Account Executive, Frontier AI
AI Summary
Owns commercial relationships with frontier AI research labs and applied AI teams, building the sales motion from scratch and shaping product strategy based on lab needs.
About this role
About the Role
This is a founding sales role at an early-stage AI/ML company, where you will own commercial relationships with frontier research labs and applied AI teams across healthcare, robotics, and language model development. You will build the sales motion from the ground up, sitting at the intersection of product, customer discovery, and strategy, directly shaping what gets built based on what labs actually need.
What You'll Do
Identify and engage the researchers and data leads inside target organizations who have reasoning gaps your product can close.
Build and own account plans for a defined set of labs, mapping buyers, evaluation bottlenecks, and post-training challenges.
Run technical discovery conversations with research and data leadership, translating findings into product requirements.
Structure and negotiate enterprise engagements, licensing arrangements, and data agreements, owning pricing strategy and deal shape.
Bring competitive and demand intelligence back into the company to inform roadmap decisions.
Collaborate with expert networks to maintain technical credibility with deeply technical buyers.
Create the sales playbook itself, with no existing motion to follow.
What We're Looking For
3 or more years selling technical products to technical buyers, with demonstrated ownership of complex deals from start to close.
Direct experience selling to or working inside AI labs, robotics companies, data infrastructure firms, or research organizations.
Fluency in how modern models are trained and evaluated, including post-training, evaluation design, and reward signal design.
Proven ability to build account plans, map organizational structures, and define engagement strategies independently.
Experience structuring enterprise deals including licensing arrangements, data agreements, and pricing strategy.
Comfort operating with minimal process in early-stage environments where the product is still being defined.
Prior experience as an early commercial hire at a seed or Series A stage company.
Existing relationships with research or data teams at frontier AI labs is a strong plus.
Background in healthcare, life sciences, regulated environments, robotics, autonomy, or embodied AI is a strong plus.
Compensation & Benefits
The on-target earnings range for this role is $360,000 to $400,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
Location
Primary location is San Francisco, California. Remote candidates based in the United States will also be considered.
Skills
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