Founding GTM Lead - Aerospace & Defense

📍 San Francisco | 🏢 5 Days Onsite + Field Travel

Location: Onsite in San Francisco, with travel to customer sites and industry events.

Compensation: Competitive Base Salary + Commission + Equity

Who We Are

Engineering simulation is one of the last major categories of software that AI hasn't rebuilt. The tools used to design aircraft, ships, reservoirs, and medical devices still run on numerical methods that are decades old, and an engineer can wait a full day for a single answer. UniversalAGI is building foundation models that learn physics directly from data, and they are already running in early deployments on real computational fluid dynamics and reservoir engineering problems for some of the largest industrial and defense organizations in the world.

We are a team of 25 researchers and engineers in San Francisco backed by Elad Gil (#1 Solo VC), Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO), Prith Banerjee (ANSYS CTO), Ion Stoica (Databricks Founder), Jared Kushner (former Senior Advisor to the President), David Patterson (Turing Award Winner), and Luis Videgaray (former Foreign and Finance Minister of Mexico).

About the Role

As our Founding GTM Lead for Aerospace & Defense, you'll be in the arena from day one, building UniversalAGI's business with the defense primes and defense technology companies designing the next generation of aircraft, missiles, ships, and autonomous systems. This is your chance to take everything you've learned selling into these organizations and use it to bring a new category of engineering software to the buyers who need it most.

Our Large Physics Models are already running in live deployments with major defense primes, turning simulations that take days into results in seconds. You'll work directly with the CEO and founding GTM team to turn those early wins into a repeatable motion: mapping the market, building the playbook, and closing deals yourself long before there's a team to hand them to. The bar is simple: customers should walk out of a first meeting saying “we need to buy this.

What You'll Do

Build the A&D motion: build and run our go-to-market across defense primes and defense technology companies, from first meeting to signed, expanding contract.

Navigate complex accounts: for each target, map the relevant engineering organizations, the executives and technical leaders who matter, and what success looks like for each, then work from a first champion to an enterprise deal.

Run the full sales cycle: prospecting, technical proof points and benchmarks, commercial negotiation, close, and expansion across programs and business units.

Know how primes buy: work through procurement and supplier onboarding, security and export-control requirements, internal R&D versus program-funded budgets, and multi-stakeholder buying committees.

Lead with technical credibility: hold the first technical conversation yourself with CFD, aerodynamics, and simulation engineers, and bring in our research team for deep dives.

Build the business case: translate faster design cycles, fewer wind tunnel and flight tests, lower compute costs, and reduced program risk into a quantified case for engineering and executive buyers.

Define the GTM strategy: map the A&D market and decide where we win fastest, factoring in sales cycles, budgets, customer needs, and the value we deliver.

Build the playbook: create our A&D sales playbook from scratch (qualification criteria, messaging, deal stages, and repeatable processes) that future hires can execute against.

Communicate with precision: write crisp briefings before and after every customer meeting, and keep relationships warm across every account.

Partner across UniversalAGI: work with the CEO, our other founding GTM leads, and our research and engineering teams to shape product and strategy around real buyer needs.

Represent UniversalAGI: show up at industry conferences and customer sites as the face of our A&D business.

Qualifications

Technical background: degree or working experience in mechanical or aerospace engineering, computational fluid dynamics, or a related field, strong enough to go deep on the technical value proposition with engineering buyers.

Domain sales experience: 8+ years of enterprise sales or business development selling into aerospace & defense companies, with a working understanding of their procurement, security constraints, budget cycles, and stakeholder structures.

The right accounts: has sold into defense primes (e.g., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Boeing Defense, L3Harris, General Dynamics) and/or defense technology companies (e.g., Anduril, Palantir, Shield AI).

Track record: history of personally sourcing and closing $1M+ net-new software deals, not inherited pipeline.

Network: active, callable relationships with VP-level and above leaders across aerospace & defense companies, warm on day one.

Startup mindset: has operated in a startup environment; comfortable with ambiguity, wearing multiple hats, and building process rather than inheriting it.

Communication: excellent written and verbal communication; can rapidly learn our product and explain it with precision to engineers and executives alike.

Operating style: extreme urgency, very organized, and proactive. Nothing falls through the cracks.

Bonus Qualifications

Experience selling simulation, CAE, or other engineering software specifically (CFD, FEA, or digital engineering).

Hands-on engineering experience inside a prime or aerospace company (design, analysis, or flight test).

Advanced technical degree (MS or PhD in aerospace, mechanical, or a related engineering field).

Active U.S. security clearance.

Experience selling AI or machine learning products to engineering organizations.

Prior experience at an early-stage startup building a GTM function from scratch.

Relationships with commercial aerospace and space companies in addition to defense.

Cultural Fit

Technical Respect : Ability to earn respect through hands-on technical contribution

Intensity : Thrives in our unusually intense culture - willing to grind when needed

Customer Obsession : Passionate about solving real customer problems, not just cool tech

Deep Work : Values long, uninterrupted periods of focused work over meetings

High Availability : Ready to be deeply involved whenever critical issues arise

Communication : Can translate complex technical concepts to customers and team

Growth Mindset : Embraces the compounding returns of intelligence and continuous learning

Startup Mindset : Comfortable with ambiguity, rapid change, and wearing multiple hats

Work Ethic : Willing to put in the extra hours when needed to hit critical milestones

Team Player : Collaborative approach with low ego and high accountability

What We Offer

Opportunity to shape the technical foundation of a rapidly growing foundational AI company.

Work on cutting-edge industrial AI problems with immediate real-world impact.

Direct collaboration with the founder & CEO and ability to influence company strategy

Competitive compensation with significant equity upside.

In-person first culture - 5 days a week in office with a team that values face-to-face collaboration.

Access to world-class investors and advisors in the AI space.

Benefits

We provide great benefits, including:

Competitive compensation and equity.

Competitive health, dental, vision benefits paid by the company.

401(k) plan offering.

Flexible vacation.

Team Building & Fun Activities.

Great scope, ownership and impact.

AI tools stipend.

Monthly commute stipend.

Monthly wellness / fitness stipend.

Daily office lunch & dinner covered by the company.

Immigration support.

How We’re Different

“ The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again...