Braun Board

AE Neo Cloud - US

Backblaze · Remote · US

Base
$171K–$192K
OTE
$285K–$320K
Quota attainment
Not disclosed
Posted
3d ago

Why it matters: OTE tells you what you could earn. Attainment tells you how realistic it is.

Ask: “What percentage of fully ramped reps hit quota last year?”

Still open · checked 1h agoon Backblaze's careers page

What Backblaze sells

Affordable cloud storage for huge AI data piles

AI companies collect huge piles of data, and storing it gets slow and costly as the piles grow. Backblaze sells cloud storage that works with the same tools as Amazon's S3, so a neocloud can keep its AI data close at hand for less money. With Backblaze, the powerful computers doing the AI work spend less time waiting on storage.

In plain English, from their own job posts. Something wrong? Tell us

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The Braun Read

Worth a look

Solid on the basics. Use the first call to fill in the gaps.

Pay
Base and OTE both listed. Roughly a 60/40 base-to-variable split.
Transparency
Says nothing about quota, attainment, deal size, territory or sales cycle.
Pipeline
Mostly self-sourced. Great if you like outbound, rough if you don't.
Time on market
Open 2 days.
Company hiring
3 sales roles open, hiring at a steady pace.

Red flags

None spotted.

Green flags

  • Publishes OTE. It tells you the on-target earnings up front. Most postings don't.

Based only on what the posting says. Flags are a starting point for your first call, not a final judgment.

Questions to ask on the first call

Built from what this posting leaves out. How they answer tells you as much as what they say.

  1. 1.

    What percentage of fully ramped reps hit quota last year?

    OTE is what you could earn. This is how likely you are to earn it.

  2. 2.

    What percentage of reps on the team have been here more than 18 months?

    Tenure shows whether people stay long enough to get paid.

  3. 3.

    Has the comp plan changed in the last 12 to 18 months? What changed?

    A plan that changes every year means the goalposts keep moving.

  4. 4.

    Who sits with reps and reviews calls each week?

    Coaching is often what's behind a good or bad attainment number.

  5. 5.

    What's the annual quota, and how was it set?

    A quota built from real data is a target. Otherwise it's a hope.

  6. 6.

    Why is this role open? Did someone leave, or is it new?

    New headcount is growth. A replacement means someone left. Ask why.

When the offer comes

Save these for later. They land better once they've said yes to you.

  1. 1.

    Can I see the full comp plan in writing, including clawbacks and accelerators?

    What's in writing is what gets paid. Read it before you sign.

  2. 2.

    Can I see the actual comp distribution for the team last year, not just the OTE?

    The spread shows what most reps really take home. OTE is just the target.

  3. 3.

    I'd be walking away from earned commission to join. Is there room for a sign-on bonus to help cover that?

    Leaving money behind is a fair reason to ask. The worst answer is no.

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The role

Sell Backblaze's S3-compatible storage to NeoCloud AI infrastructure providers, pursuing named accounts from top 80 worldwide. Map buying groups from engineers to CXOs, with SE and partner support.

New Logo · Outbound

Selling motion

New Logo

Who you're selling to

Buyer:
NeoCloud infrastructure providersIn their words: “NeoClouds are GPU-rich, AI-native infrastructure providers, and they need fast, affordable, S3-compatible storage at scale.”
Industry:
AI infrastructureIn their words: “the world's leading AI infrastructure providers, neoclouds, and data-intensive businesses run on Backblaze”

Pipeline expectations

Mostly self-sourced. Expect a lot of outbound.

Compensation

$171K–$192K base · $285K–$320K OTE

What is not disclosed

This posting doesn't tell you:

  • Quota size
  • Quota attainment
  • Average deal size
  • Territory
  • Sales cycle length

The questions above cover the big ones.

Full posting
NeoCloud BD Pursuit Specialist / Account Executive Backblaze (Nasdaq: BLZE) | Reports to the Head of NeoCloud Sales Salary range: $171,000 - $192,000, plus variable pay and RSUs. Target OTE $285,000 - $320,000, 60:40 base to variable. How We Got Here We started by building storage servers from scratch in a Palo Alto apartment to save 90% on hardware. Turns out hard constraints make for pretty good engineering. That discipline forged a platform that performs as well or better than competitors, scales to multi-exabyte workloads, and costs a fraction of what AWS or Google charge. AI infrastructure runs on data. Storage gets hard at scale. We've been breaking, rebuilding, and improving that storage layer for 20 years. Today, the world's leading AI infrastructure providers, neoclouds, and data-intensive businesses run on Backblaze. Our platform includes: - B2 Overdrive - high-throughput object storage engineered for AI infrastructure, GPU workloads, and massive-scale data pipelines - B2 Neo - white-label enterprise cloud storage powering neocloud platforms for AI, HPC, and media - B2 Cloud Storage - S3-compatible object storage with predictable pricing, free egress, and no lock-in - Computer Backup - automatic, continuous endpoint backup for Macs and PCs 500,000+ customers. 175 countries. Nasdaq: BLZE. backblaze.com The Role NeoClouds are GPU-rich, AI-native infrastructure providers, and they need fast, affordable, S3-compatible storage at scale. Backblaze is the high-performance capacity storage layer for AI. You will win these accounts. This is a new-logo role. You will own a named set of NeoClouds from the top 80 worldwide and pursue them from first meeting to signed contract. This is not an inbound role. If you want a defined territory and a queue of warm leads, it isn't the right fit. If your instinct is to pick an account, find the engineer who feels the storage cost first, and work up to the CXO, keep reading. What You Will Do - Pursue named accounts. Build a pursuit plan for each account. Map the buying group from infrastructure engineers to the CXO, and build relationships across it. - Run discovery. Learn how each NeoCloud runs its stack, where storage costs and performance limit it, and how Backblaze fits. Work with the Sales Engineer and Field CTO on technical validation and proof-of-concept testing. - Choose the route. Your motion is Sell-To. Decide with your manager when an account also calls for Sell-With, which Strategic Partnerships runs with the Head of NeoCloud Sales. When a partner such as NVIDIA, Super Micro, Weka, VAST, or AMD helps win the account, bring in Strategic Partnerships. - Shape the deal. Work with your manager and legal on multi-year commitments, SLAs, and revenue share when Backblaze runs behind a NeoCloud's storage service. - Sell inside Backblaze. Pull Cloud Operations and Engineering into the integration early. Their time is as scarce as your buyer's, and you will earn it. - Line up executive sponsors. Secure a Backblaze executive sponsor and a customer executive sponsor on every priority account. - Hand off and expand. Bring in the strategic account manager in Customer Success as customers go live, and stay in the account as it grows. - Keep the forecast honest. Maintain accurate pipeline, next steps, and close dates in the CRM. What We Are Looking For - Infrastructure sales expertise, with a record of closing complex, multi-year deals in storage, cloud, compute, networking, or data center infrastructure - Technical fluency. You run most technical conversations with infrastructure engineers and architects about GPU clusters, networking, and storage yourself, and earn their trust. The Sales Engineer owns deeper validation and proofs of concept - Executive presence. You have built VP, SVP, and CTO relationships and can lead those meetings - Hunter drive. You open doors in accounts that do not know you yet, and you stay with a long pursuit - Seller of record. You have carried a quota and closed deals with your name on them - Deal structure experience. You have negotiated SLA, IP, and revenue-share terms on deals you closed, not just understood them - Team play. You work well with sales engineers, partner teams, and operations teams to land one account Also True of the Right Person - Existing relationships with NeoCloud technical or executive leaders - Experience with OEM, ISV, or co-sell motions - Familiarity with S3-compatible object storage, data egress economics, and AI/ML data pipelines This Is Not the Role for You If - You want a defined territory or an inbound queue rather than named accounts you have to open - You prefer a short sales cycle to a long pursuit - You hand technical questions to someone else and wait for the answer - You want to bring a SaaS motion here unchanged - You work accounts alone rather than with sales engineering, partners, and operations How We Will Interview We will ask you to walk us through a pursuit you ran from first meeting to signed contract, including a long one that stalled and how you kept it moving. We will ask how you earned an infrastructure engineer's trust. We will ask for your own view of how you would approach this role. You will hold cross-functional conversations with the Sales Engineer and the Field CTO, because you will pursue accounts with them. And you will go through a panel, so we can see how you work. What We Offer - Competitive compensation and equity package - Full benefits including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k) with matching - RSU grants for full-time employees - ESPP program - Flexible vacation policy - Maternity & paternity leave - MacBook to use for work, plus a generous stipend to personalize your workstation - Childcare bonus (human children only) - Fertility treatment and support - Learning & development program - Commuter benefits - A collaborative and transparent culture that supports a healthy work-life balance Pay Transparency and Equal Opportunity To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, skills, depth of work experience, and relevant licenses/credentials. Compensation for this role is $171,000 - $192,000, plus variable pay and RSUs. Target OTE $285,000 - $320,000, 60:40 base to variable. At Backblaze, we value being fair and good to our customers, partners, and employees. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of our values. We are committed to fostering a workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, socio-economic status, ability, veteran status, and education. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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