Founding Account Executive – Simulation Agent

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