Account Executive

CIQ OVERVIEW

CIQ builds the enterprise infrastructure that powers the world's most demanding workloads. From the operating system layer through AI infrastructure, high-performance computing, and cloud-native orchestration, CIQ delivers the speed, security, scalability, and sovereignty that major enterprises, government agencies, and research institutions depend on.

CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the developer of the RLC Pro family of Enterprise Linux distributions, Fuzzball workload orchestration, Warewulf Pro cluster provisioning, and Ascender Pro automation. Our customers include some of the largest and most technically sophisticated organizations in the world, working across HPC, AI/ML, defense, and regulated industries.

We are a company of builders, operators, and open source practitioners. If you want to do work that matters, at a company that is genuinely changing how enterprise infrastructure gets built and run, we want to talk.

Must be located on the West Coast, California preferred. 

The Account Executive - West is an individual contributor role responsible for driving new business and expanding CIQ's footprint across a named account territory on the West Coast (CA and broader Western US, as assigned). This role owns the full sales cycle on assigned accounts, from prospecting through close.

Key Responsibilities

Quota Carriage & Sales Execution

• Carry a full individual quota on named accounts within the West territory.
• Run personal outbound/inbound qualification motion; source, advance, and close opportunities end-to-end.
• Maintain 3-5x pipeline coverage against quota; keep MEDDPICC current on every active deal.
• Negotiate agreements and manage the full sales cycle from prospecting to a signed deal.

Pipeline & Forecasting

• Build and maintain a healthy, accurately staged pipeline against quarterly quota.
• Submit a weekly forecast with commit/upside/downside discipline.
• Maintain HubSpot hygiene on all opportunities (stage, next step, close date, MEDDPICC fields).

Methodology & Account Strategy

• Apply the MEDDPICC framework to every qualified opportunity.
• Build and own account plans for top accounts in the territory; multi-thread within key accounts.
• Partner with the Regional Sales Director on territory and account tiering (T1/T2/T3).

Cross-Functional

• Provide feedback to Marketing on ICP, messaging, and content gaps based on field conversations.
• Partner with Sales Engineering on technical discovery and POC execution.
• Represent CIQ at regional industry events and customer engagements as needed.

NEEDED TO SUCCEED

Successful candidates will have: 

• 3-5+ years of B2B enterprise sales experience selling infrastructure/software into North American enterprise accounts.
• Consistent quota attainment (≥100%) across multiple years.
• Working knowledge of MEDDPICC, MEDDIC, Challenger, or an equivalent sales methodology.
• Hands-on experience with HubSpot or Salesforce for forecasting, pipeline management, and deal hygiene.
• Experience selling software, SaaS, infrastructure, or open-source-adjacent commercial offerings to IT/engineering buyers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience at enterprise infrastructure / open-source companies.
• Familiarity with Linux, HPC, AI infrastructure, or DevOps/cloud-native ecosystems.
• Existing network among West Coast enterprise IT, HPC, or AI infrastructure buyers.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Orange County, CA; comfortable with a field-based role and regular in-market customer travel.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Remote role; home-based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Orange County, CA.
• Regular in-person meetings with prospects and customers across the West territory; travel as required.
• Standard CIQ tooling: HubSpot, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Zoom, Slack.

BENEFITS

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• Flexible paid time off.

• Employee stock options.

• Remote work; no travel required for most positions.