📋 Job Overview
Backblaze (Nasdaq: BLZE) is seeking a Director, NeoCloud Sales (Sell-To) to build and run the NeoCloud segment as its own business inside the CRO organization. This role involves building and running this segment with your own quota, your own team, and the mandate to decide how Backblaze wins each account.
🏢 About Backblaze
We started by building storage servers from scratch in a Palo Alto apartment to save 90% on hardware. Turns out hard constraints make for pretty good engineering. That discipline forged a platform that performs as well or better than competitors, scales to multi-exabyte workloads, and costs a fraction of what AWS or Google charge. AI infrastructure runs on data. Storage gets hard at scale. We've been breaking, rebuilding, and improving that storage layer for 20 years.
Today, the world's leading AI infrastructure providers, neoclouds, and data-intensive businesses run on Backblaze. Our platform includes:
- B2 Overdrive - high-throughput object storage engineered for AI infrastructure, GPU workloads, and massive-scale data pipelines
- B2 Neo - white-label enterprise cloud storage powering neocloud platforms for AI, HPC, and media
- B2 Cloud Storage - S3-compatible object storage with predictable pricing, free egress, and no lock-in
- Computer Backup - automatic, continuous endpoint backup for Macs and PCs
500,000+ customers. 175 countries. Nasdaq: BLZE. backblaze.com
🎯 The Role
NeoClouds are GPU-rich, AI-native infrastructure providers, and they need fast, affordable, S3-compatible storage at scale. Backblaze is the high-performance capacity storage layer for AI. We have mapped the top 80 NeoClouds and Frontier Labs worldwide, about 70% in the US and 30% in EMEA, and we already have traction in the US, UK, and France.
You will build and run this segment as its own business inside the CRO organization: your own quota, your own team, and the mandate to decide how Backblaze wins each account. These deals look more like telecom or federal sales than SaaS. Cycles are long, buyers sit at the CXO level, and contracts run three to five years. Often Backblaze sits behind the NeoCloud's own storage service, so the work continues after signature, in SLAs, support, and integration.
This is not a territory to inherit. If your instinct is to wait for a playbook, or to hand the CXO calls to someone more senior, this isn't the right fit. If your instinct is to pick the first five accounts, write the pursuit plan, and take the call yourself, keep reading.
✅ Key Responsibilities
- Land and grow five of the Top 25 NeoClouds as meaningful customers, and land 25 more from the rest of the list.
- Deliver $20M in total contract value across the base.
- Grow the existing NeoCloud base outside committed contracts such as CoreWeave.
- Own both pipeline and forecast for the whole segment, and carry a named-account number yourself.
- Hire, onboard, and coach a growing team of BD Pursuit Specialists / AEs. Set the KPIs and ARR-conversion targets they are paid against.
- Own the Sell-To motion for the segment, with its own plays for each type of NeoCloud.
- Work with Strategic Partnerships on OEM and ISV flywheels with partners such as NVIDIA, Super Micro, Weka, VAST, and AMD.
- Negotiate SLAs, IP, revenue share, and infrastructure-as-a-service terms when Backblaze runs behind a NeoCloud's service.
- Bring our Executives (including the CEO), Cloud Operations and Engineering into each integration, and keep them engaged after signature.
- Secure a Backblaze executive sponsor and a customer executive sponsor for every priority account, then run CXO conversations without senior leadership in the room.
- Take over open NeoCloud opportunities and existing coverage from the current BD owners by the end of Q1.
📌 Required Qualifications
- Infrastructure fluency. You know or can get fluent in the NeoCloud infrastructure stack: GPU compute, networking, storage, and orchestration.
- Executive presence. You have built SVP, CTO, and CXO relationships and can run those meetings alone.
- Product depth. You can work with senior product and development teams at a NeoCloud and hold a strategic conversation, not only a commercial one.
- OEM and ISV deal experience. You have negotiated service integration, SLAs, IP, revenue share, and infrastructure-as-a-service structures.
- Seller of record. You have carried a quota and closed deals with your name on them.
- Leadership. You have led a small, senior, quota-carrying team and still carry a number yourself.
- Executive sponsorship. You win sponsors on both sides of the table.
⭐ Desirable Experience
- Experience selling to NeoClouds, GPU clouds, hyperscalers, cloud providers, or AI infrastructure companies
- Experience building a new segment or coverage model from scratch
- Familiarity with S3-compatible object storage, data egress economics, and AI/ML data pipelines
🎁 Benefits
- Competitive compensation and equity package
- Full benefits including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k) with matching
- RSU grants for full-time employees
- ESPP program
- Flexible vacation policy
- Maternity & paternity leave
- MacBook to use for work, plus a generous stipend to personalize your workstation
- Childcare bonus (human children only)
- Fertility treatment and support
- Learning & development program
- Commuter benefits
- A collaborative and transparent culture that supports a healthy work-life balance
🛂 Visa & Eligibility
At Backblaze, we value being fair and good to our customers, partners, and employees. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of our values. We are committed to fostering a workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, socio-economic status, ability, veteran status, and education. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.
