technical ambiguity.Partner with Sales Engineering leadership to define and operationalize the future PSE model, including what the team owns, guides, declines, automates, or routes.Build scalable systems for technical knowledge capture, including reusable playbooks, enablement assets, intake forms, escalation runbooks, product signal loops, owner registries, and review cadences.Partner with Product and Engineering to convert recurring field issues into structured advocacy, including affected deals, ARR impact, technical gaps, workarounds, owning PMs, and requested outcomes.Stabilize and improve support coverage for emerging product areas such as Data Security, Insider Threat Management, AI Security, and other fast moving Proofpoint portfolios.Lead access governance coordination for Presales Engineering, including least privilege patterns,...