Founding Account Executive - Simulation Agent

Clera
  • San Francisco, California
    6 days ago

    Job Description

    About the Role

    This is a founding sales hire on a small, founder-led team building a category-defining AI simulation agent for hardware engineering organizations. You will own the full new-logo sales motion end-to-end, converting early opportunities into closed deals while simultaneously writing the playbook that future sellers will inherit. The role carries outsized influence over both go-to-market strategy and product direction.

    What You'll Do

    • Own the complete sales cycle from outbound prospecting through close for net-new accounts, without SDR or BDR support.

    • Convert founder-sourced warm opportunities and inbound interest into revenue while independently building new pipeline.

    • Demo the simulation agent solo and design technical evaluations that validate value directly inside customer models and workflows.

    • Navigate complex buying committees, aligning CAE and simulation champions to VP- and Director-level economic buyers.

    • Run targeted account plans against engineering teams that currently use tools such as ANSYS, SIMULIA, Altair, or Simcenter.

    • Build qualification criteria, discovery frameworks, evaluation templates, and objection-handling guides that form the company playbook.

    • Feed deal learnings back to the product team to sharpen the agent and future sales motions.

    • Document repeatable processes and hand them off as a foundation for future sales hires.

    What We're Looking For

    • 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.

    • At least half of quota history coming from net-new logo acquisition rather than renewals or expansion.

    • Proven ability to run unaided software demos and real technical evaluations with engineering teams, without relying on a solutions engineer.

    • Fluency with AI agents and LLMs, and the ability to explain practical agentic workflows and translate them into concrete engineering value.

    • Direct experience selling into environments that use ANSYS, SIMULIA, Altair, or Siemens Simcenter, whether as a vendor rep, reseller, or competing seller.

    • Background selling CAD, CAE, PLM, EDA, or adjacent deep-tech (dev tools, MLOps, infrastructure) into large enterprises, with strong domain fluency.

    • Founding or early-stage sales hire experience, including building a go-to-market motion from scratch under ambiguous, high-pressure conditions.

    • Comfort operating without an established playbook, support structure, or consistent lead flow.

    • Background in mechanical, aerospace, or a related engineering discipline is a plus, as is experience at a major engineering-software vendor.

    Location

    On-site in San Francisco, California. Visa sponsorship is not available.

    Numbers & Facts

    LocationSan Francisco, California
    Websitehttps://www.getclera.com/

    Skills

    • Aerospace and Defenseunmatched
    • Artificial Intelligence (AI)unmatched
    • B2B eCommerceunmatched
    • CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing)unmatched
    • Category Developmentunmatched
    • Computer Aided Engineering (CAE)unmatched
    • Computer Engineeringunmatched
    • Direct Salesunmatched
    • Hardware Simulationunmatched
    • Huntingunmatched
    • Manufacturingunmatched
    • Market Entry Strategyunmatched
    • Product Demonstrationunmatched
    • Product Lifecycle Managementunmatched
    • Reseller Channelunmatched
    • Salesunmatched
    • Sales Closing Skillsunmatched
    • Sales Cycleunmatched
    • Sales Managementunmatched
    • Sales Prospectingunmatched
    • Simulationunmatched
    • Strategic Planningunmatched
    • Team Buildingunmatched
    • Team Lead/Managerunmatched
    • Technical Analysisunmatched
    • Technical/Engineering Designunmatched

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