Account Executive (AE)

About OptimaFI

OptimaFI helps community financial institutions (CFIs) - credit unions and banks profitably grow using a combination of proven data assets, expert consulting, and modern cloud software.  We are OptimaFI, striving to create solutions for CFI’s that enable better decision making, transparency, and improved profitability for our clients. Our values are Curiosity, Transparency, Partnership, and Lagniappe - always adding a little extra for clients and colleagues alike. We are an 80-person company growing to 100 in the next 18 months, and we have no intention of ballooning headcount for the sake of it. We move with purpose, invest in what works, and use automation and AI to stay lean and effective.

The Opportunity

OptimaFI already serves a meaningful share of the community financial institution market across software and services. This role is about accelerating software revenue with an experienced seller who can create pipelines, grow existing relationships, and close business across the portfolio. You own the territory and the work required to make it productive.

You will sell to banks and credit unions where reputation matters, and the market is finite. That means relevant outreach, strong discovery, and disciplined follow-through. Find the right institution, understand the need, connect it to the right solution, and keep the deal moving.

Key Responsibilities

• Create the pipeline. Prospect through account research, direct outreach, relationships, referrals, events, and the existing client base. Be able to show what you personally created. 
• Own the territory. Build software revenue across both net-new institutions and current OptimaFI clients. Know where the best opportunities are and why.
• Run strong discovery. Understand the institution's stated needs, connect it to the right solution, and know when to bring in a technical specialist.
• Move the deal. Set clear next steps, maintain momentum, navigate objections and procurement, and carry qualified opportunities through close.
• Keep the forecast real. Maintain accurate stages, buyer contacts, timing, next steps, and close dates in Salesforce. Requalify or close what is not moving.
• Open doors for services. Identify qualified service needs and hand them to the right Services seller with the buyer need, context, and next step intact.
• Help us learn. Record why opportunities advanced, stalled, were won, or were lost. Patterns should improve how we sell, demo, position, and build.

Required Qualifications

• You've carried a real software sales number. You can walk us through quota, attainment, average deal size, sales cycle, and what you personally sourced.
• You're a hunter. You have created meaningful pipeline without relying primarily on SDRs, BDRs, or Marketing to hand you opportunities.
• You've done both. New-logo selling and expansion inside existing accounts. This is not an account-management-only seat.
• You can own a complex sale. You lead discovery and the buyer relationship, use specialists for depth, and do not disappear when the conversation gets technical.
• You can learn a portfolio. You are comfortable selling more than one product and translating technical or financial concepts into a clear business conversation.
• You've sold into a market where trust matters. You understand that disciplined, relevant outreach beats noise.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Financial institution experience. Community banking, credit unions, fintech, financial software, payments, credit risk, finance, or another regulated B2B environment will help you ramp faster.
• Experience in change. You have sold in a startup, scale-up, PE-backed, or evolving company where the process and support structure were not fully built for you.

You'll Thrive in This Role If You:

• Create your own momentum. You do not wait for perfect leads, perfect tools, or perfect timing.
• Ask good questions before pitching. You care more about relevance than reciting features.
• Own the next step. You make it easy for buyers and internal partners to know what happens next.
• Use experts well. You know when to bring in Solutions Consulting / Sales Engineering without handing away ownership of the deal.
• Say what is happening. You communicate clearly when an opportunity is real, stuck, or unlikely to close.

Why OptimaFI

•  A meaningful market to sell into. OptimaFI has an established financial-institution client base and a broader software portfolio we are actively bringing to market. 
• Real ownership. This is a senior territory role with room to hunt, expand relationships, and shape how we sell.
• Strong specialist support. You will have access to Solutions Consulting / Sales Engineering, Product, and banking SMEs without losing ownership of the sale.
• A remote environment. We trust adults to do excellent work and expect clear ownership, transparency, and follow-through.
• Benefits. Medical, dental, and vision coverage; Flexible PTO; a 401(k) match; and a work-from-home stipend.

The annual base salary range for this role is $80,000 to $105,000. This position is also eligible for commission-based compensation. At target performance, the anticipated on-target earnings (OTE) range is $135,000 to $175,000 annually, inclusive of base salary and target commission earnings.

We are committed to equitable and transparent compensation practices. Our ranges are informed by market data and reflect the dynamic nature of today’s labor market. Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills and location.

*Eligible Remote Locations: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CT, FL, GA, IL, KY, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, and WI.