What a Value Engineer is

Most software sales work like this: a person in a suit shows a generic demo, talks about features, and hopes something sticks. The customer is asked to imagine how the product might fit their business. Usually it doesn't.

A Value Engineer does the opposite. Before we show anything, you learn how the company actually works: how an order moves through the plant, where the margin leaks, which problems everyone has learned to live with because they assumed nothing could fix them. Then you design a demo built around that company, its own data, its own processes and its own headaches. The goal isn't to build what the customer has in mind. It's to solve the problems they haven't been able to put into words yet.

When it's done right, the customer stops evaluating software and starts seeing their own business on the screen. Nine times out of ten, that demo becomes a signed contract.

What the role is at Arke

You won't cold call. Every lead that comes to us is inbound. Our process is simple: qualification call, discovery, demo, contract. You own all of it.

You'll talk to owners, plant directors, operations managers and the second generation taking over the family business. Many of them have been burned by software before and expect to be sold to. Your job is to be the first person who asks the right questions, and to see them relax when they realize you understand their business better than any vendor they've met.

The work, roughly:

- Qualify inbound leads and figure out quickly where we can create real value
- Run discovery: understand how the company operates,



from the shop floor to the margins, and find the problems underneath the ones they describe
- Turn what you learn into the brief for a tailored demo. Our internal Arke Intelligence system handles the technical build, so you can focus on the thinking
- Present the demo and own the deal through to a signed contract
- Hand customers over to the FDE team with the context that makes their deployment succeed
- Feed what you learn back into the product and the sales process

The best part of this job is the moment five minutes into a demo when the customer calls the whole office over to look at what we built, because they didn't think it was possible. Within weeks you'll own deals end to end. You won't be supporting someone else's pipeline. It will be yours.

Who we're looking for

We're hiring people who intend to be founders.

This role gives you something most sales jobs never will: a direct view into dozens of real businesses, including how they make money, where they lose it, and why they buy. You'll learn to sell by understanding, not by pitching. That's one of the most valuable skills a future founder can have, and we're explicit about it.





We're not looking for a specific degree or a sales background by the book. We're looking for people who love hard problems. You're smart and empathetic, you think from first principles, and you get a real thrill out of closing. The strongest profiles have spent time close to manufacturing or operations: consultants, operations or supply chain people, or anyone who has had to understand a complex business fast and explain it back clearly.

This is for you if:

- You'd rather ask ten good questions than give one good pitch.
- You find industry genuinely interesting: how things get made, and why a company that's been making them for forty years does it the way it does.
- People trust you quickly, because you're actually listening.
- You can take a messy, half-explained problem and come back with a clear picture of what's really going on.
- You love the moment a deal closes, and you want to be measured on outcomes.

This isn't for you if you want a script, a playbook to follow, or a pipeline someone else built for you. Every customer is different, and the job is figuring out how.

Practical requirements: Italian and English. [Willingness to travel to meet customers in person.]

Compensation

€70k OTE, plus meaningful equity.

How to apply

Send us what you think best represents you: a cover letter, a CV, or a link to something you've built. We'll reach out, set up a first call with our founder, then a call with the team, an onsite aperitivo and an offer. The whole process should take around two weeks.

[email protected]

📌 Sales Value Engineer (Manufacturing) (Milano)
🏢 Arke'
📍 Milano