Pre-Sales Engineer
Location: New York City (On-Site, 5 days) Compensation: $180-220k OTE (uncapped commission) + Equity
About Kombo --------------
Kombo is the unified API for ATS, HRIS, LMS and payroll systems. Instead of spending months building integrations one by one, companies integrate once with Kombo and connect to 200+ platforms instantly.
Since Y Combinator (S22), we've grown to 8-figures in revenue, 50+ team members, and raised $30M+ from YC, Volition Capital, and Acadian Ventures. We're tripling the team and revenue this year. And we move upmarket, with larger, more complex deals and sophisticated buying committees.
The Role -----------
We're hiring our US-based Pre-Sales Engineer to own the technical relationship with customers, from first sales call through successful implementation. The role is roughly 70% pre-sales / 30% post-sales, but the split is about time, not identity: We need someone who instinctively runs discovery and shapes deals, not someone who's comfortable in a technical conversation and happens to also do pre-sales.
You'll work closely with our Sales team, and our CRO to close deals and with Product/Engineering to turn customer insights into product improvements.
This is a builder role. You'll help grow our US GTM function and create the playbooks, while carrying deals yourself.
What You'll Do -----------------
Own the technical sales cycle
- Run technical discovery that uncovers the business objective behind a request, not just the request itself, including in domains we haven't fully mapped yet, where you'll need to hold credibility without pretending to have answers you don't
- Create technical proposals covering architecture, security, and implementation approach
- Partner with AEs on complex, multi-stakeholder deals with engineering and executive stakeholders
Drive implementations to go-live for complex projects
- Own the technical relationship from POC through signed contract through production deployment
- Create the supporting technical assets as you go: demo environments, Postman collections, integration guides, troubleshooting documentation
Help Build the US Pre-Sales Function
- Document repeatable playbooks for discovery, scoping, and implementation
- Feed customer insight back to Product/Engineering in a way that shapes the roadmap without overpromising on it
What We're Looking For -------------------------
- 3+ years in a technical customer-facing role at a B2B SaaS company, with genuine pre-sales ownership (discovery, champion-building, deal shaping) - not just implementation with some pre-sales overlap
- Track record working complex deals with technical and non-technical stakeholders - consistent deal value of $100k-150k+
- Strong communication skills: you can whiteboard architecture with engineers and translate value to executives
- Hands-on with APIs - you can read documentation, ideally write sample code, and debug integration issues
- Comfort with ambiguity and building things from scratch
What Success Looks Like in the First 6 Months ------------------------------------------------
- You've built and closed with at least one genuine technical champion in an enterprise account, not just a friendly technical contact
- You've built real credibility with AEs and prospects in a domain (e.g. HRIS, ATS) you likely didn't know deeply on day one
- You've built at least one reusable playbook, template, or asset (e.g. discovery framework, POC scoping doc, demo narrative) that other people on the team now use without you
- You can point to your influence on ARR, deal velocity, or conversion
- You're a trusted second read for AEs on deal strategy, and go far beyond just a technical resource they loop in when asked
How We Work -----------
Ownership end-to-end. A customer isn't "handed off" when the contract is signed - you own the relationship from first technical call through successful go-live and beyond. Problems that surface in implementation are your problems to solve, not someone else's.
Written thinking. We use long-form documents to make decisions and share context. You'll write implementation plans, technical briefs, and customer-facing documentation that help the whole team move faster. If you prefer talking through everything in meetings, this isn't the right fit.
High-performance, high-support. We're a small team of people who are exceptional at what they do. Ex-founders, and operators who've built at scale before. We hold a high bar and give you the autonomy to meet it. We also celebrate wins together (roughly once a week for big releases, closings, or milestones).
Bias Towards Action, and high agency: We are building - if we need a resource, we create it. If a process needs improvement, we refine it. We take the initiative and ownership on everything we own, and don’t wait for permission.
In-person by default. We believe the best work happens together. This role is on-site in NYC 5 days per week.
Not a Fit If ---------------
- You prefer fully remote work
- You need extensive structure and hand-holding to be effective
- Your instinct is to answer the question you were asked rather than find out why it's being asked in the first place
About Kombo
Unified API for HR, payroll and recruiting software