Key ResponsibilitiesIdentify, qualify, and engage OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, and device manufacturers whose product roadmaps align with ABR's embedded AI capabilitiesStructure, negotiate, and drive paid proof-of-concept (POC) and pilot engagements that demonstrate ABR's performance advantages on customers' target hardware and use casesManage active POC engagements end-to-end: define success criteria with customers, coordinate ABR engineering resources, track milestones, and drive toward clear go/no-go outcomesBuild a track record of successful POCs that demonstrate clear customer traction and validate ABR's technology for licensing and royalty commitmentsMaintain clear reporting on engagement status, POC progress, and customer commitment signals for the CEO and leadership teamThe role will not be responsible for the Go-to-Market Strategy but will be key in supporting and developing the strategyIdentify the highest-value market segments and use cases where ABR's SSM-based models address key customer pain points by delivering clear competitive differentiation on edge hardwareProvide input on product positioning, pricing strategy, and packaging for ABR's IP licensing offerings across different processor families and customer tiersCreate and execute co-marketing programs with silicon partners to drive inbound demand from their customer basesBuild and manage deep technical and commercial relationships with edge processor ecosystem (ARM, Nvidia, NXP, Qualcomm, Alif, STMicroelectronics, Renesas, and others)Drive joint go-to-market initiatives including reference designs, benchmark publications, developer ecosystem integrations, and co-selling motionsCoordinate with ABR engineering on partner platform integration activities and drive promotion on partner platforms to create pull-through demand from OEM customersRepresent ABR in partner and ecosystem eventsTechnical Selling & Voice of CustomerLead customer engagements in pre-sales activities, working closely with ABR's engineering team to support evaluation, benchmarking, and integration in alignment with expectationsManage paid proofs of concept (POCs) and pilot programs, ensuring customers experience ABR's performance advantages firsthand on their target hardwareServe as the primary commercial relationship owner across all customer touchpoints including technical reviews, contract negotiations, and executive alignmentServe as a structured voice-of-customer channel: translate customer requirements, deployment constraints, and competitive insights back to ABR's product and engineering teams to inform model optimization and roadmap priorities (note: product management decisions remain with the product team)Maintain deep awareness of the competitive AI landscape (both cloud and on-device) including present (ASR, TTS) and longer term (e.g. SLM) application spacesTrack market trends in edge AI adoption, processor roadmaps, and customer buying patterns to inform ABR's strategic directionProvide structured feedback to the CEO and leadership team on market opportunities, competitive threats, and strategic positioningRequired QualificationsNon-Negotiable Experience8–15 years of business development, strategic sales, or partnership experience in embedded software licensing, edge AI preferred (cloud/SaaS, hardware component experience not relevant)Demonstrated track record of structuring and closing meaningful NRE-based POCs, IP licensing and/or royalty-based revenue deals with OEMs or device manufacturersReasonable fluency in embedded software deployment: how software models are compiled, optimized, and integrated onto edge processors with constrained compute, memory, and power budgetsStrong working knowledge of the edge processor landscape including architectures (MCUs, MPUs, NPUs, DSPs) and the ecosystems of players such as ARM, Nvidia, NXP, Qualcomm, Alif, ST, Renesas and othersFluency in the AI/ML model landscape for edge and cloud: ASR, TTS, translation, voice activity detection, keyword spotting, on-device LLMs, and the competitive dynamics among model providersExperience navigating complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles involving engineering, product, procurement, and executive decision-makers at OEMs and Tier-1 suppliersComfort operating in an early-stage, venture-backed environment with the ability to build processes from scratch and move fast with limited resourcesTechnical LiteracyAbility to credibly discuss neural network architectures (State Space Models, Transformers, RNNs), model optimization techniques (quantization, pruning, knowledge distillation), and deployment frameworks (ONNX, LiteRT, proprietary SDKs)Understanding of real-time processing constraints, latency requirements, and power/performance tradeoffs specific to edge AI workloadsFamiliarity with software development kits (SDKs), APIs, and the tools customers use to evaluate, benchmark, and integrate third‑party AI modelsSufficient technical depth to lead discussions between ABR engineering and customer engineering teams and to translate business requirements into actionable product feedbackEducationBachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.