The unsung heroes of chip sales: field application engineers

Editor's take: In our ongoing exploration of the business of selling compute systems, we found that there is a giant blind spot in how the sales process actually works. Sales support engineers, sometimes also called Field Application Engineers, can be an incredibly valuable resource for any company selling technical products. Unfortunately, many companies fail to fully appreciate their importance.

Picture this: A chip vendor has a shiny AI accelerator, but how do they actually get that into the hands of their shiny hyperscaler customer? A key part of that process is the Sales Engineer. These people go by many titles – Field Solutions Engineer or Sales Support Engineer, but we have always known them as Field Application Engineers (FAE).

These are engineers deeply immersed in the intricacies and configurations of the chips their company sells. They do not design the chip but help customers make the most of those chips ...