I feel stuck as a Sales Engineer with limited growth, need advice on what to do next?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working as a Sales Engineer in India for a European manufacturing company.

My role mainly involves coordinating between Indian clients and European teams (Netherlands, Poland, Germany, etc.), preparing technical costing/quotations, and supporting the overall sales process.

(Also, I used AI to help structure this post clearly so I can get better inputs — hope that’s okay.)

The situation:

• There is no manufacturing or major business ownership in India
• Pricing, margins, and key decisions are handled entirely by EU teams
• India acts more like a support/coordination function
• There’s no clear career ladder or defined next role
• Even if I perform well, I don’t get full exposure to commercial decision-making

What I do well:

• Work across international teams and manage cross-functional coordination
• Handle technical-commercial discussions with clients and internal teams
• Understand industrial equipment (tanks, heat exchangers, etc.)
• Conduct basic market research and competitor comparisons during projects
• Participate in early-stage negotiation discussions (within limited scope)
• Comfortable with tools like Power BI and interested in leveraging data for insights
• Recently started improving processes (checklists, reducing back-and-forth, structuring inputs)

The problem:
I feel like my growth is capped because:

• I’m not fully developing core business skills (pricing ownership, deal closing, strategy)
• The role is more execution-focused than decision-making
• Limited visibility into analytics-driven decision-making despite my interest in it
• There’s no clear upward movement within the India setup

What I’m trying to figure out:

1. What roles should I target next to break out of this ceiling? (Business development, analytics-driven sales, strategy roles, etc.)
2. How can I better position my experience to transition into roles with research/analytics + business exposure?
3. Should I stay longer to build depth, or switch early to avoid stagnation?
4. Are there industries/companies where this hybrid experience (sales + technical + analytics) is more valuable?
5. If anyone has moved from a coordination/support role into a more strategic or analytics-driven role, how did you do it?

I’m particularly interested in roles that combine business + data (market research, analytics, strategy, or commercial roles with analytical depth).

I’m open to switching roles/industries and willing to upskill if needed.

Would really appreciate advice, perspectives, or even referrals if relevant.

Thanks in advance!