Clay's GTM Engineer Role Emerges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Clay CEO Kareem Amin will discuss the rise of the AI-powered GTM engineer role at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The company has scaled rapidly, tripling its annual recurring revenue to $100 million and raising a $115 million Series D round at a $7.1 billion valuation last September.

Clay started in Brooklyn in 2017 with the goal of giving more people access to programming. In February, the company also announced an employee tender offer at a $5 billion valuation. Kareem Amin, who co-founded the company and serves as its CEO, previously was VP of product at The Wall Street Journal and co-founded Frame, which was acquired in 2012.

The GTM Engineer Role Emerges

The GTM engineer role, coined by Clay in 2023, has become a high-demand position as AI automates revenue workflows. This role did not exist two years ago but is now appearing across tech companies. Practitioners use AI and automation to build revenue systems that previously required multiple people, tools, and manual processes.

GTM engineers build automated systems to support companies’ revenue operations. They set up prospecting, data enrichment, lead qualification, and personalized outreach. This reduces the need for manual research, data cleaning, and outreach preparation. Clay estimates around 100 GTM engineer roles open each month. Companies hiring for these positions include Cursor, Lovable, and Webflow.

Clay's Platform and AI Agent

Clay provides infrastructure for GTM teams to access data, run agentic workflows, and launch campaigns. Its original product was a spreadsheet that allowed users to connect information and automate work without writing code. The platform now enables go-to-market teams to personalize outreach and automate workflows that once moved between separate tools and teams.

A key component is Clay's OpenAI-powered AI agent, Claygent. It automates research and communication for sales, marketing, and recruiting teams. In September, Clay announced a $1 million scholarship fund to train GTM engineers.

Disrupt 2026 Context

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will take place October 13-15 in San Francisco at the Moscone West convention center. More than 10,000 founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders are expected to attend. The event will feature more than 200 sessions and over 250 speakers, alongside 300 exhibiting startups.

Kareem Amin will take the stage to discuss the rise of GTM engineers. His session is titled, "The GTM Engineer: How AI Created Tech’s Next Big Job Category." The discussion will highlight how AI has enabled automated revenue workflows, creating a new discipline.

The trend extends beyond Clay. Another startup in the space, Rox AI, which builds autonomous AI agents to boost sales productivity, recently secured funding that valued the company at about $1.2 billion. That round was led by General Catalyst with participation from Sequoia and GV. It follows a 2024 seed and Series A round to scale its AI-driven revenue operations platform. Kareem Amin will discuss the rise of GTM engineers at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.