hero

Build with us.

Explore early-stage opportunities at our innovative data and infrastructure portfolio companies.
Essence VC
companies
Jobs

Account Executive - AI-Native

Modal Labs

Modal Labs

Sales & Business Development, Software Engineering, Data Science
New York, NY, USA
USD 180k-180k / year + Equity
Posted on Sep 23, 2025

Location

New York

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department

GTM

Compensation

  • OTE $180K • Offers Equity

About Us:

Modal is building the serverless compute platform to support the next generation of AI companies. In order to deliver the developer experience we wanted, we went deep and built our own infrastructure—including our own custom file system , container runtime, scheduler, container image builder, and much more.

We're a small team based out of New York, Stockholm and San Francisco. In just one year, we've reached 8-figure revenue, tripled our headcount, scaled to support thousands of GPUs, and raised over $32M in funding.

Working at Modal means joining one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure organizations at an early stage, with many opportunities to grow within the company. Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g. Seaborn, Luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.

The Role:

We’re hiring an Account Executive focused on AI-native startups. In this role, you’ll partner directly with founders, ML engineers, and product leaders who are building the next generation of companies that will define the industry. You’ll own relationships with high-growth startups, helping them adopt our platform from the earliest stages and scale into category-defining companies.

This is a high-impact role for someone who thrives in fast-moving environments, loves talking to builders, and wants to shape the go-to-market motion of one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure companies. You’ll be equally comfortable having a technical conversation with an engineer as you are helping a founder model out their GPU costs. In this role, you will:

  • Own and grow a portfolio of AI-native startup accounts, serving as their trusted advisor on scaling workloads

  • Identify, engage, and qualify new high-potential startups through outbound outreach, events, communities, and your own network

  • Lead technical and commercial conversations with founders and engineering teams, helping them evaluate Modal and get live quickly

  • Partner closely with our product and engineering teams to support POCs, unblock adoption, and influence roadmap based on startup feedback

  • Track account health and usage, ensuring customers expand successfully as they scale

  • Represent Modal at demo days, startup events, and online communities — building brand presence in the AI startup ecosystem

Requirements:

  • 2+ years of experience in sales, business development, customer success, or similar roles with technical buyers

  • Experience working with or selling to startups; genuine passion for the AI ecosystem

  • Strong communication skills with the ability to engage both founders and engineers

  • Technical curiosity — able to quickly learn and explain concepts around AI infrastructure, model deployment, and GPU compute

  • Resourceful and proactive: you thrive in ambiguity and love building relationships from scratch

  • Ability to work in-person from our office 5 days a week

Compensation Range: $180K