October 2025 Apex Insider Newsletter

Hello there, all budding Salesforce Devs! October brings a fresh perspective on where your Salesforce skills can take you next.

GTM Engineers: The Next Frontier for Salesforce Professionals

If you've been paying attention to job boards lately, you might have noticed a new role popping up more and more frequently: GTM Engineer (Go-To-Market Engineer). This relatively new position represents an exciting evolution in how companies think about revenue operations, and it's creating incredible opportunities for Salesforce professionals who want to expand their technical toolkit.

The best part? Your Salesforce skills are the perfect foundation for this emerging career path.

What Is a GTM Engineer?

A GTM Engineer sits at the intersection of technical implementation and revenue operations. Think of it like this: if a Salesforce Developer focuses on building solutions within the Salesforce ecosystem, a GTM Engineer takes that same problem-solving mindset and applies it across an entire revenue technology stack.

These professionals implement and integrate the tools that help companies acquire, convert, and retain customers. They work with RevOps (Revenue Operations) teams to automate processes, connect systems, and ensure data flows smoothly across the entire go-to-market infrastructure.

One of our own Cloud Code Academy alumni, Doug Crew, recently started as a Junior GTM Systems Consultant at Candybox in August 2025. His role involves implementing RevOps solutions primarily for high-growth SaaS companies, offering technical assistance for operations and delivery consultants all while working remotely from anywhere in the US.

Understanding the GTM Stack

As a GTM Engineer, Salesforce typically serves as the central hub, but you'll also work with a broader ecosystem of revenue operations tools. Here are some of the key platforms you'll encounter:

• Clay: A data enrichment and workflow automation platform that helps companies research prospects and automate outbound sales processes. It connects to dozens of data providers and can push enriched data directly into your CRM.

• Tray.ai: An enterprise automation platform (similar to Salesforce Flow but for connecting any application) that allows you to build complex integrations between systems without writing extensive custom code. Think of it as a sophisticated iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service).

• Zapier: A popular automation tool that connects apps and automates workflows through simple "if this, then that" logic. While less powerful than Tray.ai, it's incredibly user-friendly and perfect for simpler integrations.

• Snowflake: A cloud-based data warehouse that centralizes data from multiple sources, making it easier to analyze customer behavior and generate insights across your entire revenue stack.

The common thread? These are all low-code or no-code tools (sound familiar?) that require technical thinking to implement effectively. If you can build flows in Salesforce, understand data models, and troubleshoot integration issues, you already have the core competencies needed to work with these platforms.

Why This Matters for Your Career

The rise of GTM Engineer roles represents a significant shift in how companies approach revenue operations. Here's what's driving this trend:

Platform Flexibility: Just as AI engineers use AI to augment their coding across any tech stack, GTM Engineers need to be platform-agnostic problem solvers. Companies increasingly want professionals who can think beyond a single platform and understand how business logic flows across multiple systems.

Integration Complexity: Modern revenue stacks often include 10-20+ tools. Someone needs to make them work together seamlessly, and that someone is increasingly a GTM Engineer.

Growing Market: These roles have been appearing with increasing frequency over the past 1-2 months, suggesting this is more than just a passing trend.

Skills That Transfer from Salesforce Development

Your Salesforce experience gives you several advantages when transitioning to GTM engineering:

• Data modeling: Understanding objects, fields, and relationships translates directly to working with other platforms
• Automation logic: If you can build flows and triggers, you can learn other automation tools
• Integration experience: Working with APIs and external systems is a core GTM skill
• Business process thinking: You already know how to translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Problem-solving mindset: Debugging complex issues is the same whether you're in Salesforce or another platform

Making the Transition

If you're interested in exploring GTM engineering, here are some practical steps:

1. Expand your tool knowledge: Start learning one or two tools outside the Salesforce ecosystem. Zapier offers a free tier that's perfect for experimentation.

2. Study RevOps fundamentals: Understand how marketing, sales, and customer success teams work together and what metrics matter to them.

3. Highlight transferable skills: When applying for GTM roles, emphasize your experience with automation, integrations, and solving business problems technically.

4. Stay platform-curious: The future belongs to professionals who can learn new tools quickly and apply their problem-solving skills across different platforms.

The GTM Engineer role isn't replacing traditional Salesforce positions it's creating a new career path for those who want to broaden their impact beyond a single platform. Whether you pursue this path or continue deepening your Salesforce expertise, understanding this trend helps you see where the industry is heading.

Cloud Coder Wins in August & September 2025

Our Cloud Code Academy community has been absolutely crushing it over the past two months! Here's what some of our talented members accomplished:

August 2025:

• Brandon Yano passed the Platform Developer I certification exam.
• Mike Vermace and Mark Deguisne completed the Developer Kickstart capstone project.
• Sam completed the Developer Kickstart capstone project and graduated as a new Cloud Code Academy alumni.
• Dave Schofield became our second Integration Developer Program alumni with an impressive creative webhook middleware solution.
• Doug Crew started his new position as Junior GTM Systems Consultant at Candybox.
• Jarhud Augustin landed his first Salesforce developer job.
• George Papadakis moved into an architect role.

September 2025:

• Lindsey Giles passed the Platform Developer I certification exam.
• Katende S. Kinene passed the Platform App Builder certification exam.
• Dallas Bailey passed the Platform Developer I certification exam (completed in just 7 months after starting Cloud Code Academy in February — incredible work, Dallas!).
• JSON Towers and Jonathan Lyles completed the Integration Developer capstone project, making them the only two people to complete both the Kickstart AND Integration program capstones. Outstanding dedication!

Congratulations to everyone who reached a milestone. Your hard work and persistence inspire the entire community!

⚡ Level Up Your Skills with Lightning Challenges

Want to sharpen your Apex skills with daily practice? Check out Lightning Challenges now featuring DML challenges to help you master data manipulation in Salesforce!

📚 New Course Alert: Flow to Code

Making the jump from declarative Flow development to writing Apex? Our new Flow to Code course helps you translate Flow concepts into code, making the transition smoother and more intuitive.