Sales Engineer

ABOUT NOOKS

Nooks is pioneering Classified-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (CIaaS) — designing, building, and operating Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) and other secured, classified environments for the defense and national security community. We work with the agencies, contractors, and mission-driven organizations that keep the nation safe, delivering the physical infrastructure that makes classified work possible. We’re growing fast, operating across multiple markets, and building a company that takes both the mission and the business seriously.

About the Role

You take Nooks customers from first inquiry to signed contract. You respond to inbound sales inquiries, establish technical requirements, and match each customer to the right offering across CIaaS shared Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) space, Mobile SCIFs, and Managed Security Services (MSS). You quote, apply approved terms, and carry deals to signature within a sales process the Vice President (VP) of Growth owns and directs. You report to the VP of Growth as an individual contributor. Customers get one consistent point of contact throughout.

At Nooks, we move fast. While you’ll have clear ownership over your core responsibilities, startup life means priorities can shift. We’re looking for a proactive problem-solver who is comfortable with ambiguity and ready to lean in wherever the team needs them most to drive us forward.

Key Responsibilities

Qualification and Discovery

• Respond to inbound sales inquiries, qualifying each on requirement, timeline, and budget, and setting a clear next step.
• Run discovery that establishes each customer’s classified network requirements, classification level, space needs, and timeline.
• Match standard requirements to the right product offering, bringing new or nonstandard opportunities to the VP of Growth for direction.

Solutioning and Proposals

• Document each customer’s requirements, including classified network needs, accurately enough that Nooks provides the correct solution.
• Answer standard questions on Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 705 accreditation and classified network configurations, handing complex discussions to IT/Cyber, Product, or Security.
• Prepare custom proposals under the VP of Growth’s direction, coordinating input from the Growth organization and cross-functional partners.

Quoting and Close

• Send and manage non-disclosure agreements with customers, routing any deviations from the standard to the Contracts Manager.
• Produce accurate quotes using approved pricing, and apply pre-set commercial positions in customer discussions, escalating anything outside them.
• Work with the Contracts Manager to draft agreements, and carry each deal through contract execution and a clean handoff to the Customer Success Manager.

Sales Reporting and Deal Feedback

• Maintain the customer relationship management (CRM) system as the accurate, current record of every inquiry, opportunity, and deal.
• Report deal status to the VP of Growth weekly, drawing on the CRM record.
• Share feedback from your deals on pricing, components, and deal structures to inform the VP of Growth’s offering decisions.

The Skillset

• Three or more years in a customer-facing technical or sales role, such as sales engineering, solutions engineering, or account management.
• Experience supporting deals toward signature, such as quoting, preparing proposals, or working with contracts.
• Ability to explain technical requirements clearly to engineers and non-technical buyers, in writing and live.
• A track record of learning unfamiliar technical domains quickly and becoming the person others ask.
• The organization to run many concurrent opportunities without letting any stall or go unanswered.
• Experience working in a CRM system.
• Experience with SCIFs, ICD 705, or classified network requirements is a plus.
• Experience selling to defense, intelligence, or other government customers is a plus.
• Familiarity with security compliance programs, facility construction, or modular buildings is a plus.

Compensation & Benefits

This role carries no quota or commission. Compensation includes base salary, yearly bonus structure and equity ownership, premium health coverage, 401(k) employer contribution, flexible time away.

Eligibility & Clearance

You must be authorized to work in the United States. This role does not require a security clearance.

Location-Specific Addendums

Nooks’ Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Arlington, Virginia, sites are both in the Scaling phase: they’re operational and growing, and their processes are still maturing. You work on site at either location. Occasional travel may be required.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

You know every Nooks offering well, answer standard network and accreditation questions yourself, and bring IT/Cyber, Product, or Security into complex discussions early. Inbound inquiries receive timely, accurate responses, and qualified opportunities move steadily to signed contracts. Non-disclosure agreements, quotes, and contracts go out accurately, terms stay within approved positions, and closed deals reach delivery without scope gaps. The company has an accurate weekly view of every deal in progress, drawn from a CRM record you keep current. Your deal feedback informs leadership’s decisions on pricing, components, and deal structures.

Cross-Functional Expectations

You work with the VP of Growth, who directs nonstandard opportunities and approves custom proposals. You bring in IT/Cyber, Product, and Security for complex technical discussions, and confirm scope with Product and Construction. You work with the Contracts Manager on non-disclosure agreement deviations and contracts, and hand signed accounts to the Customer Success Manager. Externally, you work with customers’ program, security, contracting, and facility stakeholders.