Account Executive SMB, Austin, TX
Aiven - The Trusted Data & AI Platform
We're a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to become the trusted Data & AI Platform for everyone, leveraging the most popular open-source technologies like Apache Kafka®, PostgreSQL®, ClickHouse®, and OpenSearch® to help companies accelerate time-to-market, drive efficiency, and build innovative solutions across any cloud.
About this Team
Our Customer Growth team plays a crucial role in our growth and profitability. We want to be the trusted data platform for everyone – which, let's face it, is an ambitious target. But thanks to our dedicated sales, pre-sales, and post-sales teams we are growing fast.
Our customer-first philosophy: The software we create is merely a means of delivering value. Our thinking is customer-first. That's why our customers are at the front and center of all we do. We're by their side, actively helping them solve their challenges through collaboration, sharing, and innovation.
Our Crabby Principles
Aiveners use the V2MOM framework to set and align on business goals. In order to achieve those business goals we live by our 'Crabby Principles' which unite us in our ways of working, globally. These principles are embedded in our business processes and support us in collaborating and role modelling positive and productive behaviours in our daily work, something you will have the opportunity to demonstrate throughout your interview journey with us.
The Role
As an AE in North America, you will drive new customer acquisition and revenue growth within high-velocity segments of the North American market. This is a closing role—you own the full sales cycle from initial engagement through signed contract for companies under $250M in revenue, as well as PLG conversions from Aiven's self-service and trial user base.
This role operates at the intersection of product-led growth and inside sales execution. You will convert high-intent signals—trial activations, self-service usage, consumption spikes—into qualified opportunities and closed revenue. You will also generate pipeline through outbound prospecting, field events, and digital marketing campaigns. The ability to read product usage data, prioritize based on buying signals, and execute fast sales cycles is essential.
There are clear success metrics: 10 closed new logos annually at $25K average ARR, delivering $300K in total ARR per fiscal year. You will qualify 6 opportunities per month using rigorous MEDDPICC standards and generate $1.4M in qualified pipeline annually through a combination of PLG conversion, outbound prospecting, and marketing-sourced leads. This is a high-activity, high-velocity role with 30-60 day sales cycles.
You will engage technical decision-makers—Engineering Managers, Platform Leads, Senior Engineers, DevOps Managers—at companies professionalizing their data infrastructure. These buyers can often evaluate and approve purchases without extensive procurement cycles, which means your ability to build urgency, demonstrate value quickly, and close efficiently determines your success.
If you are a disciplined inside seller who thrives on velocity, understands how to convert product usage into commercial commitment, and can execute a high-quality sales process without cutting corners—we want to hear from you.
What You'll Do
Close New Business:
- Close 10 new logos annually at $25K average ARR, delivering $300K in total ARR against your annual quota.
- Own the full sales cycle from initial engagement through contract signature—discovery, qualification, demo, proposal, negotiation, close.
- Execute 30-60 day sales cycles with discipline and urgency—these are not long enterprise evaluations; speed and efficiency are competitive advantages.
- Maintain 85%+ forecast accuracy at commit through evidence-based qualification and disciplined pipeline management.
Convert PLG Signals into Revenue:
- Monitor and prioritize trial activations, self-service usage, and consumption patterns to identify high-intent prospects ready for sales engagement.
- Engage self-service users demonstrating expansion signals—increased cluster usage, new service adoption, team account additions—and convert them to committed contracts.
- Develop expertise in reading product usage data to qualify buying intent: which behaviors indicate serious evaluation vs. casual exploration.
- Execute speed-to-lead on PLG conversions—these opportunities have short windows; the first seller to engage with value often wins.
Generate Pipeline Through Multi-Channel Prospecting:
- Qualify 6 opportunities per month (72 annually) using rigorous MEDDPICC framework—each opportunity must have identified pain, decision-maker access, and defined timeline.
- Generate $1.4M in qualified pipeline annually through outbound prospecting, PLG conversion, field events, and digital marketing campaign follow-up.
- Execute 80-100+ weekly prospecting touches across calls, emails, LinkedIn, and video messaging to secure meetings with target personas.
- Work marketing-sourced leads from digital campaigns, content programs, and field events with rapid follow-up and qualification discipline.
- Build and maintain target account lists of 75-100 ideal customer profile companies within your territory.
Engage Technical Decision-Makers:
- Build relationships with Engineering Managers, Platform Leads, Senior Engineers, DevOps Managers, and Data Engineering Leads who can evaluate and approve purchases.
- Position Aiven's value in terms that matter to technical buyers: reduced operational overhead, faster time-to-production, developer productivity, and infrastructure reliability.
- Challenge the status quo of customers' current data infrastructure—DIY open-source management, cloud vendor lock-in, operational burden—and demonstrate how Aiven delivers better outcomes.
- Conduct compelling product demonstrations that connect platform capabilities to specific customer pain points and use cases.
Execute MEDDPICC Sales Process:
- Rigorously qualify all opportunities using the MEDDPICC framework to ensure pipeline quality and forecast accuracy.
- Maintain complete MEDDPICC documentation in Salesforce for every qualified opportunity—Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Identified Pain, Champion, Competition.
- Manage opportunities with stage-appropriate evidence: no advancing deals without documented proof points for each MEDDPICC element.
- Forecast based on evidence, not optimism—if you cannot articulate the decision process, timeline, and buying authority with specificity, the deal does not belong in commit.
Solution Selling & Value Articulation:
- Become expert in Aiven's platform and open-source technologies: Kafka, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, ClickHouse, Valkey, and Grafana.
- Articulate business value in concrete terms: reduced operational overhead (40-60%), faster time-to-production (3-5x), infrastructure cost optimization (30-50%).
- Maintain Command of the Message when conveying Aiven's value proposition—you can clearly articulate why Aiven vs. self-managed, why Aiven vs. hyperscaler native services, why Aiven vs. other managed platforms.
- Tailor messaging to buyer context: a startup scaling from prototype to production has different priorities than a mid-market company consolidating fragmented infrastructure.
Collaborate Cross-Functionally:
- Partner with Solution Architects on technical validation for qualified opportunities requiring deeper architectural engagement.
- Coordinate with Marketing on campaign follow-up, event participation, and lead quality feedback.
- Provide product feedback based on customer conversations—objections, feature requests, competitive intelligence—to inform roadmap priorities.
- Collaborate with Customer Success on smooth handoffs for closed accounts to ensure strong onboarding and adoption.
Exceed Targets:
- Consistently meet and exceed monthly, quarterly, and annual quotas.
- Maintain minimum 3x pipeline coverage against quarterly targets with balanced distribution across the quarter.
- Take complete ownership of your territory and results—no excuses, no deflection, no waiting for leads to arrive.
What We're Looking For
Inside Sales Excellence:
- 1-3 years of success in inside sales or SDR/BDR roles with demonstrated progression and quota attainment.
- Proven ability to close deals independently—not just qualify and hand off, but own the full cycle through contract signature.
- Track record of consistent quota attainment (90-100%+) in a high-velocity sales environment.
- Experience with $15K-$50K ACV deal sizes and 30-90 day sales cycles—you understand velocity selling, not just enterprise account management.
PLG & Product-Led Sales Experience:
- Experience working PLG or trial conversion motions where product usage signals inform sales engagement.
- Ability to read and interpret product usage data to prioritize outreach and qualify buying intent.
- Understanding of how to add value to self-service users without being intrusive—you know when to engage and when to let product do the work.
- Comfort selling to technical buyers who have already evaluated the product and formed opinions.
Prospecting & Pipeline Generation:
- Demonstrated ability to generate pipeline through outbound prospecting—cold calls, personalized emails, LinkedIn engagement, video messaging.
- Experience working marketing-sourced leads with rapid follow-up and disciplined qualification.
- Ability to maintain high activity levels (80+ weekly touches) while preserving quality and personalization.
- Strong research skills using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Crunchbase, 6sense, or similar tools to identify trigger events and buying signals.
MEDDPICC & Sales Methodology:
- Familiarity with MEDDPICC, MEDDIC, or similar qualification frameworks—formal training preferred but not required if you demonstrate structured qualification discipline.
- Ability to document qualification evidence in CRM, not just self-assessed confidence scores.
- Understanding of the difference between activity and progress—you measure yourself on qualified pipeline and closed revenue, not calls made or emails sent.
Technical Acumen:
- Familiarity with data infrastructure, cloud services, and developer tools sufficient to have credible conversations with technical buyers.
- You don't need to be an engineer, but you can discuss Kafka use cases, PostgreSQL vs. other databases, cloud deployment models, and operational trade-offs at a conceptual level.
- Ability to learn technical concepts quickly and translate them into business value for different buyer personas.
- Interest in open-source technologies and the developer ecosystem—you're curious about how these tools work and why they matter.
Communication & Presence:
- Excellent verbal communication for discovery calls, demos, and negotiations conducted primarily via video and phone.
- Strong written communication for personalized outreach, follow-up emails, and proposal summaries.
- Ability to simplify complex technical concepts into clear value statements for different audiences.
- Professional presence that builds credibility with technical decision-makers who are evaluating both the product and the vendor.
High-Performance Mindset:
- Self-driven and disciplined—you don't need someone watching over your shoulder to maintain high activity and quality standards.
- Competitive without being political—you want to win and you measure yourself against top performers.
- Coachable—you actively seek feedback, incorporate it quickly, and demonstrate improvement over time.
- Resilient—you handle rejection and setbacks without losing momentum or making excuses.
- Ownership mentality—when something goes wrong, you ask what you could have done differently, not who else is to blame.
Geography & Work Style:
- Willingness to travel 10-20% for field events, team meetings, and customer engagements as needed.
Don't worry if your experience doesn't line up perfectly—we still encourage everyone to apply. We believe in investing in our crabs' professional growth.
Our Offer
If you ask us what's the best thing about working for Aiven, many will probably say it's the high concentration of talent from around the world that we have here. Enjoy the agile environment of a hyperscale scale-up where you can truly make an impact and have fun while at it.
We invest in you:
- Competitive base salary + commission structure with accelerators for overachievement
- Participate in Aiven's equity plan
- With Aiven locations spanning the globe, we want all of our crabs to find the right balance with our hybrid work policy
- Get the needed equipment to set yourself up for success
- Step up your career game with real employer support (use one of our learning platforms, annual learning budget, and more)
- Get holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program
Make a difference at Aiven:
- Contribute to open-source projects that you find meaningful outside of work—and get paid for it! Our Plankton program recognizes extra work to the open-source ecosystem for developers and non-developers alike
- Use up to 5 days per year to volunteer for a good cause of your choice
- Join one of our team member resource groups—empower yourself and others in missions that resonate with you
What else:
- Need insurance: We've got you covered—benefit from comprehensive health insurance options including dental and vision benefits and Life and AD&D insurance
- Your wellbeing matters: we provide you with a health savings account with Aiven contributions, as well as short and long term disability plans
- Looking after your future: you're covered by 401(k) and Roth 401(k) retirement plans
Amazing! What's next:
Once applying you should hear from our Talent Experience team within five days regarding the status of your application. If you are selected to move forward, you can generally expect four stages with us:
- 60-minute call with one of our Talent Experience Partners
- 60-minute Depth of Expertise Interview with the hiring manager
- 60-minute Crabby Principles Interview
Application requirement: Along with your resume, include a brief note (under 200 words) answering this question: Describe your highest-velocity month in your current or most recent sales role. How many opportunities did you work, what was your close rate, and what specific actions drove that performance? We want to understand how you operate at peak velocity and whether you can articulate what makes you effective.
E-verify:
Aiven participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. More information about our participation in e-verify can be found here.
How to Recognize and Avoid Employment Scams:
There has been a rise in fake job postings used by scammers to get personal information. Please familiarize yourself with the red flags of a potential scam.
Here at Aiven, all of our emails relating to recruitment come from an @aiven.io, @greenhouse.io or @eu.greenhouse.io domain and all of our interviews are conducted over video call or in person, our interviews will never occur over text or chat. If you're unsure of the legitimacy of a job opportunity/offer pertaining to Aiven, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at recruitment@aiven.io.
Equal Opportunities:
Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.
At Aiven, we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at recruitment@aiven.io.
