The posting
ABOUT BUILD AI
Build AI is the data hyperscaler for Physical AI. We're vertically integrated across hardware, manufacturing, logistics, collection, and model training to scale the physical labor dataset orders of magnitude faster than anyone in the world.
The role
Build is building the data infrastructure for physical AI. We collect real-world data at a scale unmatched by anyone else, helping the world's leading AI labs and robotics companies train the next generation of intelligent machines. We've already collected over 1 million hours of data across 85 factories with more than 2,000 workers, and we're just getting started.
We're hiring our first Head of Sales to turn that foundation into a world-class commercial business. You'll work directly with our founders to win and grow strategic relationships with frontier AI labs and leading robotics companies. These are complex, high-value deals with the potential to become eight-figure, multi-year partnerships.
Until now, our founding team has led sales. You'll inherit real customer relationships and momentum, but no established sales playbook. Your first job is to close deals. From there, you'll figure out what works, make it repeatable, and build the team to scale it.
This is a rare opportunity for someone who knows this market, loves selling, and wants to build something of their own. We're looking for a commercial leader who is as excited about personally winning the next big customer as they are about eventually leading the organization that wins the next hundred.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
Your first priority is closing deals, quickly, in a way that becomes repeatable.
• Close. Convert active conversations and new opportunities into signed contracts. Run every deal from first meeting to closed-won: scoping, proposals, pilot design, pricing, negotiation, procurement, and contracting.
• Define who we sell to. Identify Build's ideal customers and the buyers inside them, from research and data leads to heads of robotics and procurement.
• Build your own pipeline. Work your network, write your own outreach, respond to inbound, and represent Build at conferences and in-person meetings.
• Land and expand. Structure first engagements so they grow into multi-year, eight-figure relationships.
• Sell with the founders. Know when to bring a founder in, when to run the room yourself, and how to share the work and the credit.
• Work across the company. Partner with our Dataset & Quality team on technical evaluations and pilots. Bring what you hear in the market back to the team: what buyers value, what they'll pay for, and what we should build next.
• Make it systematic. Turn what works into a documented, efficient process. When the business case is there, recruit and lead Build's first sellers. That may come sooner rather than later.
WHO YOU ARE
• You've personally closed $10M+ deals. You sourced or shaped them, not just processed them. They were technically complex, involved many stakeholders, and took months to close.
• You know our buyers. You've sold into frontier AI labs, robotics and embodied-AI companies, or similarly sophisticated technical organizations. Your senior relationships there are active enough to get meetings in your first weeks.
• Technical buyers respect you. You're not an engineer or researcher; we have those. You do understand why a robotics team needs large volumes of diverse real-world data, what makes one dataset more valuable than another, and how customers judge quality. You can form a view and challenge a buyer's thinking.
• You've built from zero. You were the first or among the first commercial hires at a company. You created the pipeline, positioning, and process rather than inheriting them.
• You've sold alongside founders. You're comfortable sharing the room, the deal, and the credit.
• You want to do the work. You want to own a quota and be the one writing the email, flying to the meeting, and redlining the contract.
• You've hired great sellers. You've recruited and led strong sales reps before and know what good looks like.
STRONG PLUSES
• You've sold data, data services, or training infrastructure to frontier AI labs.
• You've turned initial engagements of a few million dollars into much larger, multi-year relationships.
• You've structured unconventional deals: paid pilots, multi-year commitments, exclusivity, or licensing.
WHAT YOU DON'T NEED
You don't need to have been a VP of Sales or CRO, or to have run a large sales organization. We care far more about what you've personally sold than how many people have reported to you.
BENEFITS
- Competitive pay
- Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
- $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
- Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
- Relocation support for those moving to San Francisco (Financial District) or Shenzhen (Nanshan)
- Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
- Daily lunch and dinner in our office
- Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification
- Unlimited Codex and Claude credits
- Travel
HOW WE'RE DIFFERENT
Build believes in the Bitter Lesson http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html. By taking a general approach of learning from humans, our addressable market is all physical labor.
We are a fully in-person team in San Francisco (Financial District) and Shenzhen (Nanshan), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.
Build AI is an equal opportunity employer. We review every application. If you do not meet every bullet, still apply. Questions: [email protected]
