Founding Account Executive, Talent Solutions - Startups

ABOUT MERCOR Mercor's mission is to organize human intelligence to power the AI economy. We partner with leading AI labs and enterprises to provide the human intelligence essential to AI development. Our vast talent network trains frontier AI models in the same way teachers teach students: by sharing knowledge, experience, and context that can't be captured in code alone. Today, more than 30,000 experts in our network collectively earn over $3 million a day. Mercor is creating a new category of work where expertise powers AI advancement. Achieving this requires an ambitious, fast-paced and deeply committed team. You’ll work alongside researchers, operators, and AI companies at the forefront of shaping the systems that are redefining society. Mercor is a profitable Series C company valued at $10 billion. We work in-person five days a week in our San Francisco, NYC, or London offices. About the Role We are building the definitive talent infrastructure for top-tier enterprises. As our Startup Account Executive, you will own the relationship with venture-backed tech companies and growth-stage startups that need world-class engineering, research, and technical talent deployed fast. Your buyers are CTOs, VPs of Engineering, Heads of AI, and technical founders who evaluate vendors on talent quality, speed to deploy, and technical credibility. You will be a one-person revenue engine: building pipeline, running discovery, presenting solutions, negotiating terms, and ensuring successful account launches. What You Will Do - Own and drive new business for Mercor. Find your way to the right people at prospective customers, educate them about AI-powered recruiting solutions, and help them succeed. You'll own the full sales cycle, from first call to close - Run a high-velocity outbound motion and build the pipeline through the AI/tech startup ecosystem: VC networks, founder communities, Twitter/X, GitHub, conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, YC Demo Day) - Manage rapid sales cycles (1-4 weeks): qualify, demo, propose, close - Speak the language of technical buyers: understand ML infrastructure, cloud, engineering org design, and talent market dynamics - Develop startup-specific packaging: flexible engagement models, pilot programs, and ramp-based pricing - Become a visible presence in the AI/tech talent community through content, events, and thought leadership - Feed market intelligence back to Product and Delivery What You Bring - 4-7 years of quota-carrying sales experience in SaaS, developer tools, tech marketplaces, or tech-enabled talent platforms - Track record of selling to CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and technical founders - Experience at a high-growth startup or as an early sales hire (employee #1-30) - Genuine curiosity and fluency in technology, especially AI/ML: can discuss fine-tuning, inference costs, GPU clusters, and engineering team scaling - Strong personal network in the tech/AI startup ecosystem - Bias toward speed: default urgency in everything - Bachelor's degree in a technical or business field; CS or engineering background a plus Compensation & Benefits: - Competitive salary and commission earning potential + meaningful equity - Medical, dental, and vision coverage - 401(k) - Monthly meal stipend - Excellent in-office culture Compensation - OTE: $150,000 - $250,000 - Offers commission - Offers Equity - Currently only hiring in San Francisco