Senior Account Executive - EMEA

Senior Account Executive (0→1 / New Market Growth)

About Leonardo.

Ai:
Leonardo.

Ai, an Australian tech startup now part of Canva, is on a transformative mission to democratise design and ignite the world’s creativity through our groundbreaking AI‑powered platform. With over 50 million users worldwide, we’re rapidly expanding our footprint across enterprise, creative teams, and professional workflows.

We’re looking for a Senior Business Development Manager (AE) to join our fast‑growing Sales team with a strong focus on 0→1 growth
. This role is ideal for someone who has helped companies enter new verticals or territories, land the first customers, and has a “hunter” sales mentality
. Our team operates as a “Business within a Business” (B2B motion within a B2C company), so someone with experience driving those initiatives is preferred.

You will own early market development within a specific vertical or territory (e.g. mid‑market creative industries such as marketing, advertising, gaming, and related sectors). This is not a purely inbound or expansion role – you’ll be responsible for opening the market
, validating use cases, and converting early adopters into referenceable customers.

You’ll work closely with the Business Development Director and cross‑functional partners to define strategy, test messaging, and turn early traction into a scalable pipeline.

• Build New Business Growth in New Markets:
  Proactively prospect and acquire new clients for our Teams and API products, building a foundation for exponential growth in our European Markets
• Land First Customers:
  Own the full sales cycle for early customers - from outbound prospecting and discovery through close - turning pilots and first deals into long‑term relationships.
• Validate Use Cases & Messaging:
  Work directly with customers to validate product‑market fit, refine value propositions, and develop compelling use cases for each vertical.
• Create Early GTM Playbooks:
  Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Product to document what works - ICPs, objections, pricing signals, and sales motions - to support future scaling.
• Pipeline Creation From Scratch:
  Proactively generate and manage pipeline through cold outreach, personal networks, and targeted account strategies.
• Product Evangelism:
  Run high‑impact demos and discovery sessions that clearly articulate Leonardo.
  
  Ai’s value for early adopters.
• Cross‑Functional
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Act as the voice of early customers, feeding insights back to product, marketing, and engineering to shape roadmap and onboarding.
• Market Intelligence:
  Track competitive activity, emerging trends, and customer feedback to position Leonardo.
  
  Ai as a category leader.
• Process Building:
  Help define and improve early sales processes, CRM hygiene, and reporting as we scale in new markets.

• Proven experience in 0→1 sales or business development, including launching new verticals, territories, or products.
• Strong outbound skills (email, Linked In, calls, networks) and resilience in early‑stage selling.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, unstructured environments, especially given the fast‑paced, ever‑evolving space of AI. There is no standard playbook here.
• Ability to wear multiple hats as needed in different functions (for example, creating your own marketing materials for a client, giving product teams feedback, working with legal on contracts, etc.)
• B2B SaaS, software, cloud, or API sales experience.
• Familiarity with creative industries (gaming, marketing, advertising, media) is a plus.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating with a global team.
• Willingness to travel interstate and overseas as needed.
• Preferred:
  Professional proficiency in French or German, given the majority of our clients are located in European markets.

We’re building more than a product – we’re building a team where bold ideas, curiosity, and creativity are not just welcomed, they’re expected!

We’re inclusive by design. Diversity isn’t just something we celebrate; it’s core to how we think, build, and grow. Your perspective matters here.…