Sales and Business Development Director

Near.ai | San Francisco, CA (In-person) | Full-time

Near.ai is building the future of private AI infrastructure. We’re an early-stage  startup providing a confidential compute inference network that hosts open-source and custom models inside Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). Our platform offers an OpenAI API–compatible interface, enabling companies to leverage powerful AI capabilities without compromising on privacy.

We serve organizations across financial services, legal, insurance, robotics, entertainment, and government sectors—companies that need verifiable privacy guarantees and can’t use traditional AI providers due to data sensitivity concerns. Unlike expensive alternatives like AWS Nitro Enclaves, we provide cryptographic attestation proving privacy at a significantly lower price point, with high SLAs and custom model hosting capabilities.

We’re looking for our first Sales & Business Development Director to help build our sales motion from the ground up. You’ll work directly with the Chief Commercial Officer and the founding team to establish repeatable processes for identifying, engaging, and converting privacy-conscious companies into Near.ai customers.

This role blends partnerships, sales development, and early GTM experimentation — but starts with outbound pipeline generation.

• Immerse yourself in confidential computing, TEEs, and the Near.ai technical value proposition
• Master our pitch and conduct cold outreach (calls, emails, LinkedIn) to build early pipeline
• Shadow customer conversations and demos to understand buyer personas and pain points
• Set up CRM hygiene practices in Attio and establish your prospecting workflow
  

• Book qualified meetings with CISOs, VPs of Engineering, Heads of Infrastructure, and AI/ML leaders
• Initiate 3+ pilots with target accounts in financial services, insurance, robotics, legal, and tech
• Build $5M+ of qualified pipeline through multi-touch outbound sequences
• Begin managing warm inbound leads and supporting partnership development efforts
• Fine-tune ideal customer profile, partner with marketing to fill top-of-funnel
• Attend industry conferences and events to build relationships and generate demand
  

• Work with the marketing team to own the top of funnel: cold outbound prospecting, lead qualification, and meeting generation
• Run technical demos and workshops (with product & engineering support as needed)
• Manage pilots through to conversion, maintaining close contact with prospects
• Maintain rigorous CRM hygiene and pipeline reporting in Attio
• Contribute to sales collateral, pitch decks, and outreach templates as we iterate on messaging
• Travel to conferences and customer meetings to build relationships and close business

• 5–10 years in B2B sales, with at least 3 years selling infrastructure, cloud compute, or developer tools to technical buyers
• Proven track record of sales and business development excellence, exceeding quota and building pipeline in early-stage or high-growth environments
• Strong existing network in target verticals (fintech, legal tech, insurance, AI/ML infrastructure, robotics, or cybersecurity)
• Technical fluency: ability to understand and articulate TEEs, confidential computing, AI inference, and competitive solutions (AWS Nitro, Azure Confidential Computing)
• Experience using modern sales tools (Attio/HubSpot/Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, or similar)

• Experience selling into CISOs, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, or compliance officers at 50–500 person companies
• Comfortable running technical workshops and discussing ML workloads, attestation, and privacy guarantees
• Scrappy and founder-mode: you build processes rather than wait for them
• Thrives in ambiguity and can shift between cold calling, demos, pilots, and conferences in the same week
• Credibility or relationships in privacy-focused tech communities, AI infrastructure circles, or regulated industries
  

• Hungry and creative: You find ways to open doors and don’t take no for an answer
• Technically curious: You enjoy learning complex concepts and translating them into benefits that resonate with buyers
• Low ego, high urgency: Comfortable as one of the first non-technical hires on a deeply technical team
• Execution & Process-focused: You move fast, iterate, and measure what matters; you build repeatable, scalable processes
• Relationship-driven: You build genuine connections and leverage your network to accelerate deals

You’ll join a small, agile, highly technical founding team building at the intersection of AI, privacy, and infrastructure.

We value:

• In-person collaboration (SF-based)
• Directness and curiosity
• Bias toward action and ownership

This is not a corporate environment, you’ll wear multiple hats, challenge assumptions, and contribute far beyond traditional sales responsibilities.

• Location: San Francisco, CA (in-person required)
• Start Date: February 2025
• Travel: 10–20% for conferences, customer meetings, and industry events
• Reporting: Directly to Matt Kummell, Chief Commercial Officer, with close collaboration across the founding team

We’re focused on companies that care deeply about privacy but are not yet bound by heavy compliance frameworks like HIPAA or ISO 27001 (we’re actively working toward these certifications).

Ideal customers include:

• Financial services using AI on sensitive transaction data
• Legal & insurance teams analyzing proprietary documents
• Robotics companies processing telemetry or operational data
• AI-native tech companies building chat apps, browsers, dev tools
• Government & entertainment organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements

Target company size: 20–100 employees, primarily in the US and Europe.

AI infrastructure demand is exploding, and privacy requirements are tightening across every industry. Enterprises want alternatives to OpenAI and hyperscalers that offer real, verifiable privacy, strong performance, and sane economics.

Near.ai is positioned at the center of this shift. This role gives you the opportunity to shape how this technology enters the market—at exactly the right moment.

Submit your resume along with:

1. A brief note (2–3 paragraphs) on why you’re excited about Near.ai and how your experience/network positions you for success
   
2. 3–5 companies or contacts you’d target in your first 30 days - and why
   

Top candidates will also receive a take-home exercise to assess pipeline-building and outbound strategy.