We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open-source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone.
The Role
Aiven is a global technology company providing an open-source data and AI platform across all major clouds. Our platform empowers businesses to stream, store, and analyze data in multi-cloud environments with speed, security, and scalability. As an Enterprise Account Executive for the Nordic region, you will drive strategic growth by acquiring new enterprise customers and expanding relationships within our existing large accounts (>$500M revenue). This is a high-impact, quota-carrying role focused on new logo acquisition, growing usage over baseline, and increasing customer commitments in one of Aiven’s most important markets.
In this role, you will engage C-level and senior stakeholders across both technical and business functions (e.g. CTO, CIO, VP Engineering, Head of Product). You’ll leverage Aiven’s proven sales methodologies – MEDDPICC qualification, the Challenger Sales approach, and Command of the Message – to manage complex sales cycles from prospecting to close. If you are a top-performing enterprise SaaS seller with a talent for outcome-based selling and executive engagement, and you’re excited about helping enterprises succeed with cutting-edge open-source data technologies, we want to hear from you.
What You'll Do:
- Drive New Business: Identify, target, and win new enterprise logos in the Nordic region, focusing on organizations with $500M+ in revenue. Lead the full sales cycle from initial outreach and value proposition through negotiation and closing.
- Expand Strategic Accounts: Grow revenue within existing enterprise customers by uncovering new use cases, upselling additional Aiven services, and increasing commitments beyond baseline usage. Develop strategic account and demand plans to maximize value for both the client and Aiven.
- Executive Stakeholder Engagement: Build trusted relationships at the C-suite and VP level, as well as with leaders in development, DevOps, and product management. Challenge the status quo of customers’ current data infrastructure and inspire a vision for how Aiven’s platform can drive better business outcomes.
- Solution Selling & Value Articulation: Become an expert in Aiven’s platform and the open-source technologies we offer (Kafka, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, Clickhouse and more). Articulate the business value of our multi-cloud data and AI platform in terms of agility, cost efficiency, and time-to-market improvements. Maintain a strong Command of the Message when conveying Aiven’s value proposition and differentiation.
- MEDDPICC Sales Process: Rigorously qualify opportunities using the MEDDPICC framework to ensure a high-quality pipeline. Accurately forecast and execute on quarterly and annual sales plans. Manage complex sales cycles with a disciplined, metrics-driven approach to qualification, value demonstration, and closing deals.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Marketing to generate pipeline, and partner with Solution Architects on technical validation and solution design for customers. Work closely with Product and Engineering to incorporate customer feedback, align on roadmap priorities, and ensure technical validation for complex solution designs.
- Market Insight & Strategy: Stay informed on industry trends in cloud, data infrastructure, and the Nordic enterprise market. Provide feedback to Aiven’s product and leadership teams on customer needs and competitive insights. Represent Aiven at regional industry events and conferences to build brand awareness as needed.
- Exceed Targets: Consistently meet and exceed your sales quotas and KPIs. Take full ownership of your territory and accounts, leveraging Aiven’s high-performance sales culture and resources to deliver results and grow our presence in the region.
What We're Looking For:
- Enterprise Sales Excellence: 5–10+ years of success in enterprise SaaS or cloud infrastructure sales, selling complex technical solutions to large organizations. A proven track record of overachievement against multimillion-dollar targets is required (e.g. President’s Club or top 10% performer).
- Strategic Deal Maker: Demonstrated ability to close complex, consultative deals with long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders. Experience engaging senior technical (CTO, VP Engineering, Architects) and business leaders, with an emphasis on solving strategic challenges rather than just pushing products.
- Outcome-Focused Challenger: Skilled in outcome-based selling – you focus on customers’ business objectives and pains, and tailor solutions to deliver measurable value. Comfortable challenging customers’ thinking (in a professional, insightful manner) to guide them toward better solutions, in line with the Challenger Sales methodology.
- MEDDPICC & Methodology Mastery: Hands-on experience with MEDDIC/MEDDPICC or similar sales frameworks, and adept at using structured qualification in your sales process. Able to maintain Command of the Message, communicating value and differentiation clearly at every stage of the sales cycle.
- Domain & Technical Acumen: A strong understanding of the value of data and the importance of the data journey in delivering tangible business value to organisations. Experience in the data and technology landscape is essential, with familiarity with open-source data infrastructure, cloud services, and developer platforms being a strong preference. You can credibly discuss technical concepts and align them with business outcomes, bridging conversations between engineering teams and executives.
- Executive Presence & Communication: Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills. Able to engage in consultative discussions with C-level executives and simplify complex ideas into compelling narratives. Fluent Swedish is required to serve the Swedish market.
- High-Performance Mindset: A self-driven, entrepreneurial approach with the discipline to thrive in a high-performance, high-growth culture. You take ownership of your results and also collaborate well within a global team. Experience in a fast-paced startup or scale-up environment is a plus.
- Education & Training: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required. Ongoing professional development (e.g. sales training certifications) is a plus, reflecting a commitment to honing your craft.
Don’t worry if your experience doesn’t line up perfectly – we still encourage everyone to apply. We believe in investing in our crabs’ professional growth.
Amazing! What’s next:
If you think Aiven is the place for you and that our Values align with yours, send us your resume and we’ll get in touch!
Global Benefits:
Our global benefits are designed to help you thrive and grow, personally and professionally:
- Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
- Balance work and life with our hybrid work policy.
- Choose the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
- Use your Professional Development Plan budget for learning opportunities.
- Receive holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.
- Inquire about our Global Time Off Commitment (Parental and Sick Leave, as well as Personal Time)
- Enjoy country-specific benefits for our global cast.
How to Recognize and Avoid Employment Scams:
There has been a rise in fake job postings used by scammers to get personal information. At Aiven, all of our emails relating to recruitment come from an @aiven.io, @greenhouse.io or @eu.greenhouse.io domain and all of our interviews are conducted by video call or in person. Our interviews will never occur via text or chat. If you’re unsure of the legitimacy of a job opportunity/offer pertaining to Aiven, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at recruitment@aiven.io.
Equal Opportunities:
Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.
At Aiven we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at recruitment@aiven.io.
