Phonely is a San Francisco-based provider of an AI voice platform that helps businesses optimize phone conversations.
Sales Engineer At some point in the future, every business will answer their phone with voice AI. We are building the platform that makes it possible. Phonely builds conversational voice AI agents for high-volume phone workflows. Our customers use us to qualify leads, book appointments, route calls, and resolve real customer conversations in production. We're growing fast and our deals are getting more technical. We need someone who can bridge the gap between what we sell and how it actually works. About the Role We're hiring a Sales Engineer to partner with our sales team on technical discovery, demos, and proof-of-concepts for prospective customers. You'll be the person in the room who can answer the hard questions, build out a demo that maps to the customer's actual call workflows, and make the technology click for technical and non-technical buyers alike. This role sits at the intersection of sales and engineering. You'll be on calls with prospects understanding their telephony setup, integration requirements, and compliance constraints, then working with our team to scope a solution that wins the deal. You'll also build demo environments, run technical evaluations, and support POCs through to production. If you like solving puzzles, talking to customers, and making complex technology feel simple, this is your role. There's a natural overlap with our CS and Forward Deployed Engineering teams, so if you're someone who could land in any of those seats, even better. What You'll Do • Partner with AEs on technical discovery: understand the prospect's call flows, integrations, data requirements, and compliance needs • Build and deliver tailored product demos that map to each customer's specific use case • Scope and manage proof-of-concepts from setup through evaluation • Answer technical questions on APIs, webhooks, telephony (SIP, Twilio), integrations, and security • Translate customer requirements into implementation plans for engineering and CS • Create technical documentation, architecture diagrams, and RFP responses • Support procurement and security reviews during the sales process • Provide feedback to product and engineering on feature gaps and customer needs • Build reusable demo environments and technical sales collateral • Stay current on the voice AI landscape and competitive technology What You'll Bring • 3+ years in sales engineering, solutions engineering, or a technical pre-sales role • Strong understanding of APIs, webhooks, cloud infrastructure, and SaaS integrations • Ability to demo complex products and make them feel simple • Excellent communication skills, both with technical teams and business stakeholders • Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with multiple deals in flight • Experience in telecom, voice, contact center technology, or SaaS is strongly preferred • Hands-on, you're comfortable building things, not just talking about them Nice to Have • Experience with telephony (SIP, Twilio, Five9, Genesys) • Familiarity with LLMs, voice AI, or conversational AI platforms • Background in customer success or forward-deployed engineering • Programming experience (Python, JavaScript, or similar) Why Join Phonely We are a team of ex-athletes, founders, and builders with low egos and high standards. We take the work seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. On-site in San Francisco, meals covered, quarterly offsites to interesting places (Rocky Mountains, Costa Rica, Indonesia), and meaningful equity in a company that is growing fast. You will work directly with the sales team and founders and have real ownership over how we win technical deals. Interview Process 1. 15-min intro call to evaluate fit 2. Technical deep dive with a team member 3. Mock demo: present Phonely to a simulated enterprise prospect 4. Final conversation with leadership