Last week I found a role at xAI called "Head of GTM Systems & Agents." It jumped off the page with a mandate to build GTM agents (not explore AI), generate revenue (not enable), "head of" agents (not humans).
Some commenters said this is just RevOps with a new title. But I think we are seeing a bigger evolution in the GTM ops function:
If this were just a rebrand, only the header would change. But the details are shifting fast. We're seeing a shift in how the work gets done, what success looks like, and the tools underneath.
Most companies are still on the left, but I'm seeing more clues that things are moving to the right.
Roles that show where this is headed
xAI — "Head of GTM Systems & Agents" ($200-400K) "Deploying AI agents that directly generate revenue." Prefers comp science degrees. Headcount expansion "not in current plans." Deepest into AI-Native Ops of anything I've seen.
Asana — "Global AI SDR Programs Manager" ($147-167K) A human managing AI that does outbound. Accountable for AI-generated pipeline globally. Already running AI SDR for chat and email. The person manages programs, not people.
Black Forest Labs — "GTM Systems Engineer" (~50 employees) Their JD says it plainly: "This isn't your typical RevOps role, and it's not pure engineering either. It's the technical architecture of our business itself."
Clay — "GTM Engineer" ($100M+ ARR, $3.1B valuation) The company that coined the term is hiring one for their own org. The role sits in GTM Ops. Building on the right side of the framework with their own tools.
Lovable — "GTM Operations - Systems and Automation" Vibe-coding company applying the same AI-first philosophy to their own GTM. Wants an "Automation Engineering" background.
Databricks — "AI Operations Team Lead - Scaled Prospecting" Manages a portfolio of AI agents that do prospecting. Designs, ships, and optimizes agent workflows.
brightwheel — "Director of Analytics & GTM Systems" "Build an AI-native future for analytics, not just adapt to it." Explicitly wants someone to redesign the GTM stack "for efficiency in an AI-first world." 3x Cloud 100.
I found 41 roles that fit this pattern across 37 companies. Full list with JD details here →
83% have the mandate. ~15% changed the title.
Across 210 top AI & SaaS companies I track (i.e. the GTM innovators), 83% of those with GTM ops roles already have AI mandates embedded in their job descriptions. But only ~15% have evolved the title to match — "GTM Engineer," "GTM Systems," "GTM Architect," "AI Operations." Only Linear actually puts "AI" in the RevOps title ("Revenue Operations, AI & Automation").
The mandate is ahead of the title.
Jeff Ignacio's data fills in more: 3,000+ open GTM Engineer roles on LinkedIn. Hiring doubled YoY for two consecutive years. Comp ranges $175-250K. And 9 out of 10 responsibilities in GTM Engineer postings also show up in RevOps postings. The work is converging even where the title hasn't yet.
The GTM Engineering movement (and their agents) are ready to break down silos
Right now, much of GTM Engineering conversation is about outbound and prospecting (I posted about this last week). That's where Clay started the movement. It's real and it's working.
But if it stays in that lane, it's just a specialized subset of sales ops. The real shift happens when AI-Native Ops spans the full lifecycle — brand, demand, expand. Marketing, not just outbound and sales enablement 2.0.
Omar Zaibak commented on my xAI post: "This combines sales, marketing, and revops into one role." Vinay C. said GTM is becoming infrastructure — "similar to how backend engineering became critical when APIs took off."
Agents don't respect legacy silos. An agent that qualifies inbound leads doesn't care that it's "marketing's job." An agent that identifies expansion signals doesn't care that it's "CS's job." The right side of the framework has to be full lifecycle or it's just outbound ops with a new name.
What I'm watching
Does marketing get its own GTM Engineering? Right now this is a sales/RevOps phenomenon. But marketing ops is sitting on the same stack sprawl and manual workflows. Will "Marketing Systems Engineer" become a title — or does GTM Engineering expand to cover the full funnel? (I wrote about this last week.)
How does this challenge traditional RevOps? If AI-Native Ops owns building + outcomes, what's left for traditional ops? Data governance, compliance, reporting? Or does RevOps evolve into this?
What do the playbooks look like? Ramp runs 2-week sprints. Clay built a movement around outbound workflows. xAI wants agent architects. There's no standard playbook yet.
Does the org model actually shift toward product? Multiple people in my comments said this independently — ops is becoming a product team. Roadmaps instead of internal service queues. Shipping instead of managing process. If that sticks, it changes who you hire and how you structure the team.
How does it look different in AI-native vs. transitioning companies? AI-native companies (50 people, no legacy stack) are building from scratch. They'll jump to the new model. Bigger companies more entrenched on the traditional ops model will be a different beast.