Northern Italy or the DACH region preferred, with extensive regional travel
Account Executive, Robotics & Automation: Continental Europe
This is a high-impact role for an ambitious and entrepreneurial commercial operator to own Cenotian's front line in Continental Europe on a high-stakes, IPO-bound journey to build the world's leading asset-backed financing platform for robotics and industrial automation.
With strong institutional backing and a mandate to scale rapidly, we are building a world-class commercial organization. The Account Executive, Robotics & Automation: Continental Europe is the person who turns that opportunity into qualified pipeline, closed transactions, and contracted future demand across the region.
Context
Robotics and industrial automation are entering an explosive adoption phase, comparable to the formative super-cycle decades of aircraft leasing, telecom tower infrastructure, and hyperscale data centers. Yet a fundamental financing and commercialization gap constrains deployment at scale, including across the industrial regions of Continental Europe. Traditional leasing models fail due to their inherent need for residual value, redeployability, and secondary markets. OEMs and system integrators shoulder financing risk, while operators resist capex and stranded risk. Cenotian has solved this structural problem. Cenotian provides asset-backed financing infrastructure that enables OEMs and integrators to scale, operators to deploy automation without balance-sheet exposure or stranded risk, and institutional investors to access a new, prime fixed-income asset class without operational involvement in warehousing, spares, maintenance, or asset operations. Our market is technical and relationship-driven. Cenotian wins through face-to-face credibility, disciplined qualification, clear financial solutions, and reliable execution. The strongest accounts begin with one live transaction and develop into repeat volume and demand-under-contract agreements.
Position overview
The Account Executive, Robotics & Automation: Continental Europe owns a defined territory and carries targets for qualified pipeline, closed transactions, deployed capital, repeat business, and demand-under-contract agreements. This is a hands-on, quota-carrying role combining direct deal origination and closing, system-integrator and operator relationships, OEM coordination, and disciplined pipeline management. You will personally manage the full commercial path while coordinating closely with Finance, Underwriting, Technical Qualification, Legal, and Platform & Infrastructure. This is first and foremost a revenue role. Personal deal closing and primary customer-facing contact are expected day in and day out. You will also improve the sales system that makes the next transaction faster.
- Reports to:
- Head of Commercial / CCO
- Location:
- Northern Italy or the DACH region preferred, with extensive regional travel
Key responsibilities
- 01
Regional revenue and pipeline ownership
- Own qualified pipeline, contract volume, and closed transactions across your territory against clear targets set with the Head of Commercial.
- Build a precise target-account universe across system integrators, solution OEMs, and selected industrial operators.
- Prioritize companies using evidence: project type, customer quality, signed demand, margins, working-capital pressure, engineering maturity, and delivery capacity.
- Personally originate and close deals on an ongoing basis. You carry a number.
- Maintain rigorous CRM and MIS hygiene so pipeline, forecast, and deal status remain a reliable source of truth.
- 02
Discovery, qualification and deal execution
- Meet owners, managing directors, CFOs, sales leaders, project managers, and engineers face to face.
- Understand recent projects, payment milestones, gross margins, backlog, customer concentration, and the precise growth constraint.
- Disqualify weak opportunities early and protect the organization from false pipeline.
- Originate financing opportunities tied to signed automation orders or clearly specified equipment purchases.
- Coordinate indicative structures, evidence collection, technical review, underwriting, proposal, contracting, and closing.
- 03
Customer and deal experience
- Own the customer experience from first interaction through contract execution and the first operating cycle.
- Ensure proposals and structures reflect real-world buying behavior, deployment realities, and operator economics.
- Keep momentum through multi-party processes involving integrators, operators, OEMs, and capital providers.
- Negotiate within approved pricing and risk guardrails.
- Act as the regional commercial voice into product and structuring, surfacing what customers actually need.
- 04
OEM, integrator and operator relationships
- Build and steward key relationships with robotics OEMs, system integrators, solution OEMs, and industrial operators.
- Develop regional cluster density through direct outreach, referrals, OEM relationships, banks, trade bodies, chambers, and industry events.
- Land and grow regional financing partnerships in alignment with global agreements owned by the Head of Commercial.
- Represent Cenotian at customer sites, trade fairs, and relevant industry forums.
- Position Cenotian as critical deployment infrastructure, not merely a financing provider.
- 05
Repeat business and contracted demand
- Convert successful first transactions into repeat deals, multi-site relationships, and demand-under-contract agreements.
- Build account plans around customer pipeline, financing needs, product fit, and partner potential.
- Make Cenotian part of the customer's normal quoting and project-planning process.
- Surface opportunities for technical qualification, compliance, procurement, and other attached services where they create real value.
- Institutionalize account intelligence and handoffs so relationships outlast any single transaction.
- 06
Commercial intelligence and feedback loop
- Feed continuous market intelligence to the Head of Commercial, Finance, Underwriting, and Special Missions.
- Surface early signals on pricing pressure, technology shifts, adoption bottlenecks, competitor behavior, and regional dynamics.
- Improve outreach, qualification, proposals, playbooks, and handoffs after every transaction.
- Help shape product and portfolio direction through frontline insight rather than reactive risk management.
You will know it is working when
The territory contains a high-quality pipeline grounded in direct evidence rather than nominal opportunity volume.
Transactions close within Cenotian's return, risk, and strategic criteria.
Customers return after the first financing cycle and introduce additional projects.
Demand-under-contract agreements become a credible extension of the strongest accounts.
Forecast accuracy and CRM discipline are trusted by the executive team.
Candidate profile
Experience
- At least 5 years in direct B2B sales, business development, key accounts, or commercial leadership within robotics, industrial automation, machine building, advanced manufacturing, industrial software, equipment finance, or a close adjacent market.
- A proven quota-carrying record supported by numbers and specific closed transactions.
- Existing credibility with system integrators, OEMs, machine builders, or industrial operators.
- Demonstrated ability to sell complex, multi-party solutions to sophisticated counterparties.
- Experience building durable customer relationships across Northern Italy, DACH, or another Continental European industrial region.
- A technical or engineering background is highly valuable. Direct equipment-finance experience is useful when paired with industrial credibility.
Personality
- Extremely ambitious, entrepreneurial, and ownership-driven.
- Hunter mentality with the discipline to build a repeatable motion rather than chase one-off wins.
- Prefers a qualified opportunity to a large nominal pipeline.
- Clear and direct communicator who builds trust across commercial and technical teams.
- Owns follow-through and does not outsource customer responsibility to internal functions.
- Comfortable with heavy regional travel and industrial environments beyond major city centers.
Skills and competencies
- Strong commercial instincts paired with enough financial fluency to explain cash timing, repayment, pricing, security, and risk allocation.
- Ability to operate credibly with owners, CEOs, CFOs, heads of engineering, plant leaders, and procurement teams.
- Skilled negotiator capable of managing long-term, multi-party relationships.
- Disciplined pipeline, forecasting, account planning, CRM, and MIS habits.
- Professional English plus native or near-native Italian or German.
Organizational context
The Account Executive, Robotics & Automation: Continental Europe will work most closely with:
- Head of Commercial / CCO - manager and global owner of commercial execution, OEM partnerships, demand creation, and pricing guardrails.
- CFO / Head of Finance and Underwriting - transaction structure, evidence requirements, risk assessment, and approval.
- Technical Qualification - independent assessment of system integrators, solution OEMs, and live automation projects.
- General Counsel - contracting, enforceability, data rights, and negotiation playbooks.
- Special Missions Group - new country motions, partner routes, customer experiences, and commercial systems before permanent handover.
- The Account Executive owns the regional account and commercial progression. Functional decision rights remain with the relevant executive owners.
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