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Commercial Account Executive - East

Remote (United States) Chicago, IL

Are you ready to power the World's connections?


About the role:

We are looking for an experienced Commercial Sales Executive, ideally with open source experience who will be selling into global enterprise accounts. The ideal candidate has been closing deals for other early-stage enterprise software products in an entrepreneurial setting. The Account Executive will be integral to our growth plan and in acquiring new customers. Kong’s Account Executive will be the primary point of contact and the face of Kong for our prospects.


What you'll be doing:

- Sell Kong Enterprise Platform on Kong’s Commercial sales team

- Meet and/or exceed individual quota, objectives and KPIs

- Take ownership to build and manage your book of business, which includes understanding and documenting the buying criteria and process, determining the appropriate motion and patterns, ensuring pipeline accuracy based on evidence, and working the leads to closure

- Collaborate and leverage an ecosystem of resources including pre sales, post sales, channel partners, customer success and leadership to promote Kong and drive new business

- Anything else required by manager


What you'll bring: 

- A true desire to see customers benefit from the investment they make with Kong

- 2+ years of experience in direct sales experience selling enterprise software to mid-size to large enterprises with open source, APIs, and/or infrastructure software

- Effective communicator and strong interpersonal skills

- Excellent negotiation, presentation and closing skills

- Experience with fast growing startups is a plus

- Strong background in territory planning and revenue generated from outbound pipeline

- You have a measurable track record in new business development and over achieving sales targets

- Knowledge of MEDDIC and Challenger methodologies is a plus


Why should you want to work at Kong?  

Market Opportunity - We are on a quest to build a $10b+ software company over the next few years and need YOUR help!

Why APIs Matter? APIs have been enabling innovation for decades!

Strong VC team, Series D, strong year over year revenue growth!

Technical Leadership - We are recognized as the leader in innovation in the connectivity space.

Marco, our CTO/co-founder - “We are the Cisco of L4 and L7” - CUBE Conversation, March 2021

We are the leading innovator in the connectivity space!

Amazing Team & Culture - Come be a "Konger" and find out what we mean.

Great Place to Work Certified in 2020 & 2021

Kong employees exemplify our culture at our 2022 Sales Kickoff

2022 Forbes Cloud 100 Honoree

Building Great Products - Learn why the world's largest companies love our tech!

Kong Named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant

Over 250m+ downloads of our open source API gateway! Over 40k+ stars on Github between Kong API and Kong Insomnia!


What is a Konger? 

We are a group of makers, thinkers, and doers focused on helping today’s developers build tomorrow’s technology. Our teams work on the bleeding edge of API innovation to provide our users with a central nervous system for data and services. 


We put design at the heart of everything we do, and we’re relentlessly focused on creating beautiful experiences for our customers. That’s why technology companies, major banks, e-commerce innovators, and government agencies put Kong in front of their most important web applications. 


We believe in the power of Open Source and everything it stands for. That’s why developers around the world enthusiastically contribute on top of our open-source platform. 


We are passionate about solving challenges that will fundamentally shape the future of technology, and we’re looking for the right people to join us on our mission. If you believe in taking ownership of your work, making an impact, and having fun along the way, we would love to talk to you.


Kong Core Values: 

Be Inclusive. We work together from anywhere to achieve our common goals. Our differences make us stronger. 


Be Authentic. We are genuine, principled and confident without arrogance. Show respect and kindness, especially in tough moments. 


Be Relentlessly Resourceful. We work with purpose, obsession and grit. It takes muscle to do hard things and doing hard things build muscle. 


Be Customer Obsessed. We care. Customers are everything, we put them at the center of everything you do. We are all empowered to make an impact. 


Be Curious. We value ideas over hierarchy. Never accept the status quo. We make bold bets, fail, and learn everyday. There is always a way. 


Be an Owner. We are drivers not passengers and own the quality and outcomes of our work.


About Kong: 

Kong is THE cloud native API platform with the fastest, most adopted API gateway in the world (over 300m downloads!). Loved by developers and trusted with enterprises’ most critical traffic volumes, Kong helps startups and Fortune 500 companies build with confidence – allowing them to bring solutions to market faster with API and service connectivity that scales easily and securely. 


83% of web traffic today is API calls! APIs are the connective tissue of the cloud and the underlying technology that allows software to talk and interact with one another. Therefore, we believe that APIs act as the nervous system of the cloud. Our audacious mission is to build the nervous system that will safely and reliably connect all of humankind!  


For more information about Kong, please visit konghq.com or follow @thekonginc on Twitter.


We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.


Kong has different base pay ranges for different work locations within the United States, which allows us to pay employees competitively and consistently in different geographic markets. Compensation varies depending on a wide array of factors, including but not limited to specific candidate location, role, skill set and level of experience. Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards including sales incentives depending on the terms of the applicable plan and role. Benefits may vary depending on location. US based employees are typically offered access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan, short and long term disability benefits, basic life and AD&D insurance, among others. The typical base pay range for this role is $84k - 118k

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