Account Executive

Industrial Technology | Apex Kai

Location: Carmel, IN

We prefer candidates who can work from our Carmel-area office.

Department: Sales | Employment Type: Full-Time | Minimum Experience: Experienced.

Reporting Relationship: Shami Johnson, Chief Executive Officer.

About Apex Kai

APEX KAI helps manufacturers stay ahead of equipment failures with real-time monitoring, fluid analysis, and AI-powered predictive insights.
By turning equipment data into early warnings and actionable guidance, we help maintenance teams make informed decisions, reduce unexpected downtime, and keep operations running.

Your primary responsibility is to win new manufacturing customers and convert qualified opportunities into paid deployments. As our first dedicated account executive, you will work directly with the CEO and collaborate with Partnerships, Marketing, and Engineering.

What You Will Do

• Own the full sales cycle from prospecting and discovery through demonstrations, proposals, negotiation, closing, and deployment handoff.
• Open new manufacturing accounts through targeted calls, emails, partner introductions, trade-show follow-ups, and/or plant visits.
• Engage with maintenance, reliability, operations, and plant leaders to understand equipment priorities, downtime risks, budgets, and purchasing steps.
• Lead product demonstrations and build business cases that connect Apex Kai to the customer's operational priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Convert pilots and evaluations into paid deployments with agreed success measures and a scheduled purchasing decision.
• Maintain clear next steps, commercial details, pipeline stages, and realistic forecasts in HubSpot.
• Work with Engineering to confirm technical requirements and deployment scope, and negotiate within approved pricing and contract terms.
• Coordinate the handoff to deployment and customer success teams, and identify opportunities for additional machines, sites, and platform adoption.

What Success Looks Like

• New paying manufacturing customers and recurring revenue against agreed sales and ramp targets.
• A qualified pipeline with identified buyers, clear next steps, and credible purchasing timelines.
• Pilots and evaluations progressing to purchasing decisions and paid rollouts.
• Trusted relationships with maintenance, reliability, and plant leadership, supported by accurate CRM records and a clear deployment handoff.

Qualifications

Must Have

• Approximately five or more years of quota-carrying B2B sales experience, or an equivalent record of personally sourcing and closing comparable business.
• Experience selling to manufacturing or industrial customers and managing opportunities with multiple decision-makers.
• Strong prospecting, discovery, presentation, follow-up, negotiation, and forecasting skills.
• Ability to explain technical solutions in terms of uptime, reliability, maintenance efficiency, safety, and cost.
• A collaborative approach to working with Engineering and customer teams to define practical scope and realistic expectations.
• Comfort working independently, maintaining disciplined CRM records, and traveling for customer plant visits and industry events.

Nice to Have

• Experience selling predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, CMMS, IIoT, industrial software, or automation solutions.
• Familiarity with maintenance workflows, reliability programs, manufacturing equipment, and recurring software or hardware lease agreements.
• Experience with HubSpot, Apollo, or LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and with sales in an early-stage company.
  

Compensation and Benefits

Base Salary: $65K - $75K annually.

Benefits: Company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, subject to plan terms and eligibility; 401(k) participation after 90 days, subject to plan requirements; and flexible paid time off under Company policy.