Founding Account Executive, Southern Europe

The Role
We're building local Enterprise Sales Pods across global markets — one AE and one Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), working together to build a Telnyx enterprise business in Southern Europe. This is not a remote overlay on an existing territory. You will own a named-account list of 30–40 enterprise accounts across Italy, Greece, and Spain, and your job is to turn those accounts into production Telnyx customers.
You'll work side-by-side with a dedicated FDE — not a demo resource, but a technical partner who designs architectures, builds POCs, and gets the first workload live. You win together. No throw-over-the-wall.
This is a founding role. You'll help define how Telnyx sells into enterprise accounts across Southern Europe, set the playbook, and build the references that the next wave of hires will follow.
The Pod Model
Enterprise AE — owns the named-account list, builds executive relationships, gets in the room, owns commercial qualification and close, expands the account. 
Forward Deployed Engineer — owns technical discovery, designs the architecture, builds the POC when gated, gets the first workload live, removes blockers and finds the next workload.
We sell the workload, not the SKU. Customers buy a production outcome — an AI contact center, a SOC/NOC agent, global communications, connected mobility, or enterprise inference — that runs on Telnyx primitives (voice, messaging, numbers, wireless, Voice AI, inference, agents, connectivity). You lead with the outcome conversation, not a product menu.
What You'll Do
• Own a territory of 30–40 named enterprise accounts across Italy, Greece, and Spain, narrowing to ~10 Tier 1 accounts worth $1M+ in annual potential
• Build executive relationships — get in the room with CIOs, CTOs, VP Engineering, and line-of-business owners
• Run the full sales cycle: prospect, qualify, design the commercial architecture with your FDE, negotiate, and close
• Sell production outcomes, not individual products — lead with "let's deploy an AI agent that operates your SOC or NOC workflow," not "which Telnyx products do you want?"
• Agree the commercial destination before any custom work begins — no free discovery or free development
• Maintain disciplined POC management: every POC has a named executive sponsor, written success criteria, production pricing discussed, a decision date, and a signed commercial document. POCs end in production or they end
• Expand the account — one workload becomes three, one $500K customer becomes a $2M customer
• Build local references and case studies across Milan, Madrid, and Athens
• Provide accurate pipeline reporting and forecasting — no surprises
What We're Looking For
• 5+ years of enterprise sales experience selling into Southern European markets — CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS, telecom, AI/ML, or similarly technical infrastructure
• Proven track record of consistently exceeding quota ($1M+ deals)
• Experience selling to both executive and technical buyers — you can hold your own in the boardroom and in the architecture review
• Hunter mentality — you build your own pipeline and thrive on outbound, in-person selling
• Strong consultative selling skills: can build a clear, compelling ROI story for both technical and business buyers
• Familiarity with sales methodologies (MEDDPICC, Challenger, SPIN, etc.)
• Comfortable with modern sales tools (Salesforce, Outreach, Gong, etc.)
• Excellent written and verbal communication in Italian, Spanish, and English. You listen before you pitch.
• Willingness to be in the field — visiting customers in person is a core part of this role
• Based in Milan, or willing to relocate — this is a hybrid role with travel across Italy, Spain, and Greece
Bonus Points For
• Fortune 500 or large enterprise new business sales experience in Italy, Spain, or Greece

• Complex sales cycles including RFPs, POCs, and competitive bake-offs
• C-Level selling experience — you can navigate procurement, security, and legal complexity, including Italian enterprise groups (Eni, Enel, Telecom Italia, Intesa Sanpaolo, Generali), Spanish enterprises (Telefónica, Banco Santander, Iberdrola, Repsol, Indra), and Greek enterprises (OTE, Alpha Bank, Eurobank, OTE Group)
• Understanding of SIP trunking, phone number provisioning, carrier networks, or AI/ML platforms
• Established relationships in the Milan enterprise ecosystem — fintech, manufacturing, luxury/retail, telecom, or BPO/contact center
• Greek language skills for the Athens market
• Experience selling across multiple Southern European markets with different regulatory and procurement environments