About the role:
We’re looking for an AI Native Startups Account Executive to own a book of accounts and drive revenue across AssemblyAI’s Voice AI infrastructure offerings. This person will generate pipeline in target accounts, develop strong champions, lead model evaluations, and win over engineering and product leaders at the fastest-growing AI-native companies building with voice. The ideal candidate has a strong background in infrastructure or API sales, thrives on building pipeline from scratch, and is energized by working with technical buyers on products that win on performance and developer experience.
This is a cross-functional role that requires close partnership with Applied AI, Research, Engineering, Marketing, and Deployment to shape go-to-market strategy and deliver an exceptional customer experience from first touch through deployment and beyond.
What You’ll Do:
- Own a book of AI-native startup accounts, leading potential customers across the full sales cycle from prospecting through initial production rollout
- Generate pipeline through proactive, creative outbound - including personalized outreach, conferences, exclusive events, and finding warm introductions
- Craft outbound communications that deliver real value to prospects - custom benchmarks, competitive insights, use-case-specific demos that earn replies
- Develop authentic champions within target accounts who advocate for AssemblyAI internally and help shepherd deals to close
- Engage multiple leadership stakeholders in parallel - CTO, CPO, VP Engineering, VP Product, VP of AI, and other technical decision-makers - to build consensus and de-risk deals
- Position AssemblyAI’s value and pricing against alternatives with clear, quantitative and qualitative differentiation
- Drive urgency through business value at every touchpoint, keeping deals moving forward with intent
- Quarterback complex, multi-threaded deals - bringing insights, perspective, and momentum to every customer interaction
- Partner closely with Customer and Technology Teams to represent the voice of the AI-native customer and shape go-to-market strategy
What You’ll Need:
- 2+ years of infrastructure or API sales experience closing deals with engineering and product audiences
- A track record of building pipeline from scratch - experience breaking into cold accounts and creating opportunities where none existed
- Technical fluency - comfortable discussing API architectures, model accuracy tradeoffs, and deployment options with engineers and technical decision-makers
- Demonstrated ability to identify and develop champions who advocate internally on your behalf
- A high sense of urgency and ownership; you move deals forward and don’t let them go stale
- Comfort selling in a frictionless, product-led motion where customers stay because the product wins
- Deep understanding of procurement, legal, and security review processes, with the ability to drive velocity through complex commercial cycles
- A willingness to travel to drive impact - expect to be on the road 50%+ of each month for customer visits, industry events, and team offsites