Account Executive - West Coast

Account Executive, Bay Area — AI & Agentic Security Operant AI | San Francisco Bay Area (Hybrid) | Account Executive About Operant AI Operant AI is the industry's most comprehensive real-time security platform for AI, Agents, and MCP. Recognized across six Gartner critical AI security reports — including AI TRiSM, MCP Gateways, API Protection, and Securing Custom-Built AI Agents — Operant is the category-defining company protecting the agentic AI era. Our platform delivers real-time discovery, detection, and defense across the full AI stack: LLM APIs, MCP servers and clients, autonomous agents, and the APIs they depend on. Founded by former Apple, VMware, and Google executives and backed by Felicis and SineWave Ventures, we're a fast-moving team on a mission to make AI innovation safe at scale. The Role We're looking for an Account Executive, West Coast based in the San Francisco Bay Area who lives at the intersection of cybersecurity and AI — someone who can walk into a CISO's office and talk prompt injection, and then walk into an AI platform team and talk agentic workflows and MCP tool poisoning. This is a quota-carrying, “roll up your sleeves,” field-oriented role selling Operant's AI Gatekeeper, MCP Gateway, and Agent Protector products to enterprise and high-growth tech companies across the Bay Area and broader West Coast. You will own the full sales cycle for your account list — from prospecting and discovery through technical validation and close — and will work closely with Solutions Engineering, Product, and Marketing to drive pipeline and revenue in your territory, while maintaining brand equity and customer trust by speaking expertly about the product and the industry with in-the-know buyers and teams who already have strong knowledge in the space. You should be able to clearly articulate the exceptional differentiation that Operant’s products provide in the market and operate with a shortened sales cycle that is in-line with the speed of the AI boom in SF (not a multi-year long traditional cyber sales cycle with multi-month long POCs) and cultivate and close highly qualified ICP leads, both inbound and outbound, who have already demonstrated urgency in filling open budget items and solving identified, critical security problems that are affecting their business-critical AI road maps, development, and growth goals. What You'll Do Own and grow a Bay Area-anchored territory, targeting enterprise security buyers across industries including tech, financial services, healthcare, and defense. Drive net-new ARR by identifying and closing opportunities for Operant's AI Gatekeeper, MCP Gateway, and Agent Protector solutions, as well as new solutions launching multiple times per quarter. The ability to quickly get up to speed on new product and feature launches is critical. Navigate complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles involving CISOs, AI/ML platform leads, security architects, and DevOps teams. Translate highly technical concepts — MCP security, agentic risk, runtime AI defense, non-human identity (NHI) controls — into clear business value for executive audiences. Partner with Solutions Engineers on technical deep-dives, POCs, and proof-of-value engagements, while still being able to converse at a technical level with technical CISO’s, VPs of engineering, and heads of AI who start first conversations with phrases like, “Don’t waste my time with marketing speak, just tell me if you can do x, y, or z and how long will it take.” You must be able to answer those questions yourself without passing it over immediately to a Sales Engineer. Develop and manage a healthy pipeline with accurate forecasting in CRM (Apollo, Hubspot). Represent Operant AI at Bay Area and West Coast conferences, industry events, and executive briefings. Collaborate with channel and alliance partners to expand reach and accelerate deals. What You Bring Experience 3-5 years of B2B sales experience, with a track record of closing enterprise cybersecurity