Founding Sales Lead

Job title: Founding Sales Lead

Comp: Circa $175K-$220K Base / ~$350K-$400K OTE + Equity

Location: New York City

Industry: Fintech / Capital Markets / OTC Derivatives / AI

Our client is a Series A fintech building an AI-native platform for capital markets.

Across the OTC derivatives lifecycle, from trade capture and confirmations through reconciliation, lifecycle events and settlement, many workflows still rely heavily on email, PDFs and manual processes.

The platform ingests trade data in any format, standardises it in real time and aligns counterparties at the point of trade, replacing fragmented workflows with intelligent automation and fully digitised, auditable infrastructure.

The business is building a single cross-asset platform connecting the buy-side, sell-side and service providers, and is backed by top-tier venture investors.

The company has already achieved strong product-market fit and traction with major financial institutions, with active inbound demand, customer referrals and a live pipeline of leading banks and buy-side firms.

Commercial activity to date has been founder-led. The company is now scaling its distribution organisation and hiring its first dedicated senior enterprise salesperson in New York.

This is a hands-on, quota-carrying individual-contributor role, not a management position, with significant autonomy to originate, develop and close complex enterprise opportunities while helping shape the broader GTM motion.

What the role looks like:

• Own new client acquisition across banks, hedge funds, asset managers and asset owners
• Prospect, build pipeline, negotiate and close complex enterprise opportunities
• Independently manage long, technical, multi-stakeholder sales cycles
• Build relationships with sophisticated senior buyers across the buy-side and sell-side
• Convert inbound interest, referrals and founder relationships into structured sales processes
• Proactively originate new opportunities through your own network
• Work closely with Product and Engineering to move opportunities forward and shape solutions around client needs
• Help define pricing, packaging and commercial models as the GTM function develops
• Close enterprise deals typically ranging from $100K-$1M+ ACV
• Develop repeatable sales motions, tooling and processes that can scale across the broader Distribution organisation
• Use AI tooling aggressively to automate sales administration, manage pipeline and accelerate enterprise sales cycles
• Bring the founders into strategic relationships selectively where their involvement creates additional value
• Help influence how the broader commercial organisation evolves over time

What they’re looking for:

• Substantial experience selling capital-markets technology, data, analytics or infrastructure
• Track record independently sourcing, developing and closing complex enterprise deals
• Experience selling to banks, hedge funds, asset managers and/or asset owners
• Strong credibility with sophisticated market participants and senior buyers
• Ability to hold both commercial and technical conversations
• Strong existing network across the New York buy-side and/or sell-side market
• Comfortable operating in an early-stage environment with limited structure and high ownership
• Self-directed, execution-focused and motivated by building rather than managing
• Startup or early-stage experience strongly preferred
• Familiarity with OTC derivatives or direct buy-side / sell-side experience is advantageous
• Strong commercial judgement around pricing, negotiation and deal structuring
• Ability to work effectively with engineers and technical product teams
• Enthusiasm for using AI to improve GTM execution

Why it’s interesting:

This is a true founding commercial role at a company with proven product-market fit, real institutional traction and strong inbound demand, but no established sales machine yet.

You’ll inherit live opportunities and founder-led relationships while also being expected to create new pipeline and win complex institutional clients yourself.

The role offers unusually broad influence for an IC: you’ll help shape how the company sells, who it targets, how deals are structured, how pricing evolves, what tools and processes are adopted and how the future commercial organisation is built.

You’ll work directly with the COO/co-founder, Product and Engineering, with meaningful exposure to both commercial strategy and product development.

For someone with strong capital-markets credibility who wants to remain close to deals but have far more ownership and influence than they would inside a larger organisation, it’s a particularly compelling stage to join.

Interested in joining a Series A fintech as its first senior sales hire and helping build the commercial function from the ground up?

Apply to learn more.