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Nominal builds software that lets hardware teams test, iterate, and deploy as fast as software teams.
The Role
The Solution Engineer leads technical discovery and collaborates with teams to design solutions, deliver demos, and build prototypes that address customer needs across the Federal space.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Nominal
Nominal is building the connected test and operations platform powering the world's most advanced hardware systems, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation defense programs. Our platform gives hardware engineering teams a single place to ingest data, analyze performance, automate test execution, and collaborate across every phase of development, so they can move faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.
We serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, from autonomy leaders like Anduril and Shield AI to next-generation aerospace teams like Hermeus and REGENT, and performance engineering teams like Pratt Miller Motorsports, alongside mission partners within the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force on programs where failure isn’t an option. We’re backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence.
As a Solution Engineer you own the technical side of how Nominal wins and expands—translating customer missions into concrete solutions, demonstrating real-world value, and de-risking adoption. You will partner with Business Development teammates across our Federal customer base to prove that Nominal can solve the customer’s problem—through discovery, demos, and solution design.
🚀 About the role
- Lead technical discovery to deeply understand customer systems, data environments, workflows, and constraints
- Collaborate closely with Business Development, Strategic Engagement, Mission, Product, and Engineering teams to translate mission needs into solution architectures, defining how Nominal integrates into existing stacks and delivers measurable impact
- Deliver tailored demos and technical presentations that effectively communicate Nominal’s capabilities and value to customer decision-makers, systems architects, engineering leads, testing managers, and IT stakeholders
- Design custom demos and integration approaches that showcase how Nominal delivers real-world impact across ambiguous or edge-case scenarios
- Build “proof of value” through prototypes, sample integrations, and customer-driven demonstrations that reduce technical risk
- Partner with Business Development to advance deals, shaping technical strategy, identifying champions, and addressing objections
- Develop reusable technical assets (demos, datasets, playbooks, collateral) to improve consistency and speed across opportunities
- 5+ years in technical pre-sales, solutions engineering, or sales engineering roles at high-growth enterprise software companies, with experience working with defense or federal customers
- Demonstrated ability to partner closely with Business Development or Sales counterparts to scope, qualify, and cultivate complex, multi-stakeholder technical opportunities
- Technical fluency in software infrastructure and analytics tooling (AWS, Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, Influx, Grafana) and can speak confidently with engineers in hardware or systems domains
- Coding experience in SQL, Python, or Pandas, as well as familiarity with streaming/data infrastructure (Kafka, Spark, Flink, Arrow, etc.)
- Experience integrating technical messaging into a compelling narrative to advance opportunities, increase customer adoption, and grow champions
- Exceptional communication skills—especially the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders
- Comfort operating in fast-paced, ambiguous environments—ideally within a startup or high-growth company
- Willing to travel up to 25%
- The ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret / Secure Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance is an advantage
- Ability to develop “outside-in” demo environments that start from the perspective of a target industry or vertical, design representative telemetry data and stories that illustrate Nominal’s value in real-world contexts, and showcase hardware test scenarios in front of executive and engineering audiences
- Exposure to hardware systems, test environments, or telemetry pipelines
- Proficiency with hardware engineering tools such as DAQs, DDS, Nix, RTOS, MCAP, H5, TDMS, LabView, MATLAB/Simulink, and WinPlot
✨ Benefits/Perks
- 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- 🚀 Professional development stipend
- ✈️ Annual company retreat
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
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The Company
What We Do
Nominal builds the essential software stack that enables hardware teams to test and iterate as rapidly as software teams. Nominal empowers engineers to continuously monitor, validate, and deploy innovations, transforming how mission-critical hardware is built and operated.
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