Founding Sales Engineer
ampersand · San Francisco ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Employment
- Full time
- Category
- Solutions engineering
- Experience
- 3+ years
ampersand · San Francisco ·
At Ampersand, we are building scalable integration infrastructure that delivers real-time context to AI agents in seconds. Our declarative platform, 150+ open-source connectors, and embeddable UI components give developers the building blocks they need to ship deep, bidirectional integrations.
We power cutting-edge AI companies like 11x, Orb, Square, and Crunchbase. Almost every engineering team that has evaluated us against other solutions has chosen to use Ampersand. As our product and brand evolve, we're looking for great people to join our experienced team of former Firebase, AWS, Meta and Square engineers and operators.
Ampersand was founded in 2022 by Ayan Barua and Lauren Long — two engineers and repeat founders with a rare combination of developer tools and SaaS experience. You can learn more about our full team here.
We've raised Series A funding from top-tier investors known for their early-stage bets on generational companies like Anthropic, Apple, Twilio, Supabase, and Vercel.
Together, we believe:
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build the connectivity infrastructure for AI. Seizing this moment requires passion, hard work, and continuous learning. At the same time, this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Velocity comes from great strategic decisions, not doing the 99 things you don't have to do.
In five core values that shape how we work every day: Craft, Customer Empathy, Ownership Mindset, Velocity, and Humility.
We're hiring a Founding Sales Engineer to be the technical core of a GTM team that sells a complex, infrastructure-level product to buyers who know exactly what they're evaluating.
The buyers are engineers, CTOs, and product leaders. Demos are technical. Evaluations go deep. You'll partner closely with Account Executives to move deals forward, owning the technical side of the sales process from discovery through proof-of-concept and close. This is a role for someone who's credible with engineering audiences and genuinely enjoys the intersection of sales and engineering.
Technical Discovery — Go deep with prospective customers on their architecture, workflows, and integration requirements. Understand the real problem before proposing a solution.
Solution Design — Build tailored approaches that map Ampersand's capabilities to specific customer challenges.
Product Demonstrations — Lead technical demos and proof-of-concept engagements. Make the product's value tangible for buyers who want to see it work, not hear about it.
Technical Evaluation — Guide customers through architecture reviews, security discussions, implementation planning, and technical diligence requests.
Sales Partnership — Work side-by-side with AEs throughout the sales cycle. Win together.
Customer Advocacy — Bring what you hear in evaluations back to product and engineering. You're a signal source.
Enablement Materials — Build demo environments, reusable technical resources, and sales enablement content that scales the GTM team.
3+ years in engineering, sales engineering, solutions engineering, or a similar technical role
Deep familiarity with APIs, integrations, cloud infrastructure, and modern software architectures
Experience working directly with technical buyers — engineers, product leaders, IT stakeholders
Strong presentation skills — you can hold a room of engineers and make them lean in
Experience supporting technical evaluations and POCs through enterprise sales cycles
A consultative instinct — you diagnose before you pitch
Experience with developer tools, infrastructure software, AI products, or enterprise platforms is a strong plus
Competitive salary and meaningful equity
Medical, dental, and vision insurance, optional HSA
401(k) with company match
Commuter benefits
Free team lunch on in-office days
Flexible PTO (2–4 weeks recommended), plus 11 company holidays and separate paid sick leave
Paid parental leave: 16 weeks for birthing parents, 8 weeks for non-birthing parents (covers birth, adoption, foster, and surrogacy)
Compassionate leave: up to 10 paid days for family building, loss, caregiving, and other major life events
Team socials and retreats