Senior Business Development & Strategic Sales Manager — AI

We are an early-stage technology company building a new AI infrastructure platform focused on multimodal intelligence and unstructured data. Our technology is designed to make complex, previously difficult-to-use information accessible to AI systems, enabling new forms of search, retrieval, contextual understanding, and reasoning. We are currently operating in stealth mode and preparing for our initial commercial launch. We are looking for a Senior Business Development & Strategic Sales Manager to help establish our first wave of customers, technology relationships, and strategic partnerships across frontier AI, enterprise technology, developer platforms, media, and other data-intensive industries. This is not a traditional SaaS sales role, nor is it a passive partnerships position. We need someone who can identify high-value opportunities, open doors, understand technically sophisticated customer requirements, develop commercial relationships, and move opportunities from initial conversation through technical evaluation, pilot, integration, and ultimately revenue. Of particular importance is the ability to establish and develop relationships with frontier-model developers and leading AI platforms. Candidates who already have relevant relationships within this ecosystem will have a significant advantage. You will work directly with the founders and technical leadership during a formative stage of the company's commercialization. What You'll Do You will be responsible for helping build the company's early commercial pipeline across direct customers, technology partners, platform integrations, and strategic channels. Key responsibilities include: Identify and engage high-value prospects across frontier AI, enterprise technology, developer platforms, media, data-intensive industries, and adjacent markets. Develop strategic relationships with leading frontier-model developers and AI platforms, exploring opportunities for technology integration, platform adoption, data and intelligence partnerships, and other strategic commercial relationships. Leverage existing relationships and develop new ones with product, engineering, AI, multimodal, data, platform, partnerships, and executive stakeholders. Develop targeted outbound strategies and directly prospect into priority accounts. Run discovery conversations to understand customer requirements, use cases, technical environments, and commercial potential. Position a technically sophisticated AI infrastructure platform to both business and technical audiences. Coordinate product demonstrations, technical evaluations, proofs of concept, pilots, and integration discussions. Work closely with the founders and engineering team to translate market requirements into practical product and integration opportunities. Develop commercial proposals and help structure API, platform, enterprise, data, licensing, and partnership agreements. Manage opportunities from initial outreach through evaluation, negotiation, and close. Identify strategic partners that can integrate, embed, distribute, or build on the company's technology. Build and maintain a disciplined pipeline with clear qualification, decision makers, next steps, commercial potential, and probability of close. Provide structured market intelligence to help refine ICPs, packaging, pricing, product priorities, and go-to-market strategy. Help identify which early customer segments and use cases can develop into repeatable commercial motions. What We're Looking For We are looking for someone with meaningful experience developing and closing business around technically sophisticated B2B products. Relevant experience may include: Artificial intelligence and machine learning Foundation models and generative AI AI infrastructure Multimodal AI Developer platforms and APIs Data platforms and infrastructure Cloud infrastructure Enterprise software Search, retrieval, RAG, or knowledge systems Media or video technology Data or content licensing Enterprise technology partnerships You should be comfortable operating in an early-stage environment where the commercial playbook is being created rather than inherited. You should also be comfortable selling solutions that may involve a combination of software, APIs, technical integration, infrastructure, data, licensing, and strategic partnerships rather than a simple packaged SaaS subscription. Ideal Background 7+ years of relevant business development, strategic sales, enterprise sales, or strategic partnership experience. Demonstrated ability to create pipeline from scratch, rather than relying primarily on inbound demand. Experience developing and closing complex B2B technology opportunities. Existing relationships within the frontier AI ecosystem are highly desirable, particularly with product, partnerships, business development, engineering, multimodal, data, retrieval, or platform teams at leading foundation-model companies. Demonstrated ability to leverage an existing professional network to create meaningful senior-level conversations with frontier-model developers and major AI platforms is a significant advantage. Existing relationships across AI infrastructure, developer platforms, cloud, enterprise technology, media, and data ecosystems are also highly valuable. Experience engaging senior technical and executive stakeholders. Experience navigating enterprise technology evaluation and purchasing processes. Experience developing technical evaluations, pilots, proofs of concept, and integration opportunities. Strong commercial judgment and an ability to distinguish strategically valuable opportunities from conversations unlikely to produce meaningful outcomes. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to translate sophisticated technical concepts into clear business value. Comfortable working directly with founders and technical leadership. Experience at an early-stage or high-growth technology company strongly preferred. Technical Fluency You do not need to be an engineer. You do need enough technical fluency to engage credibly with CTOs, engineering leaders, AI researchers and practitioners, product leaders, platform teams, and other technical buyers. Familiarity with several of the following is desirable: Generative AI and foundation models Multimodal AI Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Semantic and vector search AI agents and copilots APIs and developer platforms Model Context Protocol (MCP) Enterprise data architectures Cloud infrastructure Data and content licensing Processing and intelligence systems for large-scale unstructured data You should be intellectually curious enough to learn a sophisticated technology quickly and communicate its value without relying on a scripted sales pitch. Frontier AI & Strategic Partnerships A particularly important part of this role will be helping the company establish relationships within the frontier AI ecosystem. We are interested in candidates who understand how leading model developers and AI platforms evaluate emerging technologies, infrastructure, data capabilities, and external technology integrations. The ideal candidate may already have trusted relationships with people building the next generation of foundation models, multimodal systems, AI platforms, agents, developer infrastructure, and related technologies. You should understand how to navigate these organizations—from an initial relationship or introduction, through product and technical evaluation, to a meaningful integration, partnership, or commercial agreement. This requires more than having contacts. We are looking for someone who knows how to turn relationships into substantive technical and commercial engagement. What Success Looks Like This is a commercially accountable position. Success will not be measured primarily by emails sent, meetings booked, conferences attended, or vague "partnership discussions." We care about creating meaningful commercial opportunities and moving them forward. During your first several months, we expect you to: Establish a focused target-account and prospecting strategy. Develop a meaningful qualified commercial pipeline. Establish substantive relationships with high-value potential customers and strategic partners. Create meaningful engagement with priority frontier-model developers and AI platforms. Move qualified opportunities into product demonstrations and technical evaluations. Develop pilots, proofs of concept, integrations, and strategic partnership opportunities. Help convert early market interest into paid commercial relationships. Provide actionable market feedback that influences product and go-to-market strategy. Help determine which customer segments, use cases, and partnership models should become the company's primary commercial focus. Who Will Thrive Here This role is likely a strong fit if you enjoy taking something new and technically differentiated into the market before the sales playbook has been written. You are comfortable opening doors yourself. You can move seamlessly between a strategic conversation with an executive and a technical discussion with a product, engineering, or AI organization. You may already be deeply connected within the AI ecosystem and have trusted relationships with people building frontier models, multimodal systems, AI platforms, developer infrastructure, and next-generation AI applications. You understand that an early strategic integration with the right platform can sometimes be more valuable than a conventional software sale—but you also understand that "partnership" is not a substitute for commercial results. You are resourceful, entrepreneurial, technically curious, commercially driven, and comfortable with ambiguity. Most importantly, you want to build the commercial motion, not simply execute an existing one. Why Join This is an opportunity to join an early-stage AI company at a formative point in its development and play a meaningful role in defining how a new technology platform reaches the market. You will work closely with the founders, product, and engineering teams and have significant influence over customer strategy, strategic partnerships, commercial models, and go-to-market execution. The company is currently operating in stealth mode. Additional information regarding the company, product, technology, and market strategy will be shared with qualified candidates during the interview process.