Job description
ABOUT THE ROLE
A well-funded, Series A/B AI startup building category-defining agentic software for hardware engineering teams is hiring a Founding Account Executive. You'll own the full new-logo sales motion for an AI simulation agent product that integrates directly with the CAE/CAD/PLM tools engineers use every day. Joining a small, founder-led team, you'll convert early momentum into a repeatable go-to-market playbook that future sellers will inherit — and you'll have a direct line to product based on what you learn in the field.
This is a hands-on, high-autonomy role for a proven technical seller who thrives without an existing playbook and wants to shape a company's commercial foundation from the ground up.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own the full sales cycle — outbound prospecting through close — for net-new enterprise accounts.
- Convert founder-sourced warm opportunities and inbound interest while independently building new pipeline.
- Demo the simulation agent solo and design technical evaluations that validate value within customer models and workflows.
- Navigate complex buying committees, aligning CAE/simulation champions with VP/Director-level economic buyers.
- Run targeted account plans against engineering teams that currently use tools such as ANSYS, SIMULIA, Altair, or Simcenter.
- Build the qualification criteria, discovery frameworks, evaluation templates, and objection-handling guides that form the company sales playbook.
- Feed field learnings back to the product team to sharpen the agent and future sales motions.
- Create repeatable processes and documentation that future reps will execute at scale.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Required - 6+ years of full-cycle hunting in complex, technical B2B deals into engineering or manufacturing organizations, with a verifiable track record of sourcing and closing net-new logos against quota.
- Proven ability to run unaided software demos and technical evaluations with engineering teams — no reliance on a Sales Engineer in the room.
- Fluency with AI agents and LLMs; ability to articulate concrete engineering value and the practical constraints of agentic workflows in CAE/simulation environments.
- Direct experience selling into environments that use ANSYS, SIMULIA, Altair, or Siemens Simcenter — as a vendor rep, reseller, or competitor regularly engaging these tool owners.
- Founding-hire temperament: comfortable building a motion from scratch, owning ambiguous high-impact work, and operating without guardrails.
- Background selling CAD/CAE/PLM/EDA or adjacent deep-tech (dev tools, MLOps, infrastructure) into large enterprises; strong domain fluency is valued over formal engineering credentials.
Nice to Have
- Prior early or founding sales hire experience with documented playbook-building outcomes.
- Background in mechanical, aerospace, or a related engineering discipline — or the domain language to hold credible technical conversations with simulation engineers.
- Familiarity with PLM platforms and enterprise procurement cycles in hardware-intensive industries.
COMPENSATION
& BENEFITS Compensation details were not provided for this role. Salary, equity, and benefits information will be shared during the interview process. LOCATION & WORK ARRANGEMENT
- Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
- Work arrangement: On-site
- Visa sponsorship: Not available