Head of Sales, Lambda Cloud (San Jose)

Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud, is a leader in AI cloud infrastructure serving tens of thousands of customers. Our customers range from AI researchers to enterprises and hyperscalers. Lambda's mission is to make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give everyone the power of superintelligence. One person, one GPU.If you'd like to build the world's best AI cloud, join us.*Note: This position requires presence in our San Francisco, San Jose, or Bellevue office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.OverviewLambda is building the cloud infrastructure that powers the frontier of AI. As AI workloads grow in scale and complexity, enterprises, research labs, and hyperscalers need a cloud provider that can deliver GPU capacity with reliability, flexibility, and speed. Lambda Cloud is that provider — and we're looking for a Head of Sales to lead the commercial engine that brings it to market.This is a senior leadership role reporting directly to the GM of Lambda Cloud. You will own the sales motion end-to-end: building and managing a high-performing sales team, designing the commercial frameworks that make deals possible, and being the connective tissue between customer demand and Lambda's product and capacity roadmap. You'll be equally comfortable negotiating a nine-figure enterprise commitment and coaching a junior AE through their first pipeline review.This is not a role for someone who wants to manage from a distance. Lambda Cloud is in a pivotal growth phase, and the Head of Sales will be a key voice in how we scale — not just in revenue, but in how we operate, how we prioritize, and how we show up for customers.What You’ll DoTeam Leadership & StructureRecruit, develop, and retain a team of enterprise account executives and sales support functions, setting a high bar for rigor, customer focus, and commercial creativityDefine and evolve pod/vertical structure for sales coverage — including assignment of sellers to segments across enterprises, AI-native startups, and developers — ensuring each segment has a clearly owned GTM motionEstablish clear performance expectations, coaching cadences, and career development frameworks that help individual sellers grow and succeedCommercial Strategy & Deal ExecutionDesign and maintain scalable, flexible commercial terms that can accommodate a wide range of deal structures — from short-term on-demand credits to long-duration reserved capacity commitmentsPartner with finance and legal to build a deal desk function capable of turning around complex enterprise quotes quickly without sacrificing margin disciplineAdvise leadership on incentive compensation structure for the sales team, balancing bookings, revenue, and strategic account objectivesOwn and close a portfolio of strategic accounts personally where executive presence and relationships are a differentiatorPipeline Management & ForecastingDrive a rigorous weekly and monthly pipeline review cadence, including systematic evaluation of pipeline degradation — identifying deals at risk, understanding root causes, and taking corrective actionMaintain accurate, real-time forecasting discipline across the team, ensuring Lambda leadership has reliable signal on near-term and long-term revenue trajectoryDevelop early warning indicators and pipeline health metrics that help the team get ahead of slippage before it becomes a missWork with finance and accounting teams to drive MBR/QBRCapacity Allocation & Revenue OperationsWork closely with infrastructure and capacity planning teams to translate customer demand signals into GPU capacity allocation decisions, helping Lambda deploy capital where it will generate the highest commercial returnManage the assignment and prioritization of salable GPU capacity across customer segments and deal types, balancing short-term revenue with strategic account developmentCollaborate with the GM and product teams to surface customer demand patterns that should inform capacity investment and site expansion decisionsCustomer Feedback & Product InfluenceSystematically gather and synthesize customer feedback on GPU availability, pricing, product features, and service quality, and channel that input into product management with the specificity needed to drive actionServe as the commercial voice of the customer in internal roadmap and prioritization discussions, advocating for features and capabilities that will open new revenue opportunities or protect existing onesBuild strong relationships with technical buyers and economic decision-makers at key accounts, developing a deep understanding of their infrastructure roadmaps and where Lambda can grow share of walletGTM & PartnershipsCoordinate with marketing on demand generation, event strategy, and account-based programs that fill the top of the funnel for enterprise segmentsCollaborate with commercial/technical partnership team to Identify and develop channel and reseller relationships — including cloud marketplace channels (e.g. GCP Marketplace, AWS Marketplace) — that extend Lambda's commercial reachWork with business development on strategic partnership opportunities that have commercial implications for Lambda Cloud revenuePartner with marketing to identify and lock-in customer references spanning case studies, logo placements, podcasts, and other critical reusable collateralYou have12+ years of B2B enterprise sales experience, with at least 4 years in a sales leadership role managing quota-carrying teamsDeep domain experience in cloud infrastructure, GPU compute, or AI/ML infrastructure — you understand what you're selling and can credibly engage with both technical and business buyersDemonstrated track record of building and scaling enterprise sales teams from an early stage, including designing territory models, compensation structures, and sales processesExperience owning and closing large, complex deals ($10M+ TCV) with long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders, and custom commercial termsStrong command of pipeline management and forecasting methodology — you run disciplined reviews, understand degradation signals, and hold your team accountable to forecast accuracyExperience working cross-functionally with product, finance, and operations in a fast-moving environment where sales and capacity planning are tightly coupledExcellent communication and executive presence — able to represent Lambda externally at the C-suite level and internally as a peer to engineering and product leadershipDemonstrated ability to build feedback loops between sales and product, translating customer signal into actionable input rather than anecdoteExposure to cloud marketplace channels (GCP, AWS, Azure Marketplace) as a distribution mechanismExperience in a player-coach sales model where you personally own strategic accounts while managing a teamNice to HaveExperience selling GPU cloud or HPC capacity specifically, with familiarity in how frontier AI labs and hyperscalers evaluate and procure computePrior exposure to neocloud or infrastructure startup environments where product gaps are real and commercial creativity is required to compete against larger, more established playersFamiliarity with Nvidia ecosystem, GPU cluster economics, and how customers think about CapEx vs. opex tradeoffs for AI infrastructureExperience structuring and selling reserved capacity or long-duration committed use agreementsExisting relationships with infrastructure decision-makers at large enterprises with AI programsBackground working alongside or within a deal desk function, with hands-on experience structuring non-standard commercial termsSalary Range InformationThe annual salary range for this position has been set based on market data and other factors. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.About LambdaFounded in 2012, with 500+ employees, and growing fastOur investors notably include TWG Global, US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Andra Capital, SGW, Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel (IQT), KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, SVB, 1517, and Crescent CoveWe have research papers accepted at top machine learning and graphics conferences, including NeurIPS, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and TOGOur values are publicly available: We offer generous cash & equity compensationHealth, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependentsWellness and commuter stipends for select roles401k Plan with 2% company match (USA employees)Flexible paid time off plan that we all actually useEqual Opportunity EmployerLambda is an Equal Opportunity employer. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, or any other factors prohibited by local, state, or federal law.Compensation Range: $235K - $315KLocationSan Francisco Office (Fremont St); Bellevue Office; Remote, USA; San Jose Office (First St)Employment TypeFull timeLocation TypeHybridDepartmentSales & MarketingCompensationBay Area, CA$276K – $315KBellevue, SEA$248K – $284KRemote, USA$235K – $268K