Founding Account Executive

Artos, Inc.; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Artos, Inc. in San Francisco is seeking a founder-driven salesperson to build our first dedicated sales function. You will own the full sales cycle for enterprise and mid-market life sciences accounts while shaping our go-to-market foundations.

You will balance closing revenue now with creating the sales process, messaging, qualification standards, and playbooks to scale as Artos grows. This hands-on, builder role requires collaboration with the founders and future sales hires.

Qualifications

• Experience owning and closing complex enterprise deals (250k+ ARR) with 4–12 month cycles.
• Track record sourcing pipeline personally, not just closing leads.
• Experience selling into life sciences or regulated industries.
• Credibility with scientific, regulatory, and risk-conscious buyers.
• Builder mindset with sales processes or playbooks.

Responsibilities

• Own the full sales cycle across enterprise and mid-market life sciences accounts.
• Generate pipeline inbound and founder-generated opportunities.
• Run discovery, product evaluations, business-case development, procurement, negotiation, and close.
• Build credibility with regulatory, medical, scientific, operational, and executive stakeholders.
• Sell a new category to evidence-driven buyers.
• Communicate total cost, maintenance burden, implementation risk, and speed to value.
• Multi-thread relationships across accounts to avoid reliance on a single champion.
• Build and document Artos’s sales playbook, including messaging, qualification, objection handling, stage definitions, forecasting, and CRM practices.
• Help shape pricing, packaging, pilot structures, and transition to scalable sales.

Skills

Enterprise sales

Pipeline development

CRM discipline

Executive communication

Life sciences

Negotiation

Multi-threading accounts

Job description

About Artos:

At Artos, we build tools that help biopharma companies create and manage their R&D documentation in a fraction of the time. If you’re looking to join a team whose mission is to fundamentally change the way that drug development gets done, we’d love to talk to you.

The Role:

We are hiring Artos’s first dedicated salesperson.

This is not a traditional Senior Account Executive role. You will not inherit a mature sales organization, established commission culture, or finished playbook. You will help build them.

The role is approximately:

• 60% selling: Own opportunities from pipeline creation through close.

• 25% system-building: Develop the sales process, messaging, qualification standards, and playbook for future hires.

• 15% pricing and strategy: Partner with the founders on pricing, packaging, segmentation, and go-to-market strategy.

We are looking for an architect-minded seller—someone who can close revenue now while building the foundation for Account Executives two, three, and four.

What You’ll Do:

• Own the full sales cycle across enterprise and mid-market life sciences accounts.

• Generate your own pipeline while working inbound and founder-generated opportunities.

• Run discovery, product evaluations, business-case development, procurement, negotiation, and close.

• Build credibility with regulatory, medical, scientific, operational, and executive stakeholders.

• Sell a new category to evidence-driven buyers who are appropriately skeptical of AI claims.

• Compete effectively against internal development and consultancy-led alternatives by communicating total cost, maintenance burden, implementation risk, and speed to value.

• Multi-thread relationships across each account so opportunities are not dependent on a single champion.

• Build and document Artos’s sales playbook, including messaging, qualification, objection handling, stage definitions, forecasting, and CRM practices.

• Help shape pricing, packaging, pilot structures, and the transition from founder-led selling to a scalable sales organization.

• Protect customer outcomes by refusing to sell commitments Artos cannot successfully deploy.

What We’re Looking For:

• Experience personally owning and closing complex enterprise deals, ideally $250,000+ in annual contract value with four- to twelve-month sales cycles.

• Experience selling a new product, category, or technical approach into a skeptical market.

• A track record of personally sourcing pipeline, not only closing opportunities generated by others.

• Experience selling into life sciences, healthcare, or another highly regulated industry.

• Credibility with scientific, regulatory, and risk-conscious buyers.

• A builder’s mindset and evidence that you have created sales processes, messaging, playbooks, or operating systems—not just followed them.

• Strong CRM discipline, honest qualification, and forecasts you can defend.

• Consultative selling skills and the ability to communicate with executives, functional leaders, technical teams, and procurement.

• Multi-threading as a natural part of how you manage accounts.

• Comfort working closely with founders in active sales opportunities.

• Willingness to remain highly hands-on rather than immediately moving into management.

Helpful, but Not Required:

• Experience selling AI, machine learning, data, or other technically complex products.

• Familiarity with regulatory operations, medical writing, clinical, quality, or submission-related workflows.

• Experience selling both enterprise and mid-market offerings.

• Experience as the first or second seller at an early-stage startup.

• Experience hiring or mentoring other sellers.

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