Account Executive Job Description
A full account executive job description template with base salary separated from on-target earnings, plus the ATS keywords recruiters screen for.
An Account Executive is the person who owns the number: the quota is not a suggestion, it is printed in a spreadsheet the whole sales org can see, and hitting or missing it is the plainest measure of how the job is going. That is different from most titles on this site, and it is worth naming up front, because it changes what a good AE posting even needs to say — the requirements section should tell you what quota you would be walking into, not just what skills to bring.
Sales is also the one job family here where the posted salary is only half the story. Compensation splits into a base salary — the amount that lands every paycheck regardless of the quarter — and variable pay tied to hitting quota, and the two together are called on-target earnings, or OTE. A posting that advertises only an OTE number is showing what a rep earns in the best case, at plan, and leaving out what happens in a slow quarter. This posting lists both on purpose.
The other thing that varies more than the title suggests: how much of the pipeline an AE has to build themselves. At a company with a strong SDR team, an AE spends most of their time running discovery-to-close on opportunities that arrive pre-qualified. At a leaner company, or one still building out its go-to-market motion, "Account Executive" can quietly mean full-cycle including a meaningful amount of self-sourced prospecting. Ask which one a posting means before assuming.
Brindlow · Chicago, IL
Full-time · On-site
$70,000 – $85,000 base ($140,000 – $170,000 OTE)
About the role
Brindlow sells supply chain visibility software — real-time shipment tracking and inventory data — to mid-market manufacturers and distributors, and the Account Executive team closes the deals that keep that business growing. You'll run a full sales cycle on opportunities in the $20,000–$75,000 annual range, most of them qualified and handed off by the SDR team, with a two-to-four month cycle from first call to signature.
This is an onsite, Chicago-based seat on a team of eight AEs who sit together, run deal reviews together, and close together. We're looking for someone who wants that — a trading-floor kind of energy — rather than someone who'd prefer to sell from home.
What you'll do
- Run a full sales cycle — discovery, demo, proposal, negotiation, close — on opportunities primarily sourced by the SDR team.
- Carry and consistently attain a quarterly quota, with pipeline coverage you can defend in a forecast call, not just hope for.
- Self-source a portion of your own pipeline through outbound and your existing network, rather than relying on inbound alone.
- Deliver product demos built around a specific prospect's supply chain, not a fixed script.
- Negotiate pricing and contract terms within approved guidelines, and know when to escalate an exception rather than make one unilaterally.
- Keep Salesforce accurate enough that your manager's forecast is based on your data, not a guess about it.
- Hand off closed accounts to the Customer Success team with the context a new CSM actually needs.
- Represent Brindlow at two to three industry trade shows a year.
What we're looking for
- 3+ years of full-cycle, quota-carrying B2B sales experience, ideally selling software to mid-market accounts.
- A track record of hitting quota that you can speak to specifically in an interview — the number, not just the vibe.
- Experience selling into a multi-stakeholder buying committee (operations, IT, finance) rather than to a single buyer.
- Working fluency with Salesforce or a comparable CRM, and the forecasting discipline to keep it current.
- Strong written and verbal communication, including comfort presenting to VP- and C-level buyers.
- The resilience to stay steady through a pipeline that has far more no's in it than yes's.
Nice to have
- Experience selling supply chain, logistics or operations software specifically.
- Familiarity with MEDDIC, MEDDPICC or a similar qualification framework.
- Experience selling into manufacturing or distribution verticals.
- A track record of exceeding quota in a role where you had to build pipeline yourself, not just work inbound leads.
Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision coverage, with employee premiums covered in full.
- 401(k) with a 4% company match.
- Uncapped commission with accelerators above 100% of quota, paid monthly.
- Twenty days of paid time off plus company holidays.
Salary range
As posted for this sample role. Real pay varies by employer, location and experience.
$70,000–$85,000/ yr
ATS keywords for this role
The applicant tracking system (ATS) — the recruiting software a hiring team searches and filters applicants with — will screen for these. Weight shows how central each one is to this specific posting.
Required and central (4)
Important (10)
Mentioned in passing (4)
Frequently asked questions
Why does this posting list a base salary range instead of just an OTE number?
Because OTE (on-target earnings) is base plus variable at 100% of quota — the number a rep earns in the best case, not the one guaranteed every paycheck. Listing only OTE is technically true and still misleading, since it says nothing about what a slow quarter pays. This posting lists the base separately so you can see both halves.
What does "full-cycle" mean for this role?
It means the AE runs the entire deal — discovery, demo, proposal, negotiation, close — rather than only the back half. At this company most opportunities arrive pre-qualified from the SDR team, but a meaningful share of pipeline is still self-sourced. A posting that says full-cycle without saying who generates the pipeline is only telling you half of what the job involves.
What's a realistic quota for a mid-market AE role like this one?
It varies by company and deal size, but a common industry pattern is a quota worth roughly four to five times OTE, carried mostly in new-business bookings. Ask directly what the quota number is and what percentage of the team hit it last year — both are answerable questions, and a company that won't answer either is worth noting.
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