Commercial Account Executive

Commercial Account Executive (A&D)

The Commercial Account Executive (A&D) is responsible for driving new business and expansion across commercial aerospace and defense markets—including primes, tier 1/2/3 suppliers, high‑growth defense technology companies, and adjacent industrial engineering organizations serving national‑security missions.

You will own the full sales cycle, from prospecting and multi‑stakeholder discovery through technical evaluations, pricing, and close. Istari’s sales motion is highly consultative and technical; successful AEs deeply understand engineering workflows, digital transformation pain points, and the operational pressures facing A&D hardware producers.

You will collaborate closely with Solution Architects, Demand Generation, and Sales Operations to build pipeline, qualify opportunities, shape technical evaluations, and drive meaningful revenue growth.

• Pipeline Generation & Territory Ownership: Build and execute a territory strategy focused on A&D primes, tiered suppliers, and advanced hardware companies. Drive outbound prospecting to engineering, program, and digital transformation stakeholders. Partner with Demand Gen and BDRs to build predictable, high‑quality pipeline. Qualify opportunities based on technical fit, value potential, and organizational readiness.
• Sales Execution & Deal Management: Own the full sales cycle from first meeting to close. Conduct discovery to uncover engineering bottlenecks, data fragmentation issues, supplier coordination challenges, and digital engineering priorities. Partner with Solution Architects to scope architectures, plan proofs of value, and deliver compelling demos. Build ROI models and business cases that show impact on design cycle time, supplier integration, cost reduction, and engineering throughput.
  
  Navigate complex stakeholder landscapes across engineering, IT, digital transformation teams, and procurement. Lead pricing, contracting, and commercial negotiations.
• Cross‑Functional
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Work closely with Solution Architects on technical validation strategy. Provide market, customer, and competitive insights to Product and Engineering. Collaborate with Sales Operations & Strategy on forecasting and territory planning. Contribute to A&D‑specific GTM plays, case studies, outreach messaging, and market content.
• Customer Relationship Building & Expansion: Build trusted relationships with engineering directors, digital engineering leads, program managers, and supply‑chain transformation teams. Identify multi‑program and multi‑business‑unit expansion opportunities to accelerate enterprise penetration. Support Customer Success during onboarding to ensure a smooth transition and long‑term value realization. Position Istari as the foundational infrastructure for boundaryless digital engineering, not a feature vendor.

• 4–8+ years of quota‑carrying enterprise software or technical B2B sales
• Experience selling into aerospace & defense / industrial / manufacturing customers
• Proven success navigating complex multi‑stakeholder sales cycles with engineering, operations, IT, and procurement
• Experience selling infrastructure, data platforms, engineering software, or cloud/SaaS into technical buyers
• Excellent discovery, qualification, and consultative selling capabilities
• Ability to translate technical workflows into compelling business value for engineering‑centric organizations
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; exceptional presenter and storyteller
• High ownership, persistence, and comfort operating in a dynamic, early‑stage environment
• Strong outbound prospecting skills and ability to build a territory from the ground up leveraging existing use‑cases / connections at Istari
• Team Player
• Willing to travel 25‑50%
• Must be a US citizen living within the United States

• Prior experience selling to A&D primes (e.g., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, GE Aerospace, L3
  
  Harris)
• Experience selling into tiered supplier ecosystems and hardware manufacturing programs
• Familiarity with digital engineering, model‑based engineering, CAD/CAE, PLM, or engineering…