Founding Account Executive, West Coast

Company: Confidential — a specialist cybersecurity company represented by Redherd

Location: Remote, United States, West Coast

Employment Type: Full-time

Compensation: $300,000 to $350,000 OTE, 50/50 base and variable, plus equity

About Redherd

Redherd is a specialist cybersecurity recruitment and advisory firm. We work with established security vendors and high-growth startups to identify experienced technical and commercial cybersecurity professionals.

About the Client

Our client is an AI Workspace Security company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. They help security teams see and govern the AI build tools employees use across a business, including tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable, Replit, n8n, Retool, Workato, Windsurf, v0 and GitHub Copilot.

Their mission is to let organisations adopt AI-enabled building without losing security control. The platform gives teams visibility into the tools, connectors, plugins, development environments and extensions in use, so CISOs can enable innovation rather than block it.

This is not a penetration-testing, red-teaming, adversary-simulation or endpoint-replacement company. The product secures AI-enabled working and development activity across endpoints, identities and SaaS.

Specific company and product information will be discussed with suitable candidates. Your profile will never be introduced to a company without your prior knowledge and consent.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Founding Account Executive to build our client's West Coast territory.

This is not a conventional Enterprise Account Executive role with a mature territory, inherited pipeline, public customer logos, SDR coverage or a large marketing engine. You will create the motion: define target accounts, generate demand, run discovery, demonstrate the product, shape early commercial learning and close new enterprise customers.

You will report directly to a founder, and the founders are based in the Bay Area. Unlike the parallel East Coast seat, this role can build alongside them in person, on a pitch that is still being refined. The two roles are being hired together, so you will join a commercial team being built rather than operate as the company's only seller.

On this coast the buyer is native to the problem rather than compelled into it. West Coast technology companies are where employees are building applications, workflows and agents with AI tools at the greatest volume, so the first demonstration usually surfaces something nobody knew about. The winning argument here is visibility, not a compliance mandate.

What You Will Do

• Own and develop a new enterprise territory across the Western United States.


• Build a focused territory, account and buyer strategy from the ground up.


• Generate 100% of your own pipeline through thoughtful outbound activity, executive relationships, events, partners and your existing network.


• Sell to CISOs and senior leaders across endpoint security, identity, workplace security, AI governance, security engineering, CIO organisations and engineering productivity.


• Lead consultative discovery that connects AI-enabled building activity to governance, visibility and enterprise-risk outcomes.


• Run product demonstrations and manage technical evaluation, security-review and commercial processes.


• Multi-thread opportunities across security, engineering, IT, legal, privacy, procurement and executive stakeholders.


• Manage complex net-new enterprise opportunities from first engagement through commercial close.


• Build disciplined qualification, pipeline-management and forecasting habits without relying on inherited infrastructure.


• Co-sell in person with the founders, and work directly with technical leadership to improve messaging, pricing, qualification and the go-to-market playbook.


• Bring market feedback from engineering-led buyers into product and commercial decision-making.

What You Bring

• Proven quota-carrying enterprise cybersecurity sales experience in the United States.


• Relevant experience selling to security buyers in one or more of the following areas:


• SaaS posture, shadow discovery or SaaS security.


• Endpoint, enterprise browser, identity or workspace security.


• AI, agentic, application or product security.


• Experience selling to CISOs and senior security, engineering or technology leaders.


• Demonstrable success closing net-new enterprise customers rather than primarily renewals or expansion.


• A consistent record of achieving or exceeding sales targets, with real attainment figures you can discuss.


• At least 18 months at an early-stage cybersecurity company, with target attainment during that period.


• Strong personal pipeline-generation capability. This is a functional requirement: there is no SDR or marketing engine to inherit.


• Experience building a territory, message or commercial motion with limited support.


• The ability to sell an emerging product category through education, discovery and commercial insight.


• Confidence working closely and in person with founders on a pitch that is still being shaped.


• Residence on the United States West Coast. Exact territory boundaries will be discussed during the process.


• Willingness to travel for customer meetings and industry events when required.


• Experience at a major cybersecurity vendor can be valuable, but candidates must also demonstrate successful execution in a smaller or earlier-stage company.

Evidence of Success

• Candidates should be prepared to discuss:


• Annual quota and attainment for recent years.


• New ARR or bookings personally closed.


• Typical deal size and sales-cycle length.


• Significant net-new enterprise wins.


• The percentage of pipeline generated personally.


• Industries, company sizes and geographies previously covered.


• The buyers and decision-makers involved in previous deals.


• Examples of building a territory or sales motion with limited support.


• Examples of opening conversations with security leaders when the company did not yet have a household-name brand or public customer proof points.

Why Consider This Opportunity

• Join a funded cybersecurity company at the beginning of its US commercial build-out.


• Sell into a rapidly developing AI workspace-security category with a concrete enterprise problem.


• Build alongside experienced security founders in person rather than remotely.


• Own a territory and materially influence messaging, sales execution and go-to-market development.


• Join a growing commercial team alongside a parallel East Coast Founding Account Executive hire.


• Earn a competitive $300,000 to $350,000 OTE, plus equity.