Founding Account Executive

## About Manufex Manufex is a US-based on-demand manufacturing marketplace connecting hardware and industrial companies with vetted suppliers across CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, 3D printing, and more. We bring pricing transparency, quality assurance, and streamlined procurement to a market historically run on emails and phone calls. Every Manufex order runs through a unified managed thread where AI agents handle DFM review, visual quality control, compliance verification, and order management alongside a dedicated project manager. We're not just another sourcing platform. We're the first marketplace where buyers know exactly what they're paying, why, and what's happening to their order at every step. ## About the Role This is the first sales hire at Manufex. You will own the industrial machinery vertical from day one building the pipeline, running the full sales cycle, closing the first accounts, and writing the playbook that every future AE at Manufex inherits. You are not walking into a territory with inbound leads, a mature sales process, and an SDR feeding your calendar. You are walking into a whiteboard. The buyers you'll sell to are procurement managers, heads of hardware, and directors of engineering at industrial machinery companies companies building capital equipment, automation systems, conveyor systems, power transmission components, and heavy mechanical assemblies that require precision-manufactured custom parts. These buyers have real problems: opaque pricing from incumbent platforms, unpredictable lead times, and zero visibility once an order is placed. Manufex fixes all three. Your job is to find the people who feel that pain most acutely and close them. If you've sold into industrial manufacturing and you've spent years frustrated that the product you were selling wasn't actually better this one is. ## Responsibilities ### Pipeline & Prospecting - Own outbound prospecting in the industrial machinery vertical identifying, researching, and engaging procurement leads, engineering leads, and operations decision-makers at target accounts - Build and manage a structured pipeline from cold outreach through to close, using CRM discipline to track every touchpoint, stage, and next action - Develop a deep understanding of the industrial machinery buyer their sourcing workflows, supplier relationships, approval processes, and the specific pain points that make them ready to switch - Leverage your existing network in the vertical to accelerate early pipeline; warm intros and referral-driven deals are your fastest path to the first 10 accounts ### Sales Cycle Ownership - Run the full sales cycle end-to-end: discovery, qualification, demo, technical and commercial discussion, pricing, negotiation, and close - Lead discovery calls that go deep on how the buyer currently sources custom parts volume, process mix, incumbent suppliers, quality issues, and pricing frustrations so you can position Manufex's transparent pricing and managed model against their real experience - Navigate multi-stakeholder deals: procurement owns the relationship, engineering owns the spec, finance owns the approval you need to move all three - Own the hand-off to the production management team post-close, ensuring the buyer's first order experience reflects what you sold them ### Playbook Building - Document everything objections, buyer personas, deal stages, win/loss reasons, competitive dynamics and convert it into a repeatable sales playbook that scales beyond you - Define the ICP within the industrial machinery vertical: company size, revenue, annual custom parts spend, process mix, and buying cycle sharpen it with every deal you run - Feed product signal back to the founders: what feature gaps are costing you deals, what competitors keep showing up, what buyers say they'd pay more for - Work with marketing to develop vertical-specific collateral one-pagers, case studies, competitive comparison sheets based on what you see actually moving deals forward in the field ### Vertical Expertise - Develop and maintain fluency in the industrial machinery buyer's world the manufacturing processes they use, the specifications they care about (tolerances, materials, certifications), and the supply chain constraints they operate under - Understand the downstream context: why a conveyor component needs a 72-hour lead time, why a gearbox housing needs AS9100D traceability, why a hydraulic manifold buyer will pay a premium for a single accountable supplier rather than three - Stay current on market dynamics in the industrial machinery sector capex cycles, reshoring trends, supply chain shifts and use that context to sharpen your outreach and positioning ## Requirements - 5+ years of B2B sales experience, with at least 3 years selling into industrial manufacturing, industrial machinery, or adjacent verticals capital equipment, automation, precision components, MRO, or manufacturing supply chain - Demonstrated track record of closing new business from scratch not just expanding existing accounts, but finding and converting cold-to-closed - Deep familiarity with the industrial machinery buyer you know who owns sourcing decisions, what their approval process looks like, and how long their procurement cycles run - Comfort selling a technical product you don't need to be an engineer, but you need to be able to hold a credible conversation about CNC tolerances, material specifications, and lead time tradeoffs without flinching - Travel as per need basis. - Experience running a full-cycle, self-sourced sales motion prospecting, discovery, demo, negotiation, close without heavy SDR or marketing support - Strong existing network within industrial machinery OEM procurement, engineering, or operations contacts you can call on day one - CRM fluency and the discipline to keep it current pipeline hygiene is non-negotiable at this stage - A founder's disposition toward sales: you treat every deal as a product discovery session, you document what you learn, and you care about building some