Account Executive - Defense
About Code Metal
Code Metal is redefining code translation for mission-critical industries, helping defense partners move more quickly and reliably from algorithm to silicon. Our platform accelerates deployment of DSP, RF, communications, and embedded signal processing algorithms onto heterogeneous compute targets, including GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, and edge SoCs. We also support automotive, aerospace, and semiconductor partners deploying complex algorithms onto constrained hardware with speed and rigor.
We sell into the hardest requirements environment there is: primarily the major U.S. defense primes, alongside the venture-backed companies reshaping the industry, on programs where the software cannot be wrong. We are a small, fast-moving team that owns problems end to end, and our work in defense today is building the platform that regulated industries everywhere will run on tomorrow.
You will take ownership of a portfolio of accounts and their existing pipeline, reporting to the Director of Defense Growth, and you will help shape how Code Metal sells as the motion takes form. The playbook is being written now, and you will help write it.
What You'll Do:
Own the deal: run the full motion from first conversation through signature: proof of value, paid integration, production. You are accountable for new business, revenue, and expansion across your accounts, and you carry each deal through internal review and approval to get it done.
Build the map: Defense primes are collections of business units and programs, each may have its own budget, priorities, and capture teams within a single account. Learn who owns which problems and how work gets funded, and position Code Metal to be brought into the pursuits our customers are already chasing.
Earn the expansion: start where a first mover is willing to move, deliver, and let trust compound. The relationships you build are what turn a first engagement into a lasting presence in the account.
Sell to an outcome: Learn what each program is being held to, whether that is schedule, cost, performance, or risk, and sell to that outcome. Then bring the engineers, program leadership, the security and compliance gatekeepers, and the budget owner to the same yes, knowing each of them needs a different case.
Structure the funding path: deals here often mix structures; an IRAD-funded proof of value converting into program subcontract dollars for production, for example. The right route depends on the account, and you build it.
Partner effectively: the team you need, from solutions engineering to delivery to capture, are shared across efforts.
You’ll primarily work hand in hand with:
Engagement Manager who owns the delivery relationship and surface expansion signal from inside it.
Team of Solutions Architects, Solutions Engineers and Forward Deployed Engineers that support pre-sales through delivery, ensuring the solution is delivered with the needed customization and configuration for the customer’s environment.
An internally-focused Technical Program Manager who owns the delivery plan and execution.
Maintain the forecast: manage a long-lead pipeline against goals with disciplined, accurate forecasting.
What We're Looking For:
Our values are Trust, Passion, Humility, and Curiosity. Here is what they look like in this seat:
Trust: defense runs on it. 5+ years selling into, or capturing business within, U.S. defense primes, with the trusted, enduring relationships to show for it. You’re fluent in complex organizational dynamics and structures, and your forecast holds up because your judgment does. You will need an active U.S. security clearance, or eligibility for one.
Passion: you care about the mission and the customer's outcome, not just the close. You go where the action is, on site when a deal needs you, an event to build relationships, dinner with your key stakeholders, etc. and you bring energy that lifts the people around you.
Humility: You win as a team and share credit easily, ask for help early, and take feedback without flinching. You try things, keep what works, drop what does not, and let the playbook get better every quarter because of it.
Curiosity: you dig until you understand: how a program is funded, what your stakeholders actually worry about, and how translation and verification map to a program's outcomes.
Nice to have: active relationships inside one or more major U.S. defense primes; familiarity with embedded systems, safety-critical software, code modernization, or developer tooling; CRM discipline and experience using tools for conducting market and account research.
Benefits
Pay depends on experience, but we strive to be at the upper end of the salary range
Health care plan with 100% premium coverage, including medical, dental, and vision
401k with 5% matching
Paid Time Off (uncapped vacation, plus sick and public holidays)
Flexible hybrid or remote work arrangement
Relocation assistance for qualifying employees
Wage Transparency - The salary range for this role is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, as the final offer amount may vary based on factors including, but not limited to, individual proficiency, skills, experience, and location.
We are an equal opportunity employer. US Citizenship may be required for certain project assignments involving security clearance.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.