Founding GTM Lead, North America

About the role

You will own the entire commercial lifecycle for North America from initial discovery to enterprise contract close without relying on SDRs or inbound marketing. You will build genuine relationships with engineering leaders across the Bay Area and beyond by showing up in the spaces where they actually work and learn. You will set GTM strategy directly with the founders, defining positioning, pricing, and ICP for a category that does not yet have a name. You will leverage AI as a core work mode, using LLMs and Clay-style workflows to research, prospect, and personalize at a scale that a small team could never achieve manually. You will feed market intelligence back into the product and influence the roadmap based on buyer feedback and objections. You will be the first customer advocate in North America, turning early pilots into referenceable success stories. You will build the repeatable processes and early hires that allow the North America motion to scale efficiently as the business grows. You will carry full responsibility for pipeline generation, negotiation, and revenue outcomes in your region.

Key facts

What you'll do

Drive end-to-end commercial outcomes in North America including pipeline generation, discovery calls, technical demos, pilots, negotiation, and close.

Build and activate a real network of engineering leaders across the Bay Area and other key hubs, connecting with VP Engineering, CTO, and CPTO roles in growth-stage and scale-up companies.

Establish category strategy alongside the founders, defining positioning, pricing, and ICP for a new market that has not yet been named.

Use AI as a leverage multiplier, deploying LLMs and Clay-style workflows to research accounts, personalize outreach, and scale prospecting beyond manual capacity.

Translate market feedback into product input by capturing buyer objections, requirements, and emerging needs to guide roadmap decisions.

Prioritize the first ten logos over vanity metrics, ensuring each win becomes a durable foundation for future expansion.

Establish repeatable playbooks and early hires that create a scalable foundation for North America growth.

Operate independently with high ownership, building motion and process without waiting for predefined playbooks or handoffs.

Maintain a fluent understanding of developer productivity, delivery metrics, and platform engineering to credibly engage with technical leadership.

Be based in or able to operate from the Bay Area to maintain in-market presence and develop authentic relationships with founders and engineering leaders.

Work closely with co-founders on strategic decisions, shaping the playbook rather than only executing against it.

Demonstrate comfort with AI-native workflows, using AI tools for research, personalization, and compounding productivity over time.

Show up in developer communities and tooling conversations where engineering leaders are already present, rather than relying solely on formal events.

Own the full sales cycle in North America, creating a motion that does not depend on warm inbound or inherited opportunities.

Act as the primary commercial representative in the region, translating customer reality into strategy for the entire organization.

Requirements

You have 5-10 years of experience in B2B SaaS with a track record of owning revenue outcomes at the Head or VP level.

You have direct experience selling to, or building pipeline from, engineering leadership such as VP Engineering, CTO, and CPTO.

Your background excludes IT and procurement-focused roles, focusing strictly on engineering and technology leadership buyers.

You have built pipeline and closed revenue from zero without relying on an inherited book of business or an existing inbound engine.

Your history includes clear quota attainment, closed logos, and pipeline built from scratch that you can reference with evidence.

You are fluent in how engineering teams operate and can discuss developer productivity, delivery metrics, and platform engineering without pretending to be one.

You have operated in early-stage environments with fewer than 100 people, ideally as an employee in the first market or very close to it.

You understand what a zero-to-one motion feels like and move faster because of that experience, not in spite of it.

You are based in, or capable of operating from, the Bay Area to enable in-person relationship building with founders and engineering leaders.

You are comfortable working alongside founders on strategy and shaping the GTM playbook rather than waiting for instructions.

You use AI tools in your daily work to research, personalize, prospect, and operate at a pace that compounds over time.

You have a proven ability to engage with developer tooling, DevOps, infrastructure SaaS, or engineering productivity domains, even if from an adjacent position.

You are comfortable making decisions and moving quickly in an environment where playbooks do not yet exist.

You communicate clearly and persuasively with both technical and executive stakeholders.

Nice to have

Experience in developer tooling, DevOps, infrastructure SaaS, or engineering productivity roles.

A record of working in hypergrowth startups where you were close to product and market fit.

Familiarity with AI coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot, and insight into how they are adopted in engineering organizations.

Background in data-driven sales motions and the ability to articulate defensible ROI to engineering leaders.

Exposure to board-level reporting and demonstrating AI or technology ROI in a defensible way.

Practical notes

This role requires significant in-market presence in the Bay Area to build authentic relationships with engineering leaders and founders.

Travel within North America for customer visits, industry events, and prospecting may be required up to a reasonable percentage of time.

Candidates must be eligible to work in the location specified without sponsorship needs or with sponsorship already in place.

The role reports directly to the founders and operates with high autonomy and responsibility from the outset.