If your AI startup’s sales are bogged down under fragmented data systems, stalled by research requirements or held back by slow campaign launches, we have some good news and bad news. Your go-to-market (GTM) team is not understaffed, but it does need a system overhaul – and that is where a GTM Engineer (GTME) comes in.
This role has exploded over the past year, with approximately 100 GTME job listings going live every month and a 205% year-over-year increase in job postings from 2024 to 2025. Established enterprises and new startups alike are rushing to hire for this position, and for good reason. A single GTM Engineer can generate more booked demos than a team of five traditional SDRs through automated, AI-powered workflows that find competitive advantages competitors can’t easily replicate.
For AI companies competing in increasingly crowded markets, GTMEs represent a critical evolution in how revenue teams operate. Betts Recruiting has worked with several artificial intelligence companies to build their go-to-market teams, leveraging our experience in helping thousands of tech startups scale their revenue-generating roles. In this blog, we will explore what GTM Engineers actually do, how they integrate with revenue teams, and when your organization should make this strategic hire:
What is a GTM Engineer?
A GTM Engineer builds and automates revenue-generating systems using AI and automation, while also serving in customer-facing capacities that directly impact pipeline generation and deal velocity. The role emerged in 2023 and has since been adopted by companies like Cursor, Lovable, Webflow, and Notion as they recognized that traditional GTM tactics had become commoditized.
Two fundamental market shifts created both the need and opportunity for GTM Engineering: First, the sales playbooks that worked in 2010 fall flat today. Prospects receive hundreds of generic cold emails daily, and every AI product category has reached saturation – even breakthrough products like ChatGPT face dozens of alternatives. Second, artificial intelligence technology itself eliminated manual barriers. AI can now research thousands of companies simultaneously, APIs pull data from virtually anywhere, and no-code automation has replaced tasks that previously required manual research or specialized engineering talent.
Customer-Facing Responsibilities
Unlike traditional RevOps roles that maintain backend systems, GTM Engineers actively participate in the sales motion itself:
- Building Custom Demos at Scale: GTMEs create scalable yet customized product demonstrations that serve as proof-of-concept for prospects. These are not just generic slide decks – they are functional, personalized experiences built using live data and automation.
- Technical Client Consultation: Acting as power users who can demonstrate advanced features and solve technical issues during sales cycles, GTM Engineers provide the technical credibility that AI buyers expect. From the first interaction, prospects receive expert consultations instead of standard sales pitches.
- Direct Sales Support: Rather than requiring product teams to answer technical questions, GTMEs handle these inquiries themselves. They provide key data and insights that push deals forward, managing the entire process from lead finding through technical support.
- Post-Sale Engagement: GTM Engineers build automated workflows that identify expansion opportunities based on usage data, trigger personalized outreach from Customer Success teams, and ensure customers extract maximum value from the platform.
The measurable impact demonstrates why AI companies are racing to hire GTMEs: response times reduced from hours to minutes, improved data accuracy, increased demo-to-customer conversion rates, and shrinking sales cycles significantly.
What Sets GTM Engineers Apart
The responsibilities and focuses of GTM Engineers sometimes overlap with other technical sales and operational roles. However, there are several key differences between each:
- GTM Engineer vs. Sales Engineer – Sales Engineers demonstrate product capabilities during the pre-sales process, supporting individual deals by customizing demos and answering technical questions. They hand off responsibility after deal closure. GTM Engineers build automated systems that power the entire revenue engine across all deals. While they may engage directly with prospects, their primary focus is creating scalable infrastructure rather than providing deal-by-deal support.
- GTM Engineer vs. Forward Deployment Engineer – Forward Deployment Engineers embed with individual customers for complex implementations, ensuring that sold capabilities work in practice. GTM Engineers build internal automation systems that interact with multiple prospects and customers simultaneously through automated workflows. These roles are complementary: FDEs ensure successful deployment for high-value accounts, while GTM Engineers ensure an efficient customer acquisition pipeline.
- GTM Engineer vs. RevOps Managers – Traditional Revenue Operations Managers maintain existing systems, focusing on CRM management, process optimization, and lead nurturing. GTMEs architect and build new automated systems with a focus on revenue generation through technical innovation. This distinction reflects a broader evolution: GTM Engineers represent the future of Sales Operations roles, transforming from reactive system maintainers to proactive revenue architects.
When Should AI Companies Hire a GTM Engineer?
The decision to hire a GTM Engineer should be driven by specific indicators tied to your revenue generation and growth rate, ensuring that you scale your Cost-per-Hire with your GTM needs at your stage.
Based on our experience working with AI companies and industry observations, companies typically consider GTMEs hiring once they have established product-market fit and are ready to ramp up systematic outbound motions. Key signals for GTM Engineer hiring include:
- Fragmented systems consuming sales time – Sales teams spending the majority of their time dealing with disconnected tools and manual workflows rather than actually selling
- Tool sprawl without orchestration – Using five or more disconnected GTM tools (CRM, marketing automation, enrichment platforms, sequencing tools, analytics) without anyone orchestrating them into coherent workflows
- Slow response times – Lead response times measured in hours or days when automated systems could reduce this to minutes
- Data quality issues – Unreliable data leading to decisions and campaigns based on inaccurate information
- Manual research bottlenecks – Teams bogged down by manual account research, data cleaning, and prospect qualification that can’t scale efficiently
- Inability to test at scale – Cannot rapidly test creative, targeted approaches because everything requires manual execution
GTM Engineer Integration with Revenue Teams
GTM Engineers unify the value proposition between technical and operational business value, functioning as the bridge between strategy and execution. This integration follows a structured workflow that enhances the entire go-to-market motion:
Building Revenue Engine Infrastructure
GTM Engineers create automated systems that power multiple revenue team functions:
- Lead qualification workflows – Automated scoring, routing, and nurturing based on behavior patterns and engagement trends, reducing qualification time from hours to minutes
- Outbound campaign automation – Multi-step outreach sequences combining email, LinkedIn, and other channels with AI-powered personalization that makes each message feel hand-written
- Sales trigger implementation – Automated workflows that react to buying signals like funding rounds, job changes, or product page visits, prompting immediate tailored follow-ups
- Data pipeline development – Real-time enrichment and validation ensuring CRMs contain accurate, up-to-date context on every lead
- Tech stack orchestration – Connecting CRMs, marketing automation, enrichment tools, and analytics platforms into one coherent system
Cross-Functional Collaboration
GTM Engineers work with teams across your revenue
- With Sales Teams: Provide automated account research, update CRMs based on call transcripts, send follow-up emails, and surface key data that pushes deals forward. Industry examples show individual GTM Engineers generating hundreds of qualified meetings per month through systematic automation.
- With Marketing Teams: Automate demand generation and ABM campaigns, monitor competitor mentions on social platforms, and launch personalized campaigns within hours rather than weeks.
- With Customer Success: Build workflows that identify expansion opportunities based on usage thresholds, trigger automated outreach for upsells, and ensure customers receive the right features at the right time.
- With Product Teams: Channel technical feedback from live implementations, identifying feature requests that could unlock expansion revenue or prevent churn.
How to Successfully Hire GTM Engineers
Hiring GTM Engineers presents unique challenges due to the rare combination of technical depth and business acumen required. The talent pool is limited, competition is intense, and traditional recruiting approaches often fall short for these reasons:
- Significant skill requirements: Need coding ability (SQL and Python each appear in most job postings), GTM tool proficiency, automation experience and proven business judgment
- Title inconsistency: Most candidates do not use “GTM Engineer” on their profiles; they may be titled “Growth Engineer,” “Marketing Developer” or “RevOps Engineer”
- Hidden talent pools: Quality candidates congregate in specialized communities – user group forums, RevOps professional networks, LinkedIn communities, etc. – rather than traditional job boards
- Agency proliferation: A significant portion of professionals with GTM Engineer experience works as independent agencies or consultants rather than full-time employees, making them harder to source by inexperienced recruiters
- Compensation competition: Well-funded AI companies offer $175,000-$250,000+ total compensation for experienced GTM Engineers, with top companies like OpenAI and Vercel exceeding $250,000
The Betts Recruiting Advantage for Hiring GTM Engineers
Betts Recruiting understands the unique hiring challenges AI companies face when building specialized technical teams. Our experience recruiting technical sales talent positions us to help you find GTM Engineers who bring the knowledge and skill sets you need while aligning perfectly with your sales motion.
Specialized GTM Engineering Expertise
- Recruiters who understand both the technical and business dimensions of the role, assessing coding ability, GTM tool proficiency, automation experience, and business judgment
- Experience sourcing for similar hybrid technical GTM roles including Sales Engineers, Forward Deployment Engineers, and Enterprise Customer Success Engineers
- Understanding of how GTM Engineers fit within AI startup organizational structures and revenue operations
Access to Extended Talent Networks
- Targeted sourcing strategies that reach GTM Engineers where they are most active, rather than relying solely on traditional job boards where experienced technical sales talent is slim
- Pre-vetted talent marketplace through Betts Connect with candidates filtered by technical skills, GTM experience, and cultural fit
- National coverage across the U.S. and Canada for both remote and in-office talent, with particularly strong networks in Bay Area market
Speed and Cost Efficiency at Scale
- Recruitment as a Service (RaaS) model provides dedicated recruiting support through annual subscription rather than per-placement fees
- Unlimited hires without incremental placement costs, enabling you to move quickly when the right candidates emerge or build out entire GTM Engineering teams
- Real-time compensation intelligence through Comp Engine to ensure competitive offers in a market where top companies exceed $250,000 total compensation
Scale Up Your AI Startup’s GTM Engineering Capabilities with Betts
GTM Engineers represent a fundamental shift in how the Gen AI space is approaching RevOps, and demand is only going to grow exponentially for this role. Betts Recruiting has the established network, industry expertise, and proven track record to help you source your unicorn candidate for this title faster and more effectively, and ensure you find the right talent to scale your revenue up.
Contact Betts here to discover how we can help you accelerate your talent acquisition and help you track down your perfect fit GTM Engineer candidate.