Account Executive - CPG/Food & Beverage

Outset; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Outset, the AI-powered research platform, is seeking an Account Executive for CPG and Food & Beverage. You’ll own the full sales cycle, from prospecting to closing, targeting Market Research and Consumer Insights leaders across major brands.

This role offers growth into UX Research and CX teams and requires travel up to 40% for customer meetings and industry events. You will build account plans, land new logos, and expand existing relationships across regions, partnering with Marketing and

Qualifications

• 5+ years of quota-carrying B2B SaaS sales experience.
• Proven experience selling into and growing CPG / F&B accounts.
• Established network across Market Research and Consumer Insights leadership at CPG and F&B brands.
• Proven ability to run full-cycle enterprise sales with multi-stakeholder deals.
• Track record of growing existing accounts across brands and regions.
• Deep understanding of the CPG research ecosystem and its agencies, panels, and suppliers.
• Exceptional communication, executive presence, and relationship-building.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced startup environment.
• Willingness to travel up to 40% for meetings and events.
• Bonus: experience selling research, consumer insights, analytics, or AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Own the full sales cycle for named CPG and F&B accounts, from prospecting to close.
• Land new logos and grow existing customers across brands, categories, and regions.
• Build trusted relationships with Market Research, Consumer Insights, Brand and Category leaders and expand into UX Research, Product, and CX teams.
• Lead discovery and demos connecting Outset to CPG research workflows and insights.
• Create account plans mapping brands, buying centers, budgets, and whitespace.
• Navigate enterprise procurement, annual planning cycles, and incumbent agency relationships.
• Maintain accurate forecasting and pipeline visibility in Salesforce.
• Collaborate with Marketing to build targeted CPG plays and references.
• Work with Customer Success to drive adoption and expansion post-sale.
• Provide CPG market feedback to Product and GTM.

Skills

Quota carrying

SaaS sales

CPG / F&B sales

Market Research network

Full-cycle sales

Account growth

CPG research ecosystem

Communication

Independent work

Travel up to 40%

AI solutions (bonus)

Job description

Outset invented a better way to do research: AI-powered user interviews.

Global brands like Hubspot, Microsoft, Uber and Nestle use Outset to achieve deeper, qualitative insights about their users at unprecedented speed and scale.

The research industry is massive (>$140B and growing) and ripe for disruption. Incumbents are outdated, slow, and burdened by high-cost services. That's our opportunity.

Outset is backed by top Silicon Valley investors and raised a $30M Series B in December 2025—less than six months after our Series A—led by Radical Ventures with participation from M12 (Microsoft’s venture arm), 8VC, Y Combinator, and Adverb Ventures.

The raise follows a breakout year, with our business growing 8x as enterprise customers across industries adopt our category, AI‑moderated research, as the new standard for understanding people.

We’re a tight-knit team serving some of the world’s largest enterprises.

We’re looking for an Account Executive, CPG / Food & Beverage to lead Outset’s growth with consumer packaged goods and food & beverage companies.

This is a quota-carrying individual contributor role reporting to the VP of Sales, responsible for selling Outset into CPG and F&B organizations and growing those accounts over time. You’ll own the full sales cycle—from prospecting and pipeline development through closing and expansion—across a named set of accounts, working with both net new logos and existing customers.

Your primary buyers are Market Research and Consumer Insights teams. CPG insights teams run research constantly—concept and claims testing, packaging and innovation screening, brand health deep-dives, and shopper and usage studies across dozens of brands and markets—and Outset gets them rich qualitative answers in days instead of weeks. Your job is to make Outset the standard for how these teams understand consumers, landing in one brand or category and expanding across the portfolio. There’s also a significant opportunity to expand into UX Research, Product, and CX teams building digital and direct-to-consumer experiences.

You’ll partner closely with Marketing, Product, and Customer teams, and you’ll bring a deep understanding of how CPG companies operate, plan, and buy research. Depending on your expertise, there’s also an opportunity to focus on multiple verticals—for example, pairing CPG with Retail.

Responsibilities

• Own the full sales cycle for a named set of CPG and F&B accounts, from prospecting to close.




• Land new logos and grow existing customers across brands, categories, and regions—turning a single team’s adoption into a portfolio-wide relationship.




• Build trusted relationships with Market Research, Consumer Insights, Brand and Category leaders as your primary buyers, and expand into UX Research, Product, and CX teams within each account.




• Lead discovery and demos that connect Outset to CPG research workflows: concept testing, claims and packaging, innovation pipelines, brand health, and shopper insights.




• Build account plans that map brands, buying centers, research budgets, agency relationships, and whitespace across each account.




• Navigate complex enterprise sales processes, including annual research planning cycles, procurement, and incumbent research agency relationships.




• Maintain accurate forecasting and pipeline visibility in Salesforce.




• Partner with Marketing and outbound teams to build targeted CPG plays—events, content, and references that resonate with the vertical.




• Collaborate with Customer Success and Research teams to drive adoption and identify expansion opportunities post-sale.




• Bring CPG market feedback back to Product and GTM, and become Outset’s go-to expert on the vertical.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of quota-carrying B2B SaaS sales experience, with a strong track record of exceeding quota.




• Demonstrated experience and expertise selling into and growing CPG / F&B accounts—you’ve owned commercial relationships with consumer goods companies and know how they buy. This includes selling full service research and analysis deliverables.




• An established network across Market Research and Consumer Insights leadership at CPG and F&B companies; relationships with UX Research, Product, or CX leaders are a plus.




• Proven ability to run full-cycle enterprise sales, including prospecting, managing complex multi-stakeholder deals, and closing new business.




• A track record of growing existing accounts through expansion and cross-sell across brands and business units.




• Understanding of the CPG research ecosystem, including the agencies, panels, and research suppliers these teams rely on today.




• Exceptional communication, executive presence, and relationship-building skills.




• Ability to operate independently in a fast-paced startup environment.




• Willingness to travel up to 40% for customer meetings and industry events.




• Bonus: experience selling research, consumer insights, analytics, or AI solutions.