Inside Account Executive in Manchester

A lot of inside sales roles ask you to send emails, hit call targets, and hand off anything interesting to someone else. This is not one of those roles. Our business focuses on building trust and high quality customer engagements. This role represents our business and our values front and centre.

CloudGuard's Inside Account Executive is a high-impact, high-visibility commercial role at the front of our growth engine. You will be the first point of contact for organisations we want to work with, helping them understand where their real cyber security risk lies, what good looks like, how to navigate and secure Agentic and AI led workflows and capabilities and why CloudGuard is the partner that helps them get there.

You will work alongside our Account Executives across the UK, Ireland, Nordics, and Benelux, identifying intent, originating qualified pipeline, and earning revenue share on every deal that closes from an opportunity you found. Based on your performance, you will be a regional or vertical AE within 18 months. That is not a maybe. That is the plan with our support.

ABOUT CLOUDGUARD

CloudGuard is an industry-leading MSSP and recognised authority in AI security and best practices. We exist to close the Security Confidence Gap, the dangerous distance between how protected organisations believe they are and the reality of their actual security posture. Built on deep Microsoft security specialisation and human-led operations, we deliver enterprise-grade protection to SMB and mid-market clients across the UK, Ireland, and Europe. We are PE-backed, growing fast, and serious about building a team of people who are as energised by winning as they are by doing things the right way. Security Done Different is not just a tagline. It is how we approach every client relationship, with honesty, expertise, and a genuine commitment to improving their security maturity over time.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Intent Identification & Outbound Origination: Use intent data, digital signals, news triggers, industry knowledge and company intelligence to identify organisations showing buying intent or facing cyber security challenges. Build and execute multi-channel outbound sequences, email, phone, LinkedIn, events, and social, to engage target accounts across UK, Ireland, and European markets. Research accounts deeply before reaching out, understanding their sector, size, technology stack, and likely security posture before the first contact. Qualify interest rapidly and accurately, passing well-qualified meetings and opportunities to regional Account Executives with full context and handover notes.
• Pipeline Support & AE Collaboration: Work in close partnership with Account Executives to support active deals, research, account mapping, stakeholder identification, and proposal support. Own your pipeline metrics, meetings booked, opportunities originated, conversion rates, and revenue share earned. Maintain accurate, up-to-date records in the CRM. Your data is your business. Own it. Participate in regular deal reviews, pipeline calls, and team sessions, contributing insight and energy to collective performance.
• Education, Trust Building & Positioning: Lead with education, not pitch, help prospects understand where their cyber security gaps are before positioning CloudGuard as the answer. Use CloudGuard's thought leadership content, assessment frameworks, and Security Done Different narrative to build credibility and trust at first contact. Position the Security Confidence Gap authentically, helping organisations recognise the distance between their perceived and actual security maturity. Represent CloudGuard professionally and confidently across all channels, every interaction shapes how the market perceives us.
• Learning & Development: Engage fully with the CloudGuard Academy programme, structured learning across sales nurturing, critical problem solving, security positioning, sales methodology, and Microsoft security. Actively seek feedback from AEs, the Sales & Marketing Team Leader, pre-sales and businesses, treating every interaction as a development and learning opportunity. Build your own vertical or regional knowledge base over the 18-month programme, identifying where your strengths create the most value for the business. Contribute to improving the outbound playbooks, sharing what works, what doesn't, and what the market is telling you.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are hiring for energy, potential, and team contributor as much as pure experience. If you are an early-career sales professional with a hunger to build a serious commercial career in cybersecurity, we want to hear from you. If you are an experienced SDR/BDR or inside sales professional ready to take a step up in a genuinely exciting sector, this is the role.

• High energy and genuine curiosity, you want to understand the problems organisations face, not just read from a script.
• Strong written and verbal communication, you can hold a conversation with a CISO or an IT manager and be credible in both.
• Resilience and self-motivation, inside sales is tough. You know that and embrace it.
• Organised and data-driven, you track your own metrics, keep your CRM clean, and know what is working.
• A genuine interest in cyber security, you do not need to be a technical expert, but you need to care about the subject matter.
• Comfortable working across multiple markets and time zones, our target geographies span UK through Nordics.
• Collaborative by instinct, you make the AEs around you better, not just yourself.
• Coachable and hungry for feedback, you treat the Academy seriously as a development programme, not just a job.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, we are a growth-stage business. Things move fast and sometimes change. You are energised by that, not frustrated.
• Manchester-based or willing to relocate, the office is where the energy is, even with hybrid flexibility.

Advantageous but not required:

• Previous B2B sales or SDR experience in technology, SaaS, or professional services.
• Familiarity with Microsoft 365, Azure, or security tooling.
• Understanding of the cyber security landscape, frameworks, common threats, compliance drivers.
• Experience using intent data platforms, sales engagement tools, or CRM systems (Zoho, Sales Navigator, LinkedIn, cybersecurity groups).
• A second European language relevant to regional markets would be very advantageous.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Base salary: Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, full details shared with shortlisted candidates.
• Revenue share: Uncapped revenue share paid on all opportunities you originate that close. The more you find, the more you earn.
• Performance: Performance related payments with target achievement.
• Benefits: Private healthcare, pension, life assurance, training and support.
• Academy pathway: Structured progression to Regional or Vertical AE within 18 months, your earning potential grows significantly on promotion.

LIFE AT CLOUDGUARD

We are a team of people who take security seriously and have genuine fun doing it. We are small enough that your contribution is visible and matters. We are growing fast enough that the opportunities are real. Manchester is our home. We are also based in Belfast. Our office is where ideas get tested, tuned, learning gets done, and the team gets built. Remote working is supported, but this is not a fully remote role. We believe in being together, and the Academy works best when you are close to the people you are learning from. We are direct, hard-working and honest. We are building an amazing business together and this is an exceptional opportunity to be part of the startup Guardian culture seeing the business grow rapidly. We back the people who back the mission. If that sounds like your kind of environment, we would love to talk.

HOW TO APPLY

Tell us why this role and why CloudGuard. We are not looking for a long cover letter, a short (no more than one side of A4), direct note (you can use AI but make sure you do it differently!!) that shows you understand what we do, why the Academy opportunity excites you, and what you bring to the team is more powerful than three pages of generic enthusiasm. Please also include your CV. We review applications on a rolling basis. If you look like a strong fit, we will be in touch quickly, typically within 5 working days. CloudGuard is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and welcome applications from all backgrounds.