Sales Development Representative

Nominal, Inc; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Unlimited PTO

Free meals and beverages

Professional development stipend

Annual company retreat

Job summary

Nominal, Inc. is seeking an SDR in Austin to build and qualify the early commercial pipeline for a hardware-focused platform used in aerospace and defense.

You will research markets, conduct outreach, and help refine messaging while collaborating with sales and marketing to drive qualified leads and opportunities. The role offers a fast path to becoming an Account Executive as you demonstrate impact.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of sales or customer-facing experience

Responsibilities

• Build the commercial pipeline through outreach, research, and experiments
• Shape go-to-market strategy from messaging to segmenting the market
• Support sales operations with research and collateral for the GTM stack
• Grow into an Account Executive with quota-bearing responsibilities within 6–12 months

Skills

Sales or customer-facing experience

Technical fluency

Scrappy, fast-moving

Resilient and persistent

Strong communication instincts

Builder's mindset

Education

Engineering or technical degree

Tools

HubSpot

Common Room

Clay

Apollo

n8n

ZoomInfo

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Job description

About Nominal

Nominal is building the connected test and operations platform powering the world's most advanced hardware systems, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation defense programs. Our platform gives hardware engineering teams a single place to ingest data, analyze performance, automate test execution, and collaborate across every phase of development, so they can move faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.

We serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, from autonomy leaders like Anduril and Shield AI to next-generation aerospace teams like Hermeus and REGENT, and performance engineering teams like Pratt Miller Motorsports, alongside mission partners within the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force on programs where failure isn’t an option. We’re backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence.

As an SDR, you’ll deliver Nominal’s vision of providing continuous testing to the industrial base, equipping engineers to deploy capability at scale, in the shortest time possible. You’ll operate at the intersection of sales, marketing, and operations—building the early commercial pipeline, testing messaging, researching the market, and supporting key deals. This is a hands-on role with real scope for impact and upward mobility.

About the role

• Build the commercial pipeline: You’ll be responsible for developing an early-stage pipeline, whether through direct outreach, market and company research, or channel-building experiments. Your entire focus will be to build commercial pipeline in a brand-aligned, sustainable way. Your compensation / bonus will track qualified leads / meetings and pipeline generation.
• Shape go-to-market strategy: You’ll help define the way Nominal goes to market – from testing outbound scripts and sequencing plays, to refining messaging, segmenting the market, and designing experiments that help us learn quickly. You’ll scope and evaluate potential verticals, identify customer feedback patterns, and help drive special projects.
• Support sales ops: You’ll contribute directly to revenue but also help build the scaffolding around it – supporting sales with research & collateral, setting up processes & operations for our GTM stack, etc.
• Grow into an AE role: This role is designed with a fast path to becoming an Account Executive. Your initial conversations with potential customers will include discovery & qualification – identifying ICP fit, potential use-cases, etc. As you prove your ability to generate and shape opportunities, you’ll take on more sales ownership and quota-carrying responsibility. We expect this person to be closing deals in the next 6–12 months.

We're looking for someone with

• 1+ years of sales or customer-facing experience: You’ve worked in sales, ops, or other customer-facing roles before – and you’re now hungry for a seat at the table with more ownership.
• Technical fluency: You can quickly understand and communicate technical products and use cases, and you’re excited to engage deeply with our engineering customers and software stack.
• Scrappy, sharp, and fast-moving: You like solving messy, open-ended problems and running with limited context. You find a way forward – even when the playbook doesn’t exist yet. You are a hustler who moves quickly, gets a LOT done, and maintains a consistent bar for excellence.
• Resilient and persistent: You don’t get discouraged by a “no” and instead use that as fuel to be even more creative. You’re comfortable with repetition and iterating until you land the right message.
• Strong communication instincts: You can adapt your communication to different audiences – internal and external. You write clearly, ask good questions, and make crisp recommendations. You can draft and adapt outbound for technical engineers or C-suite executives. You can coordinate between sales and marketing orgs to refine our messaging & report on what’s resonating.
• A builder’s mindset: You want to help build the machine, not just run it. You’re entrepreneurial and excited to create repeatable systems and think proactively about what the team needs next.

Skills that supercharge us

• Familiarity with sales & GTM tools: HubSpot, Common Room, Clay, Apollo, n8n, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Exposure to heavy industry domains: aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, manufacturing
• Experience selling B2B SaaS or working on or with growth-stage B2B SaaS teams
• Experience in a quota-carrying SDR role
• Background or degree in engineering or a technical field

Benefits/Perks

• 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Unlimited PTO and sick leave
• Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
• Professional development stipend
• Annual company retreat

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.