Sr. Sales Leader, Frontier AI, Frontier AI, Global Startup & Venture Capital

Company: Amazon
Location: San Francisco
Posted on: April 6, 2026

Job Description:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a complete set of cloud services that enable all companies, from startups to enterprises, to run virtually everything in the cloud. The Frontier startup segment represents one of the most strategically important and rapidly growing areas of AWS, with these customers driving the future of AI and becoming tomorrow's enterprise leaders. As AWS continues to lead in the GenAI and Agentic space, we seek a Senior Sales Leader of Frontier Sales to own, operate, and define strategy for the account team working with startups that are building technology at the edge of evolving AI technology. This role is responsible for substantial revenue driven by AI/ML, GenAI, and Agentic startup customers, with ambitious multi-year growth targets. Role Overview You will be responsible for setting the vision, strategic direction, plan, and goals to win the best AI startups in Silicon Valley. This includes direct responsibility for leading a team of senior, GenAI account managers in Northern California within the Startups organization. You will lead a matrixed team of Sales, Solution Architects, Business Development, and Go-To-Market functions. Unlike traditional sales leadership roles, this position requires ownership of a market segment with substantial revenue responsibility, direct influence on AWS product strategy through customer feedback, and engagement at the highest levels of AWS and Amazon. Proficiency in managing direct and matrixed resources is required, as is expertise in emerging AI technologies with an ability to engage technical founders. Key job responsibilities Strategic Leadership & Revenue Delivery - Drive significant annual revenue with strong YoY growth for the Frontier AI business in Silicon Valley. - Own relationships with top-tier AI startups building frontier AI technologies across foundation models, agentic AI, and vertical AI applications. - Execute complex, high-value opportunities with sophisticated AI startups, navigating technical, commercial, competitive, and partnership elements simultaneously. - Meet AI revenue targets while building a pipeline of future Enterprise customers. - Navigate highly competitive environments to secure adoption of emerging startups Ecosystem & Executive Engagement - Cultivate and maintain strategic relationships with top-tier venture capital firms and leading accelerators. - Engage directly with AWS executive leadership and customer C-suite executives. - Serve as the voice of AI startup customers to AWS service teams, influencing product roadmaps and go-to-market strategies. Organization Leadership - Build and scale a high-performing sales team - Establish consistent performance metrics and development paths across diverse technical and sales skillsets. - Coordinate with AWS Partner Organization (APO) on co-sell, sell-with, and sell-to approaches - Own feedback loops to service teams on customer requirements for frontier AI workloads Complexity Factors This role operates in a rapidly growing AI market with ambitious revenue targets, requiring: Market Segment Ambiguity: Operating without structured playbooks, continually encountering new technologies and business models. Technical Depth: Deep expertise in frontier AI, foundation models, training infrastructure, and inference workloads. Speed & Precision: Competing at the highest levels for top AI startups. Stakeholder Complexity: Coordinating across internal leadership teams, external partners, and investors - BASIC QUALIFICATIONS - 10 years of technology-related sales or business development experience - 5 years of sales leadership experience - Proven track record building and scaling successful sales teams. - Deep expertise in the AI/ML and GenAI startup ecosystem, including understanding of foundation models, training infrastructure, and inference workloads - Experience structuring and closing complex, multi-year deals - Demonstrated ability to engage and influence C-suite executives and board members - Strong relationships with top-tier venture capital firms and startup accelerators - Experience managing matrixed teams across multiple job families - Exceptional strategic thinking and ability to operate in highly ambiguous, fast-moving environments - Strong verbal and written communication skills with ability to engage technical and business audiences - BA/BS degree required - PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS - MBA/MA/MS degree in relevant fieldPrevious experience at a leading technology company with cloud expertise - Technical background in engineering, computer science, or AI/ML - History of working for or selling to tech startups, particularly in the AI/ML space - Experience with AWS services, particularly SageMaker, Bedrock, EC2, and GPU infrastructure - Proven ability to influence product roadmaps and drive cross-functional initiatives - Established relationships with Tier 1 venture capital firms - Understanding of GenAI technology stack, including transformers, diffusion models, and agentic AI Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner. The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments, restricted stock units (RSUs), and sales incentives. Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits . USA, CA, San Francisco - 205,700.00 - 278,200.00 USD annually

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