Account Director, Commercial

Openai
New York, NY
HybridCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Best suited to experienced sales professionals with consultative and technical acumen working in the commercial and SMB domain, with a preference for in-office work in New York City.

Best fit for

  • Experienced sales professionals with consultative and technical selling capabilities in commercial and SMB segments
    — “We are looking for an Account Director to own customer relationships and the commercial process across the SMB segment
  • Candidates who excel in translating complex technical products into business value for diverse stakeholders
    — “communicate the value of complex technical products clearly and credibly to both business and technical audiences

Things to consider

  • Requires in-office presence for three days per week in New York City
    — “hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week
  • Occasional travel is expected, which may affect work-life balance
    — “Occasional travel will be required

How to stand out

  • Highlight consultative selling experience with technical products in your resume and interview responses
    — “combine consultative selling, technical curiosity, and disciplined execution
  • Demonstrate your ability to develop repeatable sales processes and systems
    — “developing new systems, processes, and ways of working, then executing them with precision
  • Showcase your track record of meeting revenue targets and managing sales pipelines effectively
    — “demonstrated track record of meeting or exceeding revenue targets
  • Emphasize your experience in engaging with C-suite stakeholders and managing complex sales cycles
    — “build trust with senior executives and are comfortable navigating conversations with C-suite stakeholders
  • Demonstrate your ability to synthesize customer and market insights for internal strategy improvements
    — “bring customer and market insights back to the organization to help improve our products
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • managing commercial opportunities
  • developing account strategies
Typical background
software sales experienceclosing experience

Skills & requirements

Required

SalesConsultative SellingTechnical CuriosityPipeline ManagementCustomer Relationship Management

Preferred

AI Knowledge

Stack & domain

Commercial SalesTechnical SellingCustomer Relationship ManagementProduct OnboardingTechnical CuriositySales MotionMarket InsightsLeadershipCommunicationProblem-solvingTeam ManagementAISoftware

About the role

Original posting from Openai via Ashby

About the Team

The Commercial Sales team helps growing businesses adopt OpenAI’s products and translate emerging AI capabilities into meaningful business outcomes. We work with customers across industries and use cases, helping them evaluate, deploy, and expand their use of ChatGPT and the OpenAI API.

Our team partners closely with Growth, Product, Finance, Legal, Revenue Operations, and other cross-functional teams to create a high-quality customer experience and build a scalable commercial sales motion.

About the Role

We are looking for an Account Director to own customer relationships and the commercial process across the SMB segment, from initial discovery through close and expansion.

This is a fast-moving, high-ownership role that combines consultative selling, technical curiosity, and disciplined execution. You will build and manage pipeline, help customers connect their business priorities to OpenAI’s products, and navigate technical, commercial, and executive stakeholders throughout the buying process.

You will also play an important role in shaping how OpenAI serves commercial customers by sharing market insights, improving our sales motion, and helping the team build repeatable approaches that support responsible and successful adoption.

This role is based in New York NY. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. Occasional travel will be required.

In this role, you will:

  • Own commercial opportunities from qualification through close, onboarding, and expansion.
  • Build and manage a healthy pipeline across inbound, outbound, and existing customer opportunities.
  • Lead thoughtful discovery conversations and translate customer priorities into compelling use cases for ChatGPT and the OpenAI API.
  • Develop trusted relationships with business, technical, and executive stakeholders throughout the customer organization.
  • Navigate complex commercial processes in partnership with internal teams, including Product, Finance, Legal, Growth, and Revenue Operations.
  • Maintain accurate pipeline and forecasts while consistently working toward revenue and adoption goals.
  • Identify expansion opportunities and develop account strategies that increase the value customers realize from OpenAI’s products.
  • Bring customer and market insights back to the organization to help improve our products, programs, and SMB sales motion.
  • Contribute to the systems, processes, and playbooks needed to scale a high-performing commercial sales organization.

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Have 5+ years of relevant software sales experience, and at least 3+ years of closing experience, including ownership of SMB, mid-market, or commercial sales cycles.
  • Have a demonstrated track record of meeting or exceeding revenue targets.
  • Bring strong discovery, qualification, pipeline-generation, and account-planning skills.
  • Can communicate the value of complex technical products clearly and credibly to both business and technical audiences.
  • Build trust with senior executives and are comfortable navigating conversations with C-suite stakeholders.
  • Are deeply customer-centric and motivated to understand customers’ priorities, challenges, and vision for adopting AI.
  • Operate with high ownership and sound judgment in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.
  • Are a builder who enjoys developing new systems, processes, and ways of working, then executing them with precision.
  • Approach unfamiliar or multidimensional problems with curiosity and energy.
  • Are willing to experiment, learn quickly, and adapt your approach based on customer and market feedback.
  • Bring exceptional communication, collaboration, and organizational skills.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Source: Openai careers (Ashby)

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