Director, Frontier AI Sales, AWS Startups

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 tomorrows enterprise leaders. As AWS continues to lead in the GenAI and Agentic space we seek a Director of Frontier Sales to own operate and define strategy for the global AI startup business. This role is the single-threaded leader (STL) for substantial revenue driven by AI/ML GenAI and Agentic startup customers worldwide 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 globally. This includes direct responsibility for NAMER GenAI sales teams and support for all global GenAI teams across EMEA APAC and LATAM within the Startups organization. You will lead a large matrixed global organization spanning Sales Solution Architects Business Development and Go-To-Market functions across multiple countries and locations. Unlike traditional sales leadership roles this position requires single-threaded ownership of an entire 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. Additionally proficiency in managing direct and matrixed global resources is required and 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 Startup segment.
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 AWS-wide 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.
Global Organization Leadership
Lead and develop a globally distributed team across NAMER EMEA APAC and LATAM
Manage workforce planning and resource allocation globally across multiple countries and locations
Build and scale high-performing teams spanning multiple job families and functions
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.
Global Coordination: Managing distributed teams across multiple geographies cultures and time zones.
Stakeholder Complexity: Coordinating across internal leadership teams external partners and investors


15 years of technology-related sales or business development experience
8 years of sales leadership experience managing leaders of leaders
Proven track record building and scaling successful global sales organizations
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 globally distributed teams across multiple job families
Exceptional strategic thinking and ability to operate in highly ambiguous fast-moving environments
Outstanding verbal and written communication skills with ability to engage technical and business audiences
BA/BS degree required


MBA/MA/MS degree in relevant field
Previous 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
Experience managing substantial P&L responsibility
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 Companys 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.

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Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $224400/year in our lowest geographic market up to $333900/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge skills and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered equity sign-on payments and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package in addition to a full range of medical financial and/or other benefits. For more information please visit This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.