Account Executive / Customer Success Executive

About the Company
We're a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open-source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone.

The Role
Aiven is a global technology company providing an open-source data and AI platform across all major clouds. Our platform empowers businesses to stream, store, and analyze data in multi-cloud environments with speed, security, and scalability. As an Enterprise Account Executive for the UKI and BeNeLux region, you will drive strategic growth by acquiring new enterprise customers and expanding relationships within our existing large accounts ($500M revenue). This is a high-impact, quota-carrying role focused on new logo acquisition, growing usage over baseline, and increasing customer commitments in one of Aiven's most important markets.

• Lead the full sales cycle from initial outreach and value proposition through negotiation and closing.
• Account Expansion: Once acquired, grow revenue within customers by uncovering new use cases, upselling additional Aiven services, and increasing commitments beyond baseline usage. Develop strategic account and demand plans to maximise value for both the client and Aiven.
• Executive Stakeholder Engagement: Build trusted relationships at the C-suite and VP level, as well as with leaders in development, DevOps, and product management. Challenge the status quo of customers' current data infrastructure and inspire a vision for how Aiven's platform can drive better business outcomes.
• Become an expert in Aiven's platform and the open-source technologies we offer (Kafka, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, Clickhouse and more). Articulate the business value of our multi-cloud data and AI platform in terms of agility, cost efficiency, and time-to-market improvements.
• MEDDPICC Sales Process: Rigorously qualify opportunities using the MEDDPICC framework to ensure a high-quality pipeline. Accurately forecast and execute on quarterly and annual sales plans. Manage complex sales cycles with a disciplined, metrics-driven approach to qualification, value demonstration, and closing deals.
• Market Insight & Strategy: Stay informed on industry trends in cloud, data infrastructure, and the UKI & BeNeLux enterprise market. Represent Aiven at regional industry events and conferences to build brand awareness as needed.
• Consistently meet and exceed your sales quotas and KPIs. Take full ownership of your territory and accounts, leveraging Aiven's high-performance sales culture and resources to deliver results and grow our presence in the region.

Enterprise Sales Excellence: 5–10+ years of success in enterprise SaaS or cloud infrastructure sales, selling complex technical solutions to large organizations. President's Club or top 10% performer.

• Strategic Deal Maker: Demonstrated ability to close complex, consultative deals with long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders. Comfortable challenging customers' thinking (in a professional, insightful manner) to guide them toward better solutions, in line with the Challenger Sales methodology.
• Hands-on experience with MEDDIC/MEDDPICC or similar sales frameworks, and adept at using structured qualification in your sales process. Able to maintain Command of the Message, communicating value and differentiation clearly at every stage of the sales cycle.
• A strong understanding of the value of data and the importance of the data journey in delivering tangible business value to organisations. Experience in the data and technology landscape is essential, with familiarity with open-source data infrastructure, cloud services, and developer platforms being a strong preference. You can credibly discuss technical concepts and align them with business outcomes, bridging conversations between engineering teams and executives.
• Executive Presence & Communication: Able to engage in consultative discussions with C-level executives and simplify complex ideas into compelling narratives.
• High-Performance Mindset: A self-driven, entrepreneurial approach with the discipline to thrive in a high-performance, high-growth culture.

Education & Training: Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required. Ongoing professional development (e.g. sales training certifications) is a plus, reflecting a commitment to honing your craft.

Global Benefits: Our global benefits are designed to help you thrive and grow, personally and professionally: Balance work and life with our hybrid work policy. Use your Professional Development Plan budget for learning opportunities. Receive holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program. Inquire about our Global Time Off Commitment (Parental and Sick Leave, as well as Personal Time). Enjoy country-specific benefits for our global cast.

Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment. At Aiven we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace.