About Nominal Nominal is building the software infrastructure that powers the world’s most advanced hardware systems — from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation industrial machines. Our platform ingests high-rate telemetry, validates complex autonomy software in real time, and helps engineering teams iterate faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We’re a small, fast-moving team of engineers and operators who own problems end-to-end, work across disciplines, and thrive on solving challenges at the intersection of hardware and software. As a dual-use platform, we're serving top-tier commercial and defense customers, including the U.S. Navy, United States Air Force, Shield AI, and Anduril. We’re backed by top-tier investors — Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures — who share our mission to accelerate innovation in mission-critical systems. Our team brings experience from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common goal: enabling hardware engineers to push the boundaries of advanced technology with speed, safety, and precision. In this pivotal role, you’ll deliver Nominal’s vision of providing continuous testing to the industrial base, equipping engineers to deploy capability at scale, in the shortest time possible. You’ll operate at the intersection of sales, marketing, and operations—building the early commercial pipeline, testing messaging, researching the market, and supporting key deals. This is a hands-on role with real scope for impact and upward mobility. 🚀 About the role

Build the commercial pipeline: You’ll be responsible for developing early-stage pipeline, whether through direct outreach, market and company research, or channel-building experiments. Your entire focus will be to build commercial pipeline in a brand-aligned, sustainable way. Your compensation / bonus will track qualified leads / meetings and pipeline generation.

Shape go-to-market strategy: You’ll help define the way Nominal goes to market – from testing outbound scripts and sequencing plays, to refining messaging, segmenting the market, and designing experiments that help us learn quickly. You’ll scope and evaluate potential verticals, identify customer feedback patterns, and help drive special projects.

Support sales ops: You’ll contribute directly to revenue but also help build the scaffolding around it – supporting sales with research & collateral, setting up processes & operations for our GTM stack, etc.

Grow into an AE role: This role is designed with a fast path to becoming an Account Executive. Your initial conversations with potential customers will include discovery & qualification – identifying ICP fit, potential use-cases, etc. As you prove your ability to generate and shape opportunities, you’ll take on more sales ownership and quota-carrying responsibility. We expect this person to be closing deals in the next 6–12 months.

🔍 We're looking for someone with

1+ years of sales or customer-facing experience: You’ve worked in sales, ops, or other customer-facing roles before – and you’re now hungry for a seat at the table with more ownership.

Technical fluency: You can quickly understand and communicate technical products and use cases, and you’re excited to engage deeply with our engineering customers and software stack.

Scrappy, sharp, and fast-moving: You like solving messy, open-ended problems and running with limited context. You find a way forward – even when the playbook doesn’t exist yet. You are a hustler who moves quickly, gets a LOT done, and maintains a consistent bar for excellence.

Resilient and persistent: You don’t get discouraged by a “no” and instead use that as fuel to be even more creative. You’re comfortable with repetition and iterating until you land the right message.

Strong communication instincts: You can adapt your communication to different audiences – internal and external. You write clearly, ask good questions, and make crisp recommendations. You can draft and adapt outbound for technical engineers or c-suite executives. You can coordinate between sales and marketing orgs to refine our messaging & report on what’s resonating.

A builder’s mindset: You want to help build the machine, not just run it. You’re entrepreneurial and excited to create repeatable systems and think proactively about what the team needs next.

⚡ Skills that supercharge us

Familiarity with sales & GTM tools: HubSpot, Common Room, Clay, Apollo, n8n, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Exposure to heavy industry domains: aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, manufacturing

Experience selling B2B SaaS or working on or with growth-stage B2B SaaS teams

Experience in a quota-carrying SDR role

Background or degree in engineering or a technical field

✨ Benefits/Perks

🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance

🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave

🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee

🚀 Professional development stipend

✈️ Annual company retreat

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. ITAR Requirements To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Sales Development Representative