Two years ago, most companies didn’t have a GTM engineer. This role is now emerging across technology, with practitioners leveraging AI and automation to build revenue systems that once required multiple people, tools, and manual processes.
What has changed? And what does it mean for how businesses find customers and grow?
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Clay co-founder and CEO Kareem Amin will be on the AI stage for “GTM Engineer: How AI is creating tech’s next big job.” He will trace how AI has changed the traditional go-to-market stack and helped create new disciplines in its place, giving attendees a look at what AI-native GTM actually looks like and how it is changing the way companies grow.
AI offers go-to-market teams new ways to research prospects, manipulate data, personalize outreach, and automate workflows that once moved across separate tools and teams. As these capabilities converge, companies are rethinking not only their GTM technology, but also who builds and manages the systems behind their growth.
If you’re building a company or rethinking how your team approaches sales, marketing, and growth, this is a new role worth understanding. Secure your Disrupt pass and see how GTM Engineering fits into the next generation of go-to-market. You can get a second pass for 50% off, with even more discounts for groups of 4 or more.
What do GTM engineers actually do?
Traditional go-to-market work can take hours of researching accounts, cleaning data, identifying leads, preparing outreach, and moving information between systems. GTM Engineering uses AI, data, and automation to transform more work into repeatable systems.
Clay created this role in 2023. Clay’s own GTM Engineering Guide describes GTM Engineers as practitioners who build automated revenue workflows rather than manually performing individual GTM tasks. The company says it now posts about 100 GTM engineering job postings each month, including roles at companies like Cursor, Lovable, and Webflow.
For founders and GTM leaders who are deciding where to invest their next capital or whether to make their next hire, this session offers another way to think about growth. Do you add more people to run your existing processes, or do you build a system that allows the people you already have to do it differently?
In Disrupt, Amin puts this change into context and explores what an AI-native GTM actually looks like. Get your ticket to Disrupt to understand a role that almost didn’t exist a few years ago, but could change the way your next sales, marketing, or growth team operates.
Clay powers AI across the GTM stack
Clay started in Brooklyn in 2017 with one goal: to bring the power of programming to more people. Its original spreadsheet allows users to connect information and automate tasks without writing code. As sales reps, growth teams, and agencies started using it to find and reach customers, Clay followed in their footsteps with go-to-market.
Today, the company provides the infrastructure for GTM teams to access data, run agent workflows, and launch campaigns. Claygent, an OpenAI-powered agent, automates research and outreach for sales, marketing, and recruiting teams.
Its evolution was accompanied by rapid growth. TechCrunch reported in February that the company tripled its annual recurring revenue to $100 million and announced a takeover offer for its employees at a valuation of $5 billion. Cray has continued to grow since then, announcing a $115 million Series D in September at a valuation of $7.1 billion.
Clay is also investing directly in the core roles of Amin’s Disrupt sessions, announcing a $1 million scholarship fund to train GTM engineers in September.
Companies looking to determine where AI can drive meaningful change in their revenue operations should add Amin’s session to the Disrupt agenda and see how one company is putting the model into practice.
From product leaders to a new GTM approach
Kareem Amin co-founded Clay in 2017 and serves as co-founder and CEO. Prior to joining Clay, he was vice president of product at the Wall Street Journal and co-founded the collaboration startup Frame, which was acquired by Sailthru in 2012.
Amin started Clay around the idea of bringing programming capabilities to more people. AI ultimately gave that idea a new application, allowing the GTM team to build systems that automate research, data enrichment, and outreach without relying on traditional engineering resources for every workflow.
Want to understand what a GTM engineer means to your company’s growth strategy? Secure your Disrupt pass to hear directly from one of the founders helping to define this category.
See what AI-native GTM looks like in action at Disrupt
GTM engineering may be a new job, but the problem it addresses is not simply how to find and reach the right customers without adding more people or tools. At Disrupt, you’ll see how AI is changing that equation, and you’ll also meet the people who are building what’s next.
“The GTM Engineer: How AI Created Tech’s Next Big Job Category” is one of more than 200 sessions across six industry stages, roundtables and breakout sessions at Disrupt, taking place October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. More than 10,000 founders, investors, executives, and technology leaders are expected to attend, with more than 250 speakers and more than 300 startups exhibiting.
Additionally, through matchmaking, dealmaking, and networking, participants will have the opportunity to meet potential customers, investors, partners, and other founders facing similar growth challenges.
Secure your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and add ‘The GTM Engineer’ to your agenda. Get 50% off when you bring a co-worker, partner, or colleague. Additionally, groups of 4 or more receive further discounts.
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