Business Development & Technical Account Executive

CommonAI Compute · Cambridge, UK

Base: Not disclosed
OTE: Not disclosed
Quota attainment: Not disclosed
Posted: 25d 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 2h agoon CommonAI Compute's careers page

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The job

Who you'd sell to: Still reading the posting. Check back within the hour.
Where deals come from: Mostly you. Expect a lot of outbound: cold calls, emails and LinkedIn.

The Braun Read

Ask hard questions

Too much is left unsaid. Make them answer before you invest.

Pay: No pay listed at all.
Transparency: Says nothing about quota, attainment, deal size, territory or sales cycle.
Time on market: Open 25 days. Normal, but not fresh.
Company hiring: This is their only open sales role.

Based only on what the posting says. Lights 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.
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.
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.
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.
Who sits with reps and reviews calls each week?
Coaching is often what's behind a good or bad attainment number.
5.
What are the base and the OTE for this role?
No point investing hours before you know the number.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Josh's top five questions for any sales interview →

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Full posting

CommonAI is building shared infrastructure and products that help organisations develop and deploy deep-tech AI systems. CommonAI Compute, part of the CommonAI ecosystem, develops multi-cloud compute products and services for AI teams. Our platform orchestrates GPU capacity across multiple providers, so teams can access the compute they need without taking on the complexity, lock-in or cost of managing cloud infrastructure themselves. We work with commercial, government and research partners to accelerate the adoption of AI across the UK and Europe. We are a member of the UK government-funded £75 million Scaling Inference Programme, which is advancing AI inference hardware and software infrastructure. CommonAI Compute is backed by Barclays and private investors. The Role You will be part of the commercial front line: finding and closing new customers, and building the partner network our platform needs, compute providers, resellers, research groups and government programmes. You need to be socially driven and comfortable talking about GPUs, clusters and cloud economics without handing every technical question to an engineer. What You'll Do - Find, qualify and close new customers for our multi-cloud compute products - Build and deepen partnerships across the AI, cloud and HPC ecosystem, including supply-side compute providers and resale channels - Represent us at conferences, meetups and demo days, and visit startups and partners in person - Feed market signal back to product, what customers want and what they'll pay for in terms of additional services Requirements What We're Looking For - A record of closing deals in technical sales, business development or partnerships - Technical fluency in cloud, GPU compute, HPC or AI workloads - Strong relationship-building capabilities and the hunger to generate your own pipeline - Comfort with ambiguity and minimal supervision in an early-stage environment - Willingness to travel regularly across the UK and Europe - Degree-level education in a technical, scientific or business discipline Particularly valuable - An existing network in the UK or European AI ecosystem - Experience selling compute infrastructure or cloud services - Experience working in a startup environment Benefits - High-impact work on ground-breaking AI and cloud infrastructure problems - The opportunity to shape commercial strategy at an early stage - A competitive salary and stock-option package, with a performance-related element - A benefits package including health and financial protection - Professional development and access to a network spanning technology, government and academia - A Cambridge office a few minutes' walk from the railway station, with free snacks an an on-site gym CommonAI Compute is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace.

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