About Lanai

Lanai is building the missing infrastructure layer for the AI era. Our Enterprise AI Observability and Governance Platform gives enterprises real-time visibility into how AI is actually being used across the organization—at the prompt level, across every tool—solving the critical challenge blocking AI ROI: you can't scale what you can't see. Think: Databricks for AI workflows.

Founded by technical leaders who built core infrastructure at Google, VMware, Meta and Splunk, we've raised capital from Lux Capital (Hugging Face, Databricks), Juxtapose, F7 Ventures, and BAG Ventures. Fortune 1000 companies are deploying our platform to discover the AI usage leadership doesn't know exists, scale what's working, and govern the transformation safely.

Living our values enables us to foster trust, take risks, and achieve extraordinary results together:

• Curiosity: Question openly, learn quickly, share knowledge

• Community: Celebrate diversity, unite in purpose, practice empathy

• Commitment: Maintain high standards, honor promises, focus on impact

• Clarity: Communicate directly with care, bring focus to ambiguity

Located in Palo Alto, our highly-technical, nerdy (and nice!) small team brings together enterprise leaders from SignalFx, VMware, Google, and Meta. We're advised by industry leaders including Fredrick "Flee" Lee (CISO at Reddit), Raghu Raghuram (former VMware CEO), and Yvonne Wassenaar (former CIO of New Relic).

The Opportunity

As our Founding Account Executive, you'll build Lanai's entire enterprise sales motion from scratch. You'll generate pipeline, close $100K-$1M deals with CIOs and Chief Digital Officers, and establish the playbook that scales us from seed to Series A/B. This is a true founding role: meaningful pre-Series A equity, direct access to our founders, and complete autonomy to architect our GTM function.

You'll work directly with co-founder and CEO Lexi Reese (former executive at Google, Gusto, General Catalyst) and co-founder and Chairman Steve Herrod (founding CTO of VMware, invented virtualization). You'll be an IC first with opportunity to scale into leadership as we grow.

What You'll Do

Close transformational deals Own full enterprise sales cycles—generate your own meetings, navigate complex buying committees, and close six- and seven-figure annual contracts with Fortune 500 CIOs, Chief Data Officers, and Chief Digital Officers. Build pipeline without SDR support initially (you'll help us decide when to add it).

Build the sales function Create our playbook from scratch: establish qualification criteria, refine messaging, build demo flows, define ideal customer profile, test pricing and packaging, and document everything that enables future sellers to succeed.

Shape product and strategy Be the voice of the customer. Translate enterprise needs into product requirements, validate market positioning through real deals, and inform which verticals and use cases we prioritize for expansion.

Scale into leadership When we're ready to grow, hire and mentor the next wave of AEs—building the team and culture you wish you'd joined.

What You Bring

Required:

• 8-15 years selling complex enterprise software to CIOs, Chief Data Officers, or IT leadership at Fortune 500 companies

• Deep domain credibility in security, observability, AI, data governance, or IT operations

• Proven track record closing $100K-$1M+ annual contracts with 100%+ quota attainment for 3+ years

• Self-sourcing ability generating your own executive meetings without SDR support

• 0→1 startup DNA from early-stage companies (Seed to Series B) where you built from scratch

Ideal background: Start-up experience combined with training at Tier 1 companies known for exceptional enterprise sales: Datadog, Splunk, Sumo Logic, ServiceNow, Snowflake, Salesforce, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, VMware, or similar observability/security platforms.

Examples we love: "Founding AE," "Employee #14," "First enterprise seller," "Built territory from zero"

Geography: San Francisco Bay Area strongly preferred. Will consider Seattle, Chicago, or New York Metro with 30-40% travel.

What We Offer

• High Ownership: Design and build critical systems from the ground up versus joining established companies where core architecture decisions are already made

• Unmatched Financial Upside: Early equity in a SaaS AI governance and data analytics company with early exercise

• Exceptional Leadership Access: Work directly with co-founder/CEO Lexi Reese (Google, Gusto, Meta), co-founder/chairman Steve Herrod (original CTO of VMware, investor @ General Catalyst + Juxtapose), CTO Rajesh Raman (supported tech infra that took Meta/Google public before moving to SignalFX, Splunk) and CPO Mohit Mehta (Splunk, Nvidia)

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Unlimited PTO

Note: Research shows qualified candidates, especially from underrepresented groups, often hesitate to apply unless they meet 100% of listed qualifications. If you're excited about this role but don't check every box, we strongly encourage you to apply. We're committed to building a diverse team and would love to consider your unique background."

Lanai is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate representation of all backgrounds and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.