Founding Account Executive
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At a glance
Job overview
Consensus is hiring a Founding Account Executive. Consensus is building an AI workspace for research, serving millions of students, researchers, and clinicians. The founding Account Executive will shape sales strategy, work closely with leadership, and influence product development as the company scales its next growth phase.
Key focus areas include Work with high-intent institutions from first meeting through trial, procurement, close, renewal, and expansion, Generate pipeline through outbound outreach using product signals and market research, and Lead pricing and packaging conversations for large opportunities.
Successful candidates bring 3-5+ Years In B2B Sales. Important skills include B2B Sales, Managing And Closing Deals With Multiple Stakeholders, Prospecting, Building Pipeline Independently, Strong Judgment, and High Ownership. Preferred (not required): Selling Into Universities, Selling Into Healthcare, Selling Into Corporate R&D, and Selling Into Research Institutions.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Full job description
About Consensus:
Consensus is building the OS for research. Today, our AI workspace serves 10M+ students, researchers, and clinicians, accelerating their work across the entire research life cycle, from literature review to identifying research gaps, writing manuscripts, peer review, and more.
We closed our Series B in May '26 and have raised $45M in venture capital to date from USV, Greatpoint Ventures, and Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross. Consensus is used daily by researchers at the world's top institutions like Pfizer, NASA, Harvard, and Stanford, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Nature as one of today's most exciting and important AI startups.
Our mission is to empower the world to understand, create, and apply good science. Help us build the future of research
Role:
As the team’s founding AE, you’ll play a key role in taking our sales motion to the next level. You’ll work closely with the Head of GTM and Co-founders to have meaningful influence on how we sell, how we tell the Consensus story, and how we shape the product as we enter our next phase of growth.
What you’ll do:
- Work with high-intent institutions from first meeting through trial, procurement, close, renewal, and expansion.
- Generate a meaningful share of your own pipeline through outbound, using product signals, market research, and current successes to identify where Consensus has a strong right to win.
- Lead pricing and packaging conversations for our largest opportunities, helping customers understand the value of Consensus across their teams, campuses, or organizations.
- Research target personas and segments, build repeatable sales and trial playbooks, and translate learnings into scalable processes as the team grows.
- Stay close to customers and prospects so we can better understand what the market is asking for — and bring those insights back into product, positioning and strategy.
- Represent Consensus with credibility and care at events and in markets where trust, evidence, and scientific rigor matter.
Who you are:
- You’re a builder who thrives in early-stage environments where the playbook is still being written, and you want to directly shape how the company sells.
- 3-5+ years in B2B sales, with experience managing and closing deals involving multiple stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to prospect and build pipeline independently. This role is for someone who wants to create opportunity, not just manage it.
- You bring strong judgment, high ownership, and a bias toward action. You move quickly, communicate clearly, and know when to pull in help.
- You're comfortable with AI tools and already weave them into your daily workflows and sales process.
- Bonus if you have experience selling into universities, healthcare, corporate R&D, research institutions, AI products, or PLG/trial-led motions.
Compensation:
- $220,000 -$260,000 OTE (base + commission) depending on experience and location
- Meaningful early stage equity
Location:
- Located in or willing to relocate to San Francisco, CA (other major metros considered for exceptional candidates)
You've read the whole posting — now see how you match it.