Position Overview:We're hiring a Sales Manager / Founding Account Executive to be ATI's first commercial hire and the person personally responsible for landing our earliest customers. This is a quota-carrying, deal-closing role first - strategy and team-building come from the work, not before it.
You'll spend most of your week in active selling: working accounts, running discovery, demoing at dealer service lanes and tire bays, modeling ROI, structuring proposals, and closing POs. Over time, as the pipeline and revenue justify it, you will help define the broader sales motion and bring on the first AEs and BDRs underneath you - but the bar for this seat is set by personal quota attainment, not headcount.
The right person is a player-coach with a strong bias toward player. Ideally you've sold automotive SaaS or dealer-tech solutions before - you know how dealer service drives, tire chains, and fleet maintenance networks actually buy, and you have relationships and credibility in that ecosystem already.
If you're a closer who knows the automotive SaaS / dealer-tech world cold and wants the founding sales seat at a robotics company solving a real problem in automotive service, we want to hear from you.
Key Responsibilities:- Carry the number. Personally own and close ATI's first wave of enterprise opportunities. Your individual quota is the primary measure of success in year one.
- Run the full cycle. Prospect, qualify, discover, demo, model ROI, structure pricing, negotiate, and close - without leaning on a team that doesn't exist yet. You are the SDR, AE, and Sales Engineer rolled into one for the first 12-18 months.
- Land lighthouse logos. Win the first reference customers across dealer groups, national tire retailers (Discount Tire, Mavis, Monro, Belle Tire, Big O, and similar), and large fleet operators. Each early win sets the template for the next ten.
- Use your network. Bring existing relationships from your automotive-SaaS or dealer-tech career to compress sales cycles and get into the right rooms quickly.
- Define the playbook as you sell. Document what works - ICP definition, messaging, objection handling, pricing - as the playbook the eventual team will run.
- Lay the groundwork for a team. Once the motion is repeatable and pipeline justifies it, help hire and onboard the first AEs and BDRs. You will be their first-line manager, but team-building is downstream of you proving the motion yourself.
- Voice of the customer. Translate every demo, lost deal, and customer conversation into clear feedback for Product, Engineering, and Deployment.
- Post-sale handoff & expansion. Coordinate with Deployment and Customer Success to ensure clean installs, high utilization, and a clear expansion path inside each customer's footprint.
Requirements- 7+ years of B2B sales experience with a strong track record carrying and exceeding individual quota - not managing managers, but personally closing deals.
- Automotive SaaS or dealer-tech background. You've sold software, computer-vision, or technology platforms into dealer service drives, tire / service retail networks, or fleet operators. You speak the buyer's language already.
- Closer's instincts. You enjoy the chase, the demo, the negotiation, and the signed PO - and you can credibly describe specific deals you've sourced and closed in the last 24 months.
- Enterprise-grade selling skills. Comfortable navigating Fixed Ops, Service Directors, Tire Directors, COOs, GMs, Dealer Principals, and franchise leadership inside the same account.
- Hybrid hardware + recurring revenue fluency. Comfortable pricing and selling a mix of capital equipment plus software / service subscriptions, with credible ROI modeling.
- Field-rep instinct. At ease on a shop floor, on a service drive, in a tire bay, and at industry events (NADA, SEMA, TIA, Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week).
- CRM discipline. Strong Salesforce or HubSpot habits, clean pipeline hygiene, and an honest forecast.
Preferred Qualifications:- Existing relationships across top-100 US dealer groups, national tire retail buyers, or large mixed fleets.• Prior experience as the first or second sales hire at a venture-backed startup.
- Hands-on familiarity with the operational realities of tire bays, dealer service lanes, or fleet maintenance.
- Based on the East Coast, ideally within commuting distance of Greater Boston. Heavy domestic travel expected (40-60%).
We're Particularly Interested If You've Come From...- Automotive SaaS / dealer-tech (primary preference): UVeye, CDK Global, Cox Automotive / vAuto / Dealer.com, Reynolds & Reynolds, Tekion, CarNow, AutoAlert, Solera, Spincar, CarGurus enterprise, Upstart Auto Retail, or similar.
- Tire and service retail networks: Discount Tire, Bridgestone / Firestone, Goodyear commercial, Monro, Mavis, Big O Tires, or comparable.
- Automotive service equipment with a software layer: Hunter Engineering, Snap-on / Mitchell 1, Hennessy / Coats, Rotary Lift, or similar - especially recent roles where you sold a connected / data product, not just a piece of hardware.
Why ATI:- Found a category. Be the person who closes the deals that define a new category in automotive service automation.
- Own the number. A clean, founder-adjacent seat where your individual closes show up directly in the company's revenue and pipeline.
- Real customers, real traction. We are past science project - the system is in market with paying customers and a clear path from pilot to multi-site rollout.
- Earn the team beneath you. Build the first AE/BDR team off the back of a motion you proved yourself. Player-coach today, player-coach-leader tomorrow.
- Strategic backing. Investors with deep automotive and tire industry relationships, and a founding team with a track record of scaling robotics into operational environments.
