Account Executive

Hardshell Inc.; Charlottesville (VA); Hybrid; USD 108,000 - 132,000; Full time

Job summary

Hardshell Inc. is seeking an early-seller to own end-to-end deals with founders and AI architects. You’ll target security, data, and AI leaders at mid-market and enterprise firms across financial services, healthcare, and AI-native companies.

You will build a pipeline from zero in a new territory, run structured pilots, and convert to annual contracts, with base salary and strong OTE potential.

Qualifications

• 3+ years closing B2B software deals with a record against quota.
• Experience running technical sales cycles alongside a solutions engineer or architect.
• Comfort building pipeline from zero in a new territory.
• Enough technical curiosity to understand how RAG systems and AI assistants handle data.
• U.S. citizenship is required.

Responsibilities

• Build your own pipeline through outbound, events, and referrals.
• Run deals end to end: discovery, a demo with an AI solutions architect, a scoped paid pilot, and conversion to an annual contract.
• Manage buying groups that span security, data, AI, compliance, and procurement.
• Expand accounts after conversion into new data sources, use cases, and business units.
• Keep the CRM accurate and your forecast honest, and bring buyer insights back into positioning and product.

Skills

Closing B2B software deals

Technical sales cycles

Pipeline from zero

RAG/AI understanding

U.S. citizenship

Job description

The role

You'll be one of our first dedicated sellers, running deals end to end with support from our founders and AI solutions architects. Our buyers are security, data, and AI leaders at mid-market and enterprise companies putting AI to work on sensitive data, with a focus on financial services, healthcare, and AI-native companies. Deals start as structured paid pilots with defined success criteria and convert to annual contracts.

What you'll do

• Build your own pipeline through outbound, events, and referrals.
• Run deals end to end: discovery, a demo with an AI solutions architect, a scoped paid pilot, and conversion to an annual contract.
• Manage buying groups that span security, data, AI, compliance, and procurement.
• Expand accounts after conversion into new data sources, use cases, and business units.
• Keep the CRM accurate and your forecast honest, and bring what you hear from buyers back into positioning and product.

What you bring

• 3+ years closing B2B software deals with a record against quota, preferably in security, data, or infrastructure software.
• Experience running technical sales cycles alongside a solutions engineer or architect.
• Comfort building pipeline from zero in a new territory.
• Enough technical curiosity to understand how RAG systems and AI assistants handle company data, and to explain why it matters to a buyer.
• U.S. citizenship.

Nice to have

• Experience selling into financial services or healthcare.
• Early-stage startup experience.
• Existing relationships with security or data leaders.

The details

• Location: Hybrid in Charlottesville, VA, or remote on Eastern Time.
• Compensation: Base salary up to $120K, OTE up to $255K, plus equity and health coverage.
• Eligibility: U.S. citizenship is required for this role because of our federal work.