The Role Every CRO Will Be Hiring by Q3 (If They Haven’t Already)
CROs today are being asked to build systems, not just manage teams. They need people who can translate strategy into execution, who can build workflows instead of decks, and who understand the language of revenue and automation.
GTM Engineers appear to be the answer.
With a rapid rise in hiring, this role is emerging as the technical backbone of modern go-to-market teams. But, it’s still a bit of a black box. Is it RevOps? Is it growth? Is it engineering? Sales?
To find out, I analyzed more than 30 GTM Engineer job descriptions across early-stage startups, AI-native companies, and scaling SaaS businesses like Clay, LaunchDarkly, beehiiv, Workleap, Orb, Semrush, and more.
While the titles vary, the core expectations are converging around automation, experimentation, and systems thinking. Aka bringing an engineering mindset to go-to-market.
Here's how it breaks down.
The Top 5 Skills Companies Want in GTM Engineers
GTM Engineers aren't generalists. But they’re not quite RevOps, sales, marketing or other traditional GTM roles, either. All-in-all, they’re builders.
Based on our research, here’s what GTM Engineers are expected to do:
- AI & Automation Fluency: GTM Engineers are expected to build AI-powered workflows, personalize outreach at scale, and integrate tools like ChatGPT, Clay, Smartlead, and Jasper into demand generation systems.
- Systems Thinking: These aren’t just campaign builders—they’re revenue system architects. That includes CRM hygiene, data routing, enrichment pipelines, workflow orchestration, and experimentation infrastructure.
- Growth Experimentation: The best candidates are tinkerers. They build dashboards, test lead scoring models, analyze funnel drop-offs, and iterate quickly based on signal.
- Full-Stack Tooling: From SQL to Salesforce, from APIs to Zapier, GTM Engineers are expected to move across the entire stack and connect the dots.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration This role often sits at the intersection of RevOps, Product, Marketing, and Sales. Strong communicators and systems translators thrive here.
The Most Common Tools in the Stack
As you can imagine, job descriptions for GTM Engineers are tech heavy. I broke out the most popular categories, tools, and platforms companies expect this role to manage.
| Category | Tools / Platforms |
| CRM & Engagement | Salesforce, HubSpot, Pardot, Customer.io, Chilipiper |
| Automation & Workflow | Clay, Zapier, Make (Integromat), n8n, Workato |
| Sales Enablement | Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Gong |
| Data & Analytics | SQL, Looker, Metabase, BigQuery, Tableau, Mixpanel, Segment |
| ABM & Intent | Clearbit, ZoomInfo, SimilarWeb, Koala, CommonRoom, Warmly |
| Content & AI | ChatGPT, Jasper, Copy.ai, Smartlead, Instantly, Recotap, Supergroww |
| Dev & Scripting | Python, JavaScript, Node.js, dbt, Postgres, APIs |
One tool that kept coming up over and over again? Clay. It was listed in 80% of the job descriptions analyzed.
Which makes sense from both the tech and hiring perspectives. Clay was one of the first companies to build a team of GTM Engineers after all.
Sample Projects We Found Across 30+ Listings
Almost all of the job descriptions listed typical projects for a GTM Engineer at their organization, or a sample project was a core component of the interview process. Looking at the kinds of projects listed, you can see the responsibilities of the role more clearly.
Here are the types of projects a GTM Engineer will be expected to lead:
- Deploying AI-powered outbound using tools like Clay and Smartlead
- Building self-serve onboarding flows with full data enrichment
- Spinning up real-time dashboards for campaign performance
- Creating 1:many demo personalization systems for ABM campaigns
- Using job change signals and stack data to prioritize outreach
What This Tells Us About GTM in 2025
The explosion of GTM Engineer roles reveals a deeper truth: the way SaaS companies grow is changing. AI, automation, and orchestration are becoming foundational—not optional—and GTM leaders are hiring accordingly.
These job descriptions give us unique insight into the ways the GTM playbook is being rewritten in real time:
- GTM Engineers are the new revenue architects. They're not just maintaining tools—they're designing the infrastructure for scalable, intelligent growth.
- AI is no longer a nice-to-have. Nearly every JD referenced AI workflows, prompt engineering, or automated personalization at scale.
- Tool sprawl is giving way to orchestration. Companies want people who can make the tech talk to each other—and know what to automate vs. what to own.
- Reporting lines are moving up. Many GTM Engineers now report to CROs, Heads of Growth, or even the CEO. This isn’t a back-office role.
And with increasing pressure to scale efficiently, this role hits all the pressure points CROs are feeling. As Everett Berry, Head of GTM Engineering at Clay, puts it:
The best CROs are nerds. They look at their revenue org as a software system—with levers to pull, bugs to squash, and features to ship.
What CROs Should Do Next
If you’re building a modern GTM org, a GTM Engineer might be your first non-traditional hire. Here’s what to think through:
- Scope: Do you need a tactical workflow builder or a full-stack systems designer
- Mandate: Are you ready to give them control over your tooling, routing, and automation infrastructure?
- Fit: Can they talk to both your RevOps lead and your Head of Sales without losing the plot?
Hiring for this role isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about finding someone who understands the connective tissue between your strategy, your systems, and your pipeline.
Hiring a GTM Engineer? Don’t wing it. We reverse-engineered these job descriptions so you don’t have to. Steal our scorecard and hire smarter.
