Founding Account Executive - Simulation AI Agent

Clera

$130K — $160K *
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years in complex, technical B2B sales with a focus on engineering or manufacturing organizations.
  • Proven ability to independently conduct software demos and technical evaluations without support.
  • Strong understanding of AI agents and their application in CAE/simulation environments.
  • Experience navigating sales process from outbound prospecting to closing, without existing leads.
  • Demonstrated success in selling to engineering stakeholders and senior management in enterprise settings.

Responsibilities

  • Own the complete sales cycle for new enterprise accounts from prospecting to closing.
  • Convert warm leads from founders and build independent pipeline.
  • Deliver solo demos and design evaluations that highlight product value.
  • Engage with complex buying committees to align stakeholders and economic buyers.
  • Conduct targeted account planning for teams using specific engineering tools.
  • Develop foundational sales documentation and processes for future hires.
  • Provide product feedback based on customer interactions to enhance sales strategy.

Benefits

  • Join a small, founder-led team at the early stage of product development.
  • High-ownership role that shapes the go-to-market strategy.
  • Opportunity to influence the future sales playbook based on early learnings.
  • Build critical sales processes that will be used by future team members.
Full Job Description
About the Role

We're hiring a Founding Account Executive to own and build a repeatable new-logo sales motion for a category-defining AI simulation agent product. You'll join a small, founder-led team at the ground floor, run full-cycle enterprise sales into large engineering organizations, and turn early wins into the playbook that future sellers will inherit. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role where you'll directly shape go-to-market strategy and feed product feedback loops.
What You'll Do
  • Own the full sales cycle - from outbound prospecting through close - for net-new enterprise accounts.
  • Convert warm, founder-sourced opportunities and inbound interest into closed deals while independently building new pipeline.
  • Demo the simulation AI 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.
  • Develop qualification criteria, discovery frameworks, evaluation templates, and objection-handling guides that form the foundation of the company's sales playbook.
  • Feed learnings back to the product team to improve the agent and evolve future sales motions.
  • Build repeatable processes and documentation that future sales hires will execute against.
What We're Looking For

Must-haves (dealbreakers):
  • 6+ years of full-cycle, outbound-driven hunting in complex, technical B2B deals targeting engineering or manufacturing organizations - with a verifiable track record of sourcing and closing net-new logos against quota.
  • Ability to run unaided software demos and real technical evaluations with engineering teams - no reliance on a Sales Engineer in the room.
  • Fluency with AI agents and LLMs; able to articulate concrete engineering value and the practical constraints of agentic workflows in CAE/simulation environments.

Required:
  • Experience owning the complete sales motion: outbound prospecting, discovery, technical evaluation, procurement navigation, and close - without pre-generated pipeline.
  • Demonstrated ability to sell to CAE/simulation stakeholders and build credible bridges to engineering managers and VP/Director-level buyers in enterprise settings.
  • Experience building and executing a go-to-market playbook in a founding or early-stage sales environment.
  • Comfortable with ambiguity - founding-hire temperament with a bias for action and documentation.

Nice to have:
  • 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.
  • Background selling CAD/CAE/PLM/EDA or adjacent deep-tech (dev tools, MLOps, infrastructure) into large enterprises.
  • Formal background in mechanical, aerospace, or a related engineering discipline, or strong domain fluency to converse credibly with engineers.
  • Prior early or founding sales hire experience highly desirable.
Location & Work Arrangement

This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
Compensation & Details
  • Employment type: Full-time
  • Compensation details were not specified for this role - competitive package expected at a well-funded early-stage company.

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