Enterprise Account Executive — US East

Vespa.ai•New York, NY

1d•$160,000 - $200,000

About The Position

Vespa.ai is seeking a results-driven Enterprise Account Executive to develop and close new business, grow customer relationships, and help organizations using open-source Vespa evaluate Vespa Cloud or commercial self-managed software. The role owns the full sales cycle, including building an independent pipeline, and works with technical and business stakeholders to connect Vespa’s capabilities to customer use cases and business value. The position initially reports to the COO and focuses on developing the US East territory, with the candidate based in the New York area and willing to travel for customer and team meetings. Vespa.ai is a Norwegian company that develops Vespa, an Apache 2.0-licensed open-source platform for search, recommendations, and AI retrieval at scale. Its offerings include managed Vespa Cloud and commercial software for customers operating Vespa on their own infrastructure, allowing customers to choose their deployment model.

Requirements

Demonstrated ability to generate and close self-originated business, with examples of developing opportunities from first contact to signed agreement.
Experience selling technical platforms—such as search, databases, data infrastructure, developer tools, or cloud services—to engineering, data, or AI teams, including technical evaluations and proofs of concept.
Practical understanding of how search, retrieval, and data infrastructure support applications such as RAG and AI agents; able to ask informed discovery questions and connect technical capabilities to customer needs.
Consistent record of meeting or exceeding enterprise B2B software sales quotas, with strong discovery, negotiation, stakeholder-management, and closing skills.
Independence and commercial judgment in a growing company with evolving processes; ability to create opportunities rather than rely on inbound leads and recognize potential in AI-native companies and established enterprises.
Based in the New York area, authorized to work in the United States, and willing to travel for customer and team meetings.

Responsibilities

Own and develop an assigned US East territory, building account strategies based on customer fit and market opportunity.
Identify relevant accounts and use cases, prospect, qualify, and close new business; build a qualified pipeline through targeted outreach, relationships, and industry engagement.
Lead the full sales cycle, including discovery, business-case development, technical evaluations, negotiation, and close.
Work with Solutions Engineering while retaining ownership of qualification, next steps, and commercial outcomes.
Help organizations that discover Vespa through open source evaluate and adopt Vespa Cloud or the commercial self-managed offering.
Own customer commercial relationships from first sale through expansion and renewal, working with technical buyers, executive sponsors, and procurement.
Track AI market needs and emerging use cases and use those insights to improve outreach and positioning.
Maintain an accurate pipeline and reliable forecast, and prioritize opportunities based on customer fit and commercial potential.