What is GTM Engineering?
Why operators are paying attention to the rise of GTM engineers, and what they actually do.
I was on a call the other day with a founder, and he told me point blank:
“Don’t hire another SDR. Hire a GTM engineer.”
That stuck with me.
GTM engineering is a term I have been hearing more and more lately. Clay talks about it constantly. And the idea is basically this. Instead of just hiring more SDRs, you build the systems those SDRs can run on. You create workflows, automations, and integrations that allow one SDR to do the work of many.
Think of it as RevOps with engineering horsepower. These are people who can write scripts, pull from APIs, stitch together tools, and design workflows that scale outreach and demand generation.
What does a GTM engineer actually do?
Here are some of the things I have seen GTM engineers own:
Automate prospecting. Pull enrichment data from multiple sources, clean it, and route it into the right SDR queue.
Trigger outreach. When a prospect hits your site or engages with content, an SDR gets prompted automatically to follow up.
Build internal tools. Dashboards, workflows, and utilities that take manual list building or data entry off the SDR’s plate.
Experiment and scale. Pilot a new outbound workflow, measure results, and roll it out across the team if it works.
Keep the system reliable. Monitor for failures, ensure deliverability, and maintain observability so nothing silently breaks.
The promise is clear. When you do this well, SDRs get to spend their time on the part that actually matters: being human. They can personalize outreach, build connection, and add emotional resonance. The machine handles the busywork. The humans do what humans do best.
Who do you hire for this role?
I asked that exact question. What is the background of a GTM engineer?
The answer: usually a technically minded ops person. Someone who has worked in RevOps, marketing ops, or sales ops. They understand systems, enjoy tinkering with workflows, and can pick up APIs or no code tools without fear.
They are not full blown software engineers. But they are closer to engineering than most ops hires. They live at the intersection of systems, process, and experimentation.
The GTM engineer’s toolbox
A few years ago, ops meant Salesforce, Outreach, ZoomInfo, and maybe Zapier. Today there is a new wave of tools designed specifically for automation, enrichment, and AI-driven workflows.
Some of the most common ones:
n8n — Visual workflow engine, popular because you can add AI “decision nodes” and build more complex flows than Zapier.
Clay — Beyond enrichment, Clay now has Claygent, an AI agent that can research prospects, pull in public data, and enrich profiles before they ever hit an SDR’s queue.
Bardeen — A browser based automation assistant that turns repetitive tasks into playbooks.
Persana — AI pipeline automation platform that handles prospecting, personalization, and signal-based triggers.
StackAI — AI native workflow builder where decision making and copy generation are built in from the start.
Traditional iPaaS (Zapier, Make, Workato, Tray) — Still widely used, now with AI extensions, but increasingly complemented by the above.
Why this matters
This is why people are so excited about GTM engineering. It is leverage. If you crack it, your SDRs become dramatically more productive. They can focus on actual connection, while the system handles the grunt work.
At Equals, we are going to try it. Because right now, GTM engineering is still an advantage.
Where I am cautious
I do have two caveats.
First, once everyone starts doing this, the pendulum may swing back. If every company has automated SDR workflows and AI written outreach, then the thing that will really stand out is human touch. Genuine personalization. A real human reaching out to another human.
Second, in the earliest stages of company building, there is no shortcut. Finding your first customers, learning what resonates, figuring out how to sell—those are human problems. Founders and early team members still have to do that work themselves.
Closing thought
So yes, GTM engineering is real and powerful. It is a movement worth paying attention to. It is something we are going to test ourselves.
Maybe my caveats make me old school. But I would love to hear what others think.