Founding Account Executive

About this role

ABOUT THE ROLE This is a founding commercial role at an early-stage AI infrastructure startup, where you will build the sales engine from the ground up alongside the CEO in a true category-creation market. There is no incumbent playbook here: you will define how a new category gets sold, land the lighthouse customers that establish the company in the market, and shape the go-to-market system through your field experience.

WHAT YOU'LL DO - Generate pipeline from scratch through scrappy outbound, network-driven opportunities, and high-conviction account engagement. - Engage architects, staff-level engineers, and platform teams early to understand architecture challenges, modernization goals, and organizational constraints. - Multi-thread across technical champions, engineering leadership, and executive sponsors to build deal-wide alignment.

- Partner with a Solutions Architect to translate technical validation and proof-of-value work into decision-grade artifacts. - Convert technical proof into clear business narratives, including BVAs, ROI, velocity, and risk reduction, to move deals forward. - Structure and drive proof-of-value engagements with clear success criteria and mutual action plans. - Partner closely with the CEO to secure executive alignment and drive deals to close.

- Feed high-fidelity market intelligence back into product, positioning, and go-to-market strategy. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - 6 to 10 years of enterprise SaaS sales experience with full-cycle ownership, from pipeline generation through closing. - Demonstrated success generating pipeline and closing net-new business in emerging or category-creation markets. - Experience selling infrastructure, cloud, AI/ML, DevTools, data platforms, or other architecture-level technology to technical buyers.

- Proven ability to navigate multi-stakeholder enterprise buying processes involving technical champions, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and platform leadership. - Credibility to engage confidently with architects, principal engineers, and engineering leadership. - Experience operating in early-stage or founder-led environments where GTM systems and sales playbooks were still being defined. - Consultative and diagnostic mindset: you frame situations before pitching and bring structure to ambiguous problems.