Founding Sales - Hardware Safety & Compliance at Saphira AI (S24)
$90K - $120K  •  0.50% - 1.00%
Vanta for Hardware
San Francisco, CA, US / Remote
Full-time
US citizenship/visa not required
3+ years
About Saphira AI

Saphira AI is building the tools to allow safety and compliance teams within hardware companies to accelerate and streamline their processes. Hardware organizations ranging from small startups to industry leaders in semiconductors, aerospace, and robotics use Saphira to ensure that they reach their safety and compliance outcomes faster and cheaper.

About the role

About the Role

We’re looking for a Founding Sales Leader to build and run Saphira’s enterprise sales motion from the ground up. This is not just a sales role — it’s a chance to shape the company’s go-to-market strategy, define how we tell our story, and partner with the founders on how we win.

The right candidate thrives in complex, technical sales cycles, understands how to translate hardware certification and compliance into business-critical outcomes, and can make safety a board-level priority. You’ll own the full sales cycle while also helping us define the playbook, messaging, and positioning that will scale.

Our customers are hardware companies — from fast-growing robotics and autonomy startups to Fortune 50 manufacturers — who all face the challenge of navigating safety certification and regulatory requirements. Your job is to turn that pain into opportunity and establish Saphira as the trusted partner they can’t scale without.

Responsibilities

  • Sales Leadership: Own the end-to-end enterprise sales cycle, from outbound to close, landing large ACV deals with hardware and robotics companies.
  • Playbook Builder: Design and iterate the sales motion for compliance automation and certification support, turning early experiments into repeatable wins.
  • Customer Storytelling: Partner with the founders to shape our messaging, positioning, and storytelling so that it resonates with engineers, compliance leaders, and executives alike.
  • Hardware Certification Expertise: Leverage your experience selling into or working with safety-critical hardware companies to map Saphira’s value directly to customer certification outcomes (UL, CE, FCC, ISO/IEC standards, etc.).
  • Partnership Development: Build trusted relationships with C-level leaders, compliance heads, and technical decision makers.
  • Operational Rigor: Manage and optimize CRM, pipeline, and reporting infrastructure while keeping a sharp eye on metrics and ARR growth targets.

Who You Are

  • 3–7 years in enterprise SaaS sales, consulting, or hardware certification-related roles.
  • Proven track record of closing complex, high-value, technical deals.
  • Confident selling into industries where compliance, certification, or standards drive adoption.
  • Experience engaging with customers in safety-critical hardware markets (robotics, automotive, industrial, medical, aerospace, etc.).
  • A builder at heart: comfortable starting from scratch and defining the path forward.

Aspires to be a partner and leader in shaping not only sales execution but also company strategy, messaging, and long-term growth.

Compensation

  • Base: $90K – $120K
  • OTE: $140K – $170K
  • Equity: 0.5% – 1%

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