Go to Market Salary Guide: US
Discover the latest compensation trends for go-to-market roles across the US. Built with fresh insights and first-hand data from Trust in SODA’s specialist recruitment consultants, this guide covers the East Coast, the West Coast and remote roles.
Go to Market Salary Guide: US
Discover the latest compensation trends for go-to-market roles across the US. Built with fresh insights and first-hand data from Trust in SODA’s specialist recruitment consultants, this guide covers the East Coast, the West Coast and remote roles.
Go to Market Salary Guide: US
Discover the latest compensation trends for go-to-market roles across the US. Built with fresh insights and first-hand data from Trust in SODA’s specialist recruitment consultants, this guide covers the East Coast, the West Coast and remote roles.
Inside US Go-to-Market Hiring
Go-to-market engineering has become a named function in the US faster than anywhere else in this guide. Twenty roles are benchmarked here, spanning sales engineering, solutions architecture, GTM engineering and leadership.
These are the people who build proof-of-concept work into sales cycles, automate pipeline and revenue operations, and deploy software directly into customer environments. Forward deployed and solutions engineering roles in particular have moved from a supporting function to a central part of how businesses land and expand accounts.
The premium is concentrated where engineering depth meets commercial judgement, and that combination remains scarce at every level. Titles are still inconsistent across the market, so scope matters more than label when comparing offers. Businesses able to offer genuine ownership of customer outcomes, rather than a purely pre-sales remit, consistently win these candidates.
How we compiled these figures
These go-to-market figures come from Trust in SODA's hiring mandates in the United States, benchmarked against our database of over 500,000 professionals and reviewed by the consultants who run these searches.
Last updated: September 2026 · See all salary guides
Go to Market Salaries
These roles bridge product and revenue, spanning sales engineering, solutions architecture and GTM engineering across the US market.
| Role | East Coast |
|---|---|
| Sales Engineer | $150k–$190k |
| Senior Sales Engineer | $175k–$220k |
| Staff Sales Engineer | $210k–$260k |
| Solutions Engineer | $150k–$190k |
| Senior Solutions Engineer | $175k–$220k |
| Staff Solutions Engineer | $210k–$260k |
| Solutions Architect | $170k–$215k |
| Senior Solutions Architect | $195k–$240k |
| AI Solutions Engineer | $175k–$220k |
| GTM Engineer | $175k–$220k |
| Senior GTM Engineer | $200k–$250k |
| Staff GTM Engineer | $225k–$275k |
| Founding GTM Engineer | $180k–$240k |
| Applied AI Engineer – GTM | $200k–$250k |
| Forward Deployed GTM Engineer | $190k–$240k |
| Sales Engineering Manager | $210k–$260k |
| GTM Engineering Manager | $220k–$270k |
| Director of Sales Engineering | $240k–$290k |
| Head of GTM Engineering | $255k–$315k |
| VP of Sales Engineering | $265k–$325k |
GTM Engineering in the US prices very close to core Platform Engineering at equivalent seniority — Staff GTM Engineer ($255–315k West Coast) sits just below Staff Platform Engineer, confirming that technical pre-sales and deployment engineering now commands compensation on a par with product engineering rather than a sales-adjacent discount. Applied AI Engineer – GTM is the standout role on this table, pricing above the standard GTM Engineer band at the same seniority, underlining how much of a premium AI fluency now carries specifically in customer-facing technical roles.
| Role | West Coast |
|---|---|
| Sales Engineer | $170k–$215k |
| Senior Sales Engineer | $200k–$250k |
| Staff Sales Engineer | $240k–$300k |
| Solutions Engineer | $170k–$215k |
| Senior Solutions Engineer | $200k–$250k |
| Staff Solutions Engineer | $240k–$300k |
| Solutions Architect | $195k–$245k |
| Senior Solutions Architect | $220k–$275k |
| AI Solutions Engineer | $200k–$250k |
| GTM Engineer | $200k–$250k |
| Senior GTM Engineer | $225k–$285k |
| Staff GTM Engineer | $255k–$315k |
| Founding GTM Engineer | $205k–$275k |
| Applied AI Engineer – GTM | $225k–$285k |
| Forward Deployed GTM Engineer | $215k–$275k |
| Sales Engineering Manager | $240k–$300k |
| GTM Engineering Manager | $250k–$310k |
| Director of Sales Engineering | $270k–$330k |
| Head of GTM Engineering | $290k–$360k |
| VP of Sales Engineering | $300k–$370k |
GTM Engineering in the US prices very close to core Platform Engineering at equivalent seniority — Staff GTM Engineer ($255–315k West Coast) sits just below Staff Platform Engineer, confirming that technical pre-sales and deployment engineering now commands compensation on a par with product engineering rather than a sales-adjacent discount. Applied AI Engineer – GTM is the standout role on this table, pricing above the standard GTM Engineer band at the same seniority, underlining how much of a premium AI fluency now carries specifically in customer-facing technical roles.
| Role | Remote US |
|---|---|
| Sales Engineer | $130k–$165k |
| Senior Sales Engineer | $150k–$190k |
| Staff Sales Engineer | $180k–$225k |
| Solutions Engineer | $130k–$165k |
| Senior Solutions Engineer | $150k–$190k |
| Staff Solutions Engineer | $180k–$225k |
| Solutions Architect | $145k–$185k |
| Senior Solutions Architect | $165k–$205k |
| AI Solutions Engineer | $150k–$190k |
| GTM Engineer | $150k–$190k |
| Senior GTM Engineer | $170k–$215k |
| Staff GTM Engineer | $190k–$235k |
| Founding GTM Engineer | $155k–$205k |
| Applied AI Engineer – GTM | $170k–$215k |
| Forward Deployed GTM Engineer | $160k–$205k |
| Sales Engineering Manager | $180k–$225k |
| GTM Engineering Manager | $190k–$230k |
| Director of Sales Engineering | $205k–$250k |
| Head of GTM Engineering | $220k–$270k |
| VP of Sales Engineering | $225k–$280k |
GTM Engineering in the US prices very close to core Platform Engineering at equivalent seniority — Staff GTM Engineer ($255–315k West Coast) sits just below Staff Platform Engineer, confirming that technical pre-sales and deployment engineering now commands compensation on a par with product engineering rather than a sales-adjacent discount. Applied AI Engineer – GTM is the standout role on this table, pricing above the standard GTM Engineer band at the same seniority, underlining how much of a premium AI fluency now carries specifically in customer-facing technical roles.
