Enterprise Account Executive

The Reality

We're a 30-person company with 3.4 billion downloads of our open-source cloud-native API gateway. Our technology powers critical infrastructure across financial services, healthcare, retail, transportation, and public sector organizations globally. We're building strategic partnerships with NVIDIA, Oracle, Nutanix, HPE, SUSE, Microsoft, and others. We're at an inflection point where AI security and cloud-native adoption are creating unprecedented demand for what we've built.

But here's what we don't have: a mature sales organization, established processes, or an army of support staff. What we do have: world-class technology, massive market opportunity, strategic partnerships that open doors, and a CEO who wants to build the right sales team from the ground up.

Traefik Labs provides the connectivity layer for modern infrastructure. We started with the most popular cloud-native API gateway (Application Proxy), then added enterprise API Gateway capabilities with security and governance, and now offer full API Management with developer portals, versioning, and lifecycle controls.

Recently we've added AI Gateway for securing LLM deployments and MCP Gateway for AI agent governance. Enterprises are deploying AI in production and need infrastructure they can trust. That's where we come in.

You'll be one of our first enterprise account executives in North America, reporting directly to me (the CEO). This means you'll have visibility into everything we're building, direct input into product and go-to-market strategy, and the autonomy to shape how we sell.

You'll own the full sales cycle. Build your pipeline through outbound, inbound, and partner channels. Navigate complex deals involving platform engineers who care about technical depth and executives who care about business outcomes. Close six-figure deals while helping us figure out what works at scale.

• Hunt and close enterprise deals. No SDR feeding you leads. You prospect, qualify, demo, negotiate, and close. The advantage: our 3.4 billion open-source downloads mean thousands of companies are already running Traefik in production. Your job is to identify these OSS users and convert them to enterprise customers.
• Sell to technical buyers and executives simultaneously. Platform engineers need to trust the architecture. CFOs need to understand the ROI. You handle both conversations.
• Work directly with product and engineering. You'll see customer requirements that should influence our roadmap. Bring them back. Debate priorities. Help us build what matters.
• Figure out pricing and packaging. We have a model, but every deal teaches us something. You'll contribute to how we think about value and structure agreements.
• Activate our strategic partnerships. We're building relationships with NVIDIA, Oracle, Nutanix, HPE, Microsoft, and others. Some are further along than others. Your job is to find the co-sell opportunities and make these partnerships productive.
• Drive technical validation. Work with our pre-sales team to run POCs that actually convert. Manage timelines, clear blockers, keep deals moving.
• Report to the CEO weekly. I want to know what you're seeing in the market, where we're winning, where we're losing, and what needs to change. Real insights, not sanitized updates.

Let's be direct. We've made hiring mistakes before. These types of people didn't work out:

• Smooth talkers who can't execute. If you're better at presentations than closing deals, this isn't for you.
• People who don't sweat the details. In infrastructure sales, one missed technical requirement kills the deal. You need to be meticulous.
• Sales reps who need structure. There's no playbook yet. You'll help write it. If you need clear processes handed to you, look elsewhere.
• Anyone who wants to stay in their lane. One minute you're discussing Kubernetes architecture, the next you're building an ROI model, then you're on a call with me about competitive positioning. That's the job.
• People who expect support infrastructure. No SDR team. No deal desk. No sales ops building your reports. You own it.
• Reps who can't think on their feet. When a CTO asks about air-gapped deployments or NVIDIA NIM integration, you need to engage in real-time, not defer to others.

• 5+ years selling enterprise infrastructure or security software with proven quota attainment. We care more about how you won than what you sold.
• Track record selling to technical buyers. Platform engineers, Dev Ops teams, security architects. People who ask hard questions and don't buy based on slides.
• Deep enough technical understanding to hold your own. You don't need to write code, but you should understand Kubernetes, API gateways, authentication models, and distributed systems concepts.
• Obsessive attention to detail. You track commitments. Follow up on every technical question. Never let things slip. In complex technical sales, details matter.
• Comfort…