Founding Account Executive

Founding Account Executive

Arva is building the world's leading agentic AI solution for financial crime compliance operations. Backed by Google and Y Combinator, we are revolutionizing how banks and fintechs conduct compliance. Our robust AI Agents automate manual human review tasks across Screening, AML, KYC, and fraud, driving operational efficiency and helping financial institutions cut costs by up to 85%. Founded by experts in financial crime prevention and AI, our team brings deep expertise from major banks, regulatory bodies, and technology firms. We are a rapidly growing company with offices in San Francisco, New York City, and London. We are now looking to accelerate our momentum by expanding our founding sales team. That's where you come in.

As the Founding Account Executive, you will be core to scaling Arva's revenue organization and expanding our customer base. This is a high-impact, force-multiplier role where you will work closely with the CRO and CEO to bring structure, focus, and rapid growth to the sales function. You will be instrumental in ensuring our agentic AI solutions help financial institutions fight crime more effectively while dramatically improving their operational efficiency.

This role is based in New York City.

What You'll Do

• Own the Full Sales Cycle: Sell Arva's AI-powered financial crime prevention platform to financial institutions and fintechs to consistently meet or exceed revenue targets.
• Pipeline Management: Manage a pipeline of complex, multi-stakeholder opportunities from qualification to close, focusing on annual and multi-year subscription contracts.
• Expert Consulting: Develop deep expertise in financial crime compliance (AML, fraud, sanctions screening) to position Arva's technology as the critical solution to core industry challenges.
• Drive Outbound: Support Business Development Representatives (BDRs) in building a robust pipeline through targeted outbound prospecting within your assigned territory and accounts.
• Strategic Execution: Leverage established sales methodologies (e.g., MEDDICC, Challenger Sale) to qualify and advance opportunities efficiently.
• Collaboration: Coordinate with Solutions Engineers for effective product demonstrations and Proof-of-Value engagements, and ensure a smooth handoff to Customer Success for strong adoption.
• Market Insight: Use Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and other sales tools to manage your business, and provide market insights to Product and Leadership to inform our roadmap and Go-to-Market strategy.

About You

• Proven B2B Sales Experience: 2–4+ years of consistent over-performance against sales targets in mid-market or enterprise B2B SaaS sales.
• Deal Management: Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder deal cycles (typically 3–6 months).
• Pipeline Ownership: Comfortable with outbound prospecting and actively generating and managing your own pipeline.
• Tech Proficiency: Proficiency using modern sales tools (e.g., Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator).
• Consultative Approach: Highly curious and consultative, enjoying the process of understanding complex compliance challenges.
• Sector Knowledge: Experience selling B2B SaaS into financial services, fintech, payments, or compliance/risk functions.
• Trusted Advisor: Ability to build credible, long-term relationships with key leaders, including Compliance Officers, Fraud Managers, Risk Leaders, and Technology Executives.
• Domain Communication: Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly explain sophisticated AI/ML concepts and compliance intricacies.
• Resourcefulness: Creative and resourceful, always finding ways to differentiate Arva and deliver exceptional value throughout the sales process.
• Ambitious & Collaborative: Eager to master new technologies, committed to bringing best practices to a growing team, and collaborating seamlessly across departments (Marketing, Solutions Engineering, Customer Success, etc.).

Ideal, But Not Required

• Experience working at a high-growth startup (Series A - Series C).
• Background or strong interest in financial crime, compliance, RegTech, or AI/ML.
• Existing network/relationships within the compliance or risk community.
• Experience selling into other heavily regulated industries.

Our Offer

• Competitive Compensation: Receive a strong base salary, commission structure, and meaningful equity in a high-growth company backed by Google's AI Fund and Y Combinator.
• Accelerated Professional Growth: Learn from industry-leading mentors in sales, compliance, and AI to accelerate your professional growth. Build your network across the AI and financial services ecosystem.
• Exceptional Team: Work alongside top performers who are deeply capable, collaborative, and driven to make an impact. We're building a team that challenges and supports each other.
• Meaningful Impact: Help transform financial crime compliance with agentic AI while shaping an early-stage, fast-growing company from the ground up.
• Transparent Culture: Experience a flat, open culture where your ideas matter and your voice is heard. We encourage healthy debate, creative problem-solving, and direct communication at all levels.

Our Operating Principles

1. Own with Urgency

Speed + ownership is our superpower. We value action over perfection. We're not afraid to get our hands dirty, experiment, and iterate quickly to achieve our goals, and completely own the outcome.

2. Customer First, Team Second, Self Last

Our priority is creating value for our customers. We then focus on building a supportive, growth-oriented team environment, putting individual needs last to ensure collective success.

3. Transparency

We believe in open communication and full visibility across teams and roles. Decisions, successes, and failures are shared openly to foster trust and collaboration.

Our Commitment to Diversity

We're eager to meet talented, driven candidates regardless of whether they check every box. We value what you'll add to our culture, not just whether you fit into it. We strongly encourage individuals from groups traditionally underrepresented in tech and financial services to apply.

We are an equal opportunity employer and committed to non-discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.