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 tomorrow's 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 Company’s 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.
Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit
https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $224,400/year in our lowest geographic market up to $333,900/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
https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits. This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.
