Account Executive, Data Partnerships

Handshake•Nashville, TN

About The Position

Handshake is building a new, adjacent business that licenses proprietary company data—such as workflow data, code, and support transcripts—cleans and rights-clears it, and provides it to frontier AI labs. This is a zero-to-one effort, and the Account Executive will be among the first 5–10 representatives on the team. The role focuses on identifying companies with valuable data, reaching decision-makers, and conducting thorough discovery to understand the data, its structure, the authority to license it, and the company's concerns. When there is a fit, the Account Executive scopes and owns the deal through legal and security review as needed, negotiates terms, and obtains a signed agreement. This is a high-volume outbound role, but success also requires patience, thoughtful listening, and earning trust around sensitive data. The role includes weekly activity and pipeline targets and contributes to developing the team's scripts, target lists, and processes during the first 90 days. The environment is early-stage, fast-moving, and high-intensity, with an evolving playbook.

Requirements

1–2 years of prospect- or customer-facing, high-volume outbound sales experience.
Experience in a sales role with activity metrics and a track record of quota attainment is desired.
Comfort working in a high-intensity, fast-moving environment.
Ability to adapt a closing-oriented sales approach to prioritize understanding and discovery.
A discovery mindset, including asking questions and understanding a prospect's situation before pitching.
Composure in difficult or awkward conversations involving sensitive company data.
Strong process discipline, including accurate notes and consistent follow-through.
Comfort with ambiguity and helping build a playbook that is not yet fully established.

Nice To Haves

Experience selling to technical buyers such as CTOs or Heads of Data or Engineering.
Experience in data licensing, ad-tech data, enterprise SaaS, or API/platform sales.
Familiarity with data privacy or compliance basics such as GDPR or CCPA.
Experience at a comparable high-velocity outbound sales floor.

Responsibilities

Conduct high-volume outbound outreach by phone, email, and LinkedIn to target companies with data worth licensing.
Reach and engage owners, founders, CTOs, Heads of Data, and other relevant decision-makers.
Conduct thorough discovery into a company's data, its structure, licensing authority, and conditions for a comfortable agreement.
Address objections and concerns, including competitive fears, security concerns, and trust, with patience rather than pressure.
Own deals end to end, including scoping, involving legal or security as needed, negotiating terms, and obtaining signatures.
Meet weekly activity and pipeline targets.
Help develop and evolve sales scripts, target lists, and processes.