Founding Account Executive

Phonely; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Phonely is hiring a Founding Account Executive in San Francisco to drive revenue end-to-end for our voice AI platform, targeting call-center heavy operators. You will cultivate relationships with decision-makers at enterprises and lead the sales cycle from first meeting to close.

You don't need to have sold this exact product before, but you must know how call centers buy, build champions across Ops, Rev, CX, and tech, and drive structured deals with clear ROI and procurement criteria.

Qualifications

• Five or more years of closing experience (mid-market and/or enterprise).
• Book of business with call center operators and executives.
• Experience selling into insurance, home services, pay per call, BPOs, lead gen, or other high-volume phone-driven businesses.
• Strong discovery and executive communication; you can speak outcomes, not features.
• Comfortable with technical topics (integrations, CRMs, call routing, data flows) without needing to be an engineer.
• High ownership, strong follow-up, and consistent deal control.

Responsibilities

• Own a quota and full-cycle deals from first meeting through close.
• Source pipeline through your network plus targeted outbound, with a focus on call center heavy operators.
• Lead discovery around call flows, booking rules, transfers, QA, compliance constraints, and success metrics.
• Build champions and multi-thread across Ops, Rev, CX, and technical stakeholders.
• Drive a structured deal process: mutual action plans, evaluation criteria, ROI, security, and procurement.
• Partner with Solutions and Customer Success to scope pilots and align on success criteria before signature.
• Maintain accurate pipeline hygiene and forecasting.
• Capture product feedback and market intel and loop it back to leadership.

Skills

Closing deals

Enterprise sales

Executive communication

Discovery

Pipeline management

Ownership

Follow-up

Deal control

Tools

Twilio

Ringba

Five9

Genesys

NICE

Talkdesk

Dialpad

Aircall

Salesforce

HubSpot

Job description

Founding Account Executive

At some point in the future, every business will answer their phone with voice AI. We are building the platform that lets them optimize these AI agents for performance.

Phonely builds conversational voice AI agents for high volume phone workflows. Our customers use us to qualify leads, book appointments, route calls, and resolve real customer conversations in production.

We’re hiring an Account Executive who can own revenue end-to-end and bring a meaningful network of buyers who run or rely on call centers.

Who this role is for

This role is for an AE with a real book of business. You have relationships with decision makers at companies that use call centers (in-house or outsourced), especially where calls drive revenue: lead qualification, appointment booking, inbound sales, and customer operations.

You do not need to have sold this exact product category before. You do need to know the people, understand how these teams buy, and be able to run a tight enterprise sales process.

What you will do

• Own a quota and full-cycle deals from first meeting through close

• Source pipeline through your network plus targeted outbound, with a focus on call center heavy operators

• Lead discovery around call flows, booking rules, transfers, QA, compliance constraints, and success metrics

• Build champions and multi-thread across Ops, Rev, CX, and technical stakeholders

• Drive a structured deal process: mutual action plans, evaluation criteria, ROI, security, and procurement

• Partner with Solutions and Customer Success to scope pilots and align on success criteria before signature

• Maintain accurate pipeline hygiene and forecasting

• Capture product feedback and market intel and loop it back to leadership

What we are looking for

• Five or more years of closing experience (mid-market and or enterprise)

• A demonstrable book of business: relationships with operators and executives at organizations that run or heavily use call centers

• Experience selling into at least one of: insurance, home services, pay per call, BPOs, lead gen, or other high volume phone driven businesses

• Strong discovery and executive communication, you can speak outcomes, not features

• Comfortable with technical topics at a practical level (integrations, CRMs, call routing, data flows) without needing to be an engineer

• High ownership, strong follow-up, and consistent deal control

Bonus points

• Existing relationships with call center leaders, heads of CX, heads of sales ops, lead gen owners, or BPO leadership

• Experience with Twilio, Ringba, Five9, Genesys, NICE, Talkdesk, Dialpad, Aircall, ServiceTitan, Salesforce, HubSpot

• Prior experience selling call center services, telecom, CCaaS, dialers, QA, WFM, or lead gen products

Why join Phonely

Small team, high standards, direct access to leadership, and a product that is already proven in production. You will have real ownership over revenue and meaningful input into go-to-market.