Founding Account Executive

Power lines, gas pipelines and railways are still inspected the way they were 50 years ago: by helicopter. Expensive, noisy, and up to a tonne of CO₂ per flight hour.

We built the alternative. The HyLighter is a 12-metre autonomous airship running on hydrogen. It flies for up to 10 hours, almost silently, and spots a 1 mm defect from 25 metres up.

It’s not a prototype. HyLighters already fly missions for France’s largest energy and rail operators and have flown over the Palace of Versailles. Backed by Y Combinator, we just raised €13M to go from 4 airships to 15.

Working at HyLight

We design, build and fly every HyLighter ourselves, under one roof on a former airbase. Which means:

• You own it all the way. At a big company, you’d own a small piece of one subsystem. Here, you design it, test it, stand on the airfield when it flies, and see the client act on the data it brings back.
• Weeks, not years. Ideas go from whiteboard to flight test in weeks.

Job Summary

As a Founding Account Executive, you will play a central role in accelerating HyLight's commercial growth. Working closely with our CBO, you will own the full commercial pipeline for a defined set of accounts and territories — from prospecting through to closing — engaging directly with senior stakeholders at Europe's largest infrastructure operators.

This is not a support role. You'll be given real ownership over revenue targets, account strategy, and go-to-market decisions, while helping build the commercial foundations of a fast-growing climate tech company from the ground up.

The Mission

Reporting to the CBO, you will:

• Own and grow a portfolio of target accounts across our key industries (gas, power, and other infrastructure operators).
• Build, qualify, and prioritize pipeline through outbound prospecting, market research, and commercial intelligence.
• Lead the full sales cycle: outreach, discovery, technical/commercial qualification, proposal, negotiation, and close.
• Manage and deepen relationships with key infrastructure operators, from first contact through to contract renewal.
• Define and execute account and territory strategy, including identifying new markets and expansion opportunities.
• Analyze customer needs, market trends, and competitive dynamics to sharpen HyLight's commercial strategy.
• Partner closely with technical and product teams to translate customer challenges into HyLight's value proposition and roadmap input.
• Build and improve scalable commercial processes (CRM hygiene, playbooks, forecasting) as the team grows.
• Represent HyLight at industry events, conferences, and client sites.

Experience :

• 4+ years of B2B business development, sales, or account management experience, ideally in infrastructure, energy, industrial services, deep tech, or a related B2B technical sales environment.
• Track record of owning and closing complex, multi-stakeholder deals with enterprise or utility-scale customers.
• Experience building outbound pipeline and managing a sales cycle end-to-end, not just account management.

Technical Skills

• Strong analytical and research skills; comfortable building business cases and ROI arguments for technical buyers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including with senior/executive stakeholders.
• Fluent with CRM tools (HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar) and comfortable owning pipeline reporting and forecasting.
• Proficient with Excel/Google Sheets and presentation tools.

Soft Skills

• Founder-level ownership and autonomy; comfortable operating with significant independence.
• Proactive, resourceful, and comfortable taking initiative in ambiguous, fast-changing environments.
• Comfortable taking calculated risks and making fast decisions with incomplete information.
• Rigorous and organized in delivering high-quality work under deadline pressure.
• Curious, eager to learn technical subject matter, and passionate about building and experimenting.
• Strong team player, comfortable working in a fast-paced, multidisciplinary team.

Languages:

French and English required.

Bonus Qualities

• Experience selling into utilities, energy, or infrastructure operators specifically.
• Experience selling technical/hardware-enabled or data/analytics products to industrial buyers.
• Prior startup or scale-up commercial experience.
• Interest or background in climate tech, energy, infrastructure, or deep tech.

What We Offer

• Real ownership over a book of business and direct impact on HyLight's commercial growth.
• Close collaboration with the CBO and exposure to executive decisio