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CareerVillage.org · 5 days ago

Founding Account Executive

United States

Full-time

Remote

Mid, Senior Level

$95K/yr - $105K/yr

6+ years exp

CareerVillage.org is a fast-scaling tech-startup-style nonprofit focused on education, equity, and technology. They are seeking a Founding Account Executive to lead business development efforts, design a scalable go-to-market strategy, and drive partnerships that enhance their AI-powered career navigation tool, Coach.

EducationNon Profit

No H1B

Responsibilities

Own top deals: Lead discovery, demo, negotiation, and contracting for high-value partnerships that anchor our GTM strategy

Build and manage the pipeline: Oversee outreach, qualification, and forecasting. Maintain strong Salesforce discipline and ensure consistent visibility into performance metrics, with a focus on growing the number of active partner deployments and learners using Coach through those partners

Spearhead the sales motion: Set weekly cadences, coach on discovery and objection handling, and model commercial excellence through hands-on selling

Integrate AI and automation: Leverage AI to improve productivity, accelerate research, and test new approaches to prospecting and engagement

Run rapid market experiments: testing segments, messaging, target profiles, and partnership models, then codify what works into clear, repeatable playbooks that reveal where the strongest traction exists

Collaborate cross-functionally: Partner with Product, Engineering, and Impact teams to feed insights from the field back into the roadmap, messaging, and evidence-building

Measure and optimize performance: Track conversion, cycle time, CAC, ROI, and scale metrics such as partners launched and active learners per deployment. Use data to guide resourcing and prioritize opportunities

Drive GTM strategy: Help define market segmentation, ICPs, pricing logic, and value propositions across key buyer segments (job training, higher ed, corporate L&D). You’ll help decide where we bet next (by segment) and design experiments to prove or disprove those bets

Guide/Develop assets: Partner with Impact and Marketing to create early case studies, ROI models, and success narratives that drive credibility and scale

Qualification

Business DevelopmentGo-to-Market StrategySalesforce ProficiencyAI IntegrationData AnalysisMission AlignmentCross-Segment FluencyLeadership

Required

Have previous startup experience (ideally early stage but at a company you brought above $1M ARR)

6-8 years of hands-on execution style experience in business development, partnerships, or sales, ideally in the tech sector or the workforce innovation

Experience as an entrepreneurial sales leader with past experience as a zero-to-one or founding account executive, skilled at experimenting across markets to find traction and shape our go-to-market path

Proven ability to experiment across markets with a builder's mindset, shaping and refining GTM systems in ambiguous, high-opportunity environments where no finished playbook exists

Commercial rigor: you can talk pipeline math, pricing, payback periods, and win rates with confidence

Accountability for hard numbers: you've previously been on the hook for concrete targets (e.g., deals closed, accounts launched, or users activated)

Technical fluency - you can demo AI products, discuss integrations or APIs with technical stakeholders, and translate technical features into business value

Data-informed storytelling - you pair narrative with measurable outcomes and know how to build referenceable pilots that scale

Mission alignment - you care about equity, career mobility, & using tech for social impact

Preferred

Have experience building partnerships in the workforce, learning, or tech ecosystems, but please do not hesitate to apply if you do not have direct experience in these sectors

Cross-segment fluency - you're comfortable pivoting between higher ed, tech partners, corporate L&D, and job training providers

Have run pilots that moved from discovery to expansion, or built early revenue engines in growth-stage organizations

Bring consulting, sales ops, or RevOps experience that strengthens your ability to design systems, not just execute them

Leadership - you've hired, coached, or managed BDRs or AEs, and built a performance-oriented, learning-driven culture. You're excited to help hire and shape a small, high-output BD pod here