Cybersecurity·Seed·San Francisco, California

Founding Account Executive (240K OTE)

at PromptArmor — Cybersecurity

Location

San Francisco, California

Salary

$120,000

Type

Full-Time

TL;DR

Sources and owns pipelines end-to-end
Sold to $1B+ enterprises
Technical product sales; no PLG or SMB sellers

About PromptArmor

PromptArmor is an AI security company founded by Shankar Krishnan and Vikram Jayanthi, two threat researchers who met on their first day of CS at UC Berkeley. They spent years finding vulnerabilities in AI applications and agents, publishing some of the earliest agent-specific security research, and then built a platform that finds these new risks at scale. Today PromptArmor gives enterprise security and risk teams frontier intelligence on the entire agent supply chain, from AI vendors and models to the skills, connectors and plugins their agents rely on. Backed by Y Combinator (W24) and based in San Francisco, PromptArmor works with some of the largest enterprises in America across insurance, financial services, healthcare and law, which are industries where getting AI risk wrong isn’t an option. De-risking AI adoption has become a top priority for nearly every large company, and PromptArmor is growing quickly to meet that demand with a lean team of researchers, engineers and former founders.

promptarmor.com

Website

Seed • 11 – 50

Stage & size

Cybersecurity

Industry

2023

Founded

About This Role

Shankar is one of only two closers, and he is still personally fielding top of funnel. Marketing staff are taking and closing sales calls. Inbound and outbound demand already exceed what the team can work, so revenue is being left on the table and the founder is pulled away from hiring. This is the hire that frees him. The founding AE owns all new pipeline and gives Shankar time back for recruiting and company building.

Day to day, the AE runs full-cycle enterprise deals into Fortune-scale buyers. ACVs range from six to seven figures, and cycles run from three weeks to nine months, with an average around 2.5 to 3.5 months. The AE should also be hungry enough to source their own pipeline. The single most important spike is a track record of personally running and closing deals with true enterprises, meaning companies doing $1B+ in revenue, ideally Fortune 50. Brand-driven or PLG-driven deal flow does not count.

What You’ll Own/Do

Own all new-logo opportunities from first call to signature.
Run complex multi-stakeholder enterprise cycles with security, risk, and procurement teams.
Source your own pipeline alongside the inbound and SDR-booked meetings.
Build the repeatable enterprise sales motion as the first dedicated AE.
Feed customer and market signals back to the founders and the product team.

Requirements

Technical

Has sold a technical product such as security, observability, developer tools or infrastructure.
A technical degree is not required.
Must be able to hold credible conversations with security buyers.

Execution & Ownership

Non-zero years of closing experience.
Has personally run deals end to end rather than supporting them.
Willing to self-source.

Background

Experience selling to companies with over $1B in revenue.
Enterprise sales first, technical product second, cybersecurity third.

Location & Visa

SF in-person.
Must be authorized to work in the US.
No visa sponsorship.

Nice-to-Have

Has sold into insurance, financial services or healthcare.
Has been a founding or early AE at a startup.

Who Will Thrive Here

An enterprise closer who wants ownership rather than a territory.
Comfortable with a founder-led, high-autonomy culture, technical buyers and wide deal-size variance.
Urge to build the motion rather than inherit a playbook

Job Details

Experience

1-7 Years

Salary

$120,000

Equity

0% - 0%

Visa Sponsorship

Employment Type

Full-Time

Work Arrangement

In office

Work Intensity

9-9-6

Benefits & Perks

No benefits listed yet.

Green Flags

Explains deal mechanics in detail, including stakeholders, blockers and how procurement was navigated.

Has had a quick win alongside a long-cycle win, which matches the 3-week to 9-month range.

Has sourced their own enterprise logos.

Red Flags

Enterprise numbers that came from brand pull or heavy inbound with no evidence of personal deal ownership.

Only PLG, SMB or mid-market experience.

Only non-technical products.

Candidate scorecard

· 4 criteria

Has closed deals with companies doing $1B+ in revenue

Has sold a technical product

Non-zero years in a quota-carrying closing role