Key Account Director, North America

Aiven - The Trusted Data & AI Platform

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 become the trusted Data & AI Platform for everyone, leveraging the most popular open-source technologies like Apache Kafka®, PostgreSQL®, ClickHouse®, and OpenSearch® to help companies accelerate time-to-market, drive efficiency, and build innovative solutions across any cloud.

About this Team

Our Customer Growth team plays a crucial role in our growth and profitability. We want to be the trusted data platform for everyone – which, let's face it, is an ambitious target. But thanks to our dedicated sales, pre-sales, and post-sales teams we are growing fast.

Our customer-first philosophy: The software we create is merely a means of delivering value. Our thinking is customer-first. That's why our customers are at the front and center of all we do. We're by their side, actively helping them solve their challenges through collaboration, sharing, and innovation.

Our Crabby Principles

Aiveners use the V2MOM framework to set and align on business goals. In order to achieve those business goals we live by our 'Crabby Principles' which unite us in our ways of working, globally. These principles are embedded in our business processes and support us in collaborating and role modelling positive and productive behaviours in our daily work, something you will have the opportunity to demonstrate throughout your interview journey with us.

The Role

As Key Account Director, North America, you will own the commercial relationship and revenue growth for Aiven's 6 largest and most strategically complex accounts in the region. These accounts represent the highest-value customer relationships in North America and require a fundamentally different approach than velocity sales or standard enterprise account management.

This is a pure expansion role. You are not hunting new logos. You are responsible for net new expansion ARR by deepening penetration within accounts that already trust Aiven with critical data infrastructure. Your success will come from identifying new workloads, new business units, new use cases, and new stakeholders within organizations where we have proven value but untapped potential.

 

These accounts share common characteristics that define the role:

 

• Scale and complexity: Multi-thousand-person engineering organizations with distributed decision-making across business units, geographies, and technology domains
• Multiple stakeholders: No single buyer controls the relationship. You will navigate matrixed procurement, IT governance, platform teams, and line-of-business engineering leaders simultaneously
• Strategic growth vectors: Significant whitespace exists, new Aiven services (Kafka, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, OpenSearch, Valkey), new cloud regions, new business units, new workloads migrating from self-managed or competitive platforms
• Hyperscaler interdependence: These accounts have deep relationships with AWS, GCP, OCI and Azure. Your ability to engage hyperscaler field teams as force multipliers, not competitors directly impacts expansion velocity
• Consumption-based economics: Revenue scales with usage. Your job is to drive adoption that compounds over time, not to negotiate larger upfront commits that sit unused

 

This role requires someone who can operate at executive altitude while maintaining deal-level precision. You must be equally credible in a C-suite strategic review and a technical architecture discussion with a principal engineer. You will build multi-year account plans, but you will also inspect individual expansion opportunities with MEDDPICC rigor.

 

There are clear success metrics: Net new expansion ARR annually, 100% gross retention of the base, 3.5x qualified pipeline coverage against expansion targets, and ±10% forecast accuracy at commit.
You will maintain executive sponsor relationships at VP+ level in each account and develop documented account plans with identified whitespace, competitive displacement opportunities, and 12-month expansion roadmaps.

 

If you have managed strategic accounts at this scale, understand how to navigate complex enterprise organizations, and can drive expansion in a consumption-based model without relying on contractual lock-in we want to hear from you.

What You'll Do

Own Expansion Revenue Outcomes:

• Deliver net new expansion ARR annually across 6 named strategic accounts through new workloads, new services, new business units, and competitive displacement.
• Protect and retain existing ARR with 100% gross retention
• Build and maintain 3.5x qualified pipeline coverage against expansion targets using rigorous MEDDPICC standards for every opportunity.
• Achieve ±10% forecast accuracy at commit with evidence-based qualification 
• Drive consumption growth through adoption initiatives that expand usage of contracted services.

Build & Execute Strategic Account Plans:

• Develop 12-month account plans for each of the 6 accounts with documented whitespace analysis, stakeholder maps, competitive positioning, and prioritized expansion plays.
• Identify and qualify growth vectors: new Aiven services not yet deployed, new cloud regions, new business units, workloads on self-managed infrastructure, competitive displacement opportunities.
• Map organizational structure and decision-making authority across platform engineering, data engineering, infrastructure, DevOps, and line-of-business technology teams.
• Maintain living account intelligence: executive changes, organizational restructures, strategic initiatives, M&A activity, technology roadmap shifts that create expansion opportunities or retention risk.
• Present quarterly business reviews internally with account health assessment, pipeline status, risk register, and resource requirements.

Navigate Complex Enterprise Organizations:

• Build and maintain executive sponsor relationships at VP and C-level across each account ie CTO, VP Engineering, VP Platform, VP Data, CIO where relevant.
• Develop multi-threaded relationships across buying centers
• Engage procurement, legal, and vendor management proactively. 
• Identify and cultivate internal champions who will advocate for Aiven expansion within their organizations
• Navigate budget cycles, planning processes, and governance frameworks 

Orchestrate Hyperscaler Partnerships:

• Build relationships with AWS, GCP, and Azure field teams covering your accounts ie account executives, solution architects, partner managers.
• Position Aiven as a hyperscaler-aligned solution, not a competitor: we run on their clouds, we drive their consumption, we solve problems their native services don't address.
• Develop joint account plans with hyperscaler partners for accounts where cloud commitment or migration initiatives create Aiven expansion opportunities.
• Leverage hyperscaler co-sell motions, marketplace transactions, and partner funding where they accelerate deal velocity or improve customer economics.
• Identify accounts where committed cloud spend creates budget for managed services 

Execute with MEDDPICC Discipline:

• Qualify every expansion opportunity against MEDDPICC criteria
• Maintain complete opportunity documentation in Salesforce with evidence for each MEDDPICC element
• Forecast with evidence
• Run structured deal reviews 

Coordinate Cross-Functional Resources:

• Direct Solution Architects on technical validation, architecture reviews, proof-of-concept scoping, and technical stakeholder engagement for expansion opportunities.
• Align with Technical Account Managers on adoption initiatives, usage optimization, and early warning signals for retention risk or expansion opportunity.
• Engage Product and Engineering for roadmap alignment, feature requests, and strategic account requirements.
• Coordinate with Legal and Deal Desk on contract amendments, MSA updates, and commercial terms for expansion transactions.

What We're Looking For

Strategic Account Management Excellence:

• Significant experience in B2B technology sales having managed strategic or named accounts of similar scale and complexity ($1M+ ARR per account, multi-stakeholder enterprise organizations).
• Proven track record of driving expansion revenue within existing accounts
• Experience managing accounts where you've navigated matrixed organizations with distributed decision-making.
• Demonstrated success in consumption-based or usage-based revenue models where revenue scales with adoption

Enterprise Navigation & Executive Engagement:

• Ability to build and maintain executive relationships at VP and C-level
• Experience multi-threading across buying centers: platform engineering, data engineering, infrastructure, DevOps, procurement, IT governance, and line-of-business technology teams.
• Understanding of enterprise procurement, legal, and vendor management functions
• Track record of developing internal champions who advocate for expansion within their organizations.

Technical Credibility & Domain Expertise:

• Familiarity with open-source data infrastructure: Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, ClickHouse, or similar technologies.
• Understanding of cloud infrastructure and managed services: AWS, OCI, GCP, Azure ecosystem, and how customers make build-vs-buy decisions for data platform components.
• Ability to translate technical capabilities into business outcomes: reduced operational overhead, faster time-to-production, infrastructure cost optimization, developer productivity, risk mitigation.
• Experience selling into platform engineering, data engineering, and infrastructure organizations
• Direct experience engaging cloud provider field teams (AWS,OCI, GCP, Azure) as partners on strategic accounts.
• Understanding of hyperscaler co-sell motions, marketplace dynamics, and partner programs.

 

Geography & Work Style:

• Based in United States with ability to travel 50%+ for executive engagement, on-site account reviews, and strategic meetings.
• Comfortable with hybrid work model and self-directed execution

Our Offer

If you ask us what's the best thing about working for Aiven, many will probably say it's the high concentration of talent from around the world that we have here. Enjoy the agile environment of a hyperscale scale-up where you can truly make an impact and have fun while at it.

 

We invest in you:

 

• Competitive base salary + commission structure aligned to expansion targets with accelerators for overachievement
• Participate in Aiven's equity plan
• With Aiven locations spanning the globe, we want all of our crabs to find the right balance with our hybrid work policy
• Get the needed equipment to set yourself up for success
• Step up your career game with real employer support (use one of our learning platforms, annual learning budget, and more)
• Get holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program

 

Make a difference at Aiven:

 

• Contribute to open-source projects that you find meaningful outside of work—and get paid for it! Our Plankton program recognizes extra work to the open-source ecosystem for developers and non-developers alike
• Use up to 5 days per year to volunteer for a good cause of your choice
• Join one of our team member resource groups—empower yourself and others in missions that resonate with you

 

What else:

 

• Need insurance: We've got you covered—benefit from comprehensive health insurance options including dental and vision benefits and Life and AD&D insurance
• Your wellbeing matters: we provide you with a health savings account with Aiven contributions, as well as short and long term disability plans
• Looking after your future: you're covered by 401(k) and Roth 401(k) retirement plans

E-Verify

Aiven participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. More information about our participation in e-verify can be found here.

How to Recognize and Avoid Employment Scams

There has been a rise in fake job postings used by scammers to get personal information. Please familiarize yourself with the red flags of a potential scam.

 

Here 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 over video call or in person, our interviews will never occur over 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.