Telcom Sales & Account Manager

Job description

**Share - Wholesale Sales & Account Manager** Share is the global marketplace for bandwidth. We aggregate telco infrastructure into a single intelligence layer and give ISPs, hyperscalers, and AI companies a seamless path to deliver connectivity into every home and business. What makes us different is how pricing works. Most wholesale relationships are built on negotiation: who has the leverage, who squeezes the better rate, who blinks first. We have taken that game off the table. Share runs transparent market pricing, and our fees for access to capacity are the lowest in the market and non negotiable, because they are simply the honest wholesale cost at which we obtain that capacity. Everyone buys at the same floor, and everyone gets bottom tier pricing. That changes the job. The person in this seat is not spending their days fighting over a few cents per Mbps. For the first time, a wholesale closer gets to do the part of the work that actually builds something: bringing the right partners into the ecosystem, lending it credibility, and putting attention where it belongs, while pricing that already wins on its own merits does the rest. You bring the relationships and the trust. We bring a price nobody can beat. **About the role** We are hiring a Wholesale Sales & Account Manager to own the commercial relationship between Share and the downstream ISPs and enterprises who buy capacity from us. This is the person who turns our aggregated backbone into signed wholesale deals: IP transit, wavelengths and capacity, DIA, and the partner ISP onboarding that sits at the centre of our model. This is not a role for someone who learns the market after they arrive. The single most important thing you bring is who you already know: a live, current book of ISP, carrier, peering, and enterprise relationships across Kenya and the rest of East Africa, and a track record of closing wholesale bandwidth deals into them. We are hiring the network you have already built as much as the skills you developed using it. You report to the founding team and work shoulder to shoulder with our network engineering team, because in wholesale the commercial conversation and the technical handoff are the same conversation. This is a portfolio led hire. We evaluate candidates first on the strength, depth, and currency of their existing relationships across the African carrier, ISP, peering, and enterprise community, and on a demonstrable history of closing wholesale bandwidth deals into that network. A proven book of live relationships is weighted above headline sales figures. We assess relationship quality and judgement, and we never ask you to disclose anything that would breach a current or former employer's confidentiality. **What you'll own** *The book of business* - Own the full wholesale sales cycle into downstream ISPs and enterprises across East Africa: prospecting, qualification, commercial structuring, contract, and renewal. - Bring and actively work an existing portfolio of carrier, ISP, peering, and enterprise relationships from day one, turning standing relationships into signed capacity deals. - Build and maintain a credible, data backed pipeline in the CRM, with honest forecasting reported on a regular cadence. *Wholesale deal making* - Sell the full wholesale product set: IP transit, capacity, IRUs and wavelengths, DIA, MPLS, L2 and L3 services, and downstream ISP onboarding onto the Share platform. - Structure commercially sound deals on terms, SLAs, capacity, and provisioning with the network and finance teams. Pricing is transparent and fixed, so your craft goes into sizing the deal right and getting it live, not into a margin fight. - Translate fluently between the commercial ask and the technical reality of the handoff, so you are credible with a partner's commercial lead and their senior engineer alike. *Account management and retention* - Act as the primary point of contact for onboarded wholesale clients, run regular service reviews, drive upsell and cross sell, and own renewals and retention. - Resolve commercial and service issues end to end by coordinating across pre sales, provisioning, and operations. - Keep a tight feedback loop to product and network leadership on market needs, competitor moves, and capacity demand. *Market development across Kenya* - Develop new prospects across the Kenyan market, including travel within the country as required. - Represent Share at industry forums, peering and IX events, and with relevant partners, deepening our standing in the Kenyan wholesale and peering community. **Who we're looking for** The right person is a relationship rich wholesale closer who is already trusted inside the Kenyan carrier and ISP community, not a generalist B2B seller who would build that network from scratch. If your phone already rings when a Kenyan ISP needs capacity, keep reading. Portfolio is the primary hiring driver. We weight a strong, verifiable, current book of network and peer relationships and wholesale deals above raw quota attainment. A candidate with deep, live relationships and a credible deal history is preferred over one with bigger headline numbers but thinner relationships. The kind of background we expect to see: candidates currently or recently selling wholesale capacity at a Tier 1 or regional carrier or backbone provider, for example Seacom, MTN / Bayobab, Cogent, Afr-IX, Hurricane Electric, or comparable subsea, transit, or backbone operators active in Kenya. *Must have* - A live, current book of ISP, carrier, peering, and enterprise relationships in Kenya that you can put to work immediately. - A demonstrable track record of closing wholesale bandwidth deals (IP transit, capacity, IRUs, DIA, MPLS, or submarine cable systems), with named deals and outcomes where confidentiality allows. - Four to five plus years in B2B, wholesale, or carrier telecom sales or key account management, with real Kenyan market depth. - Working command of wholesale telecom products and the commercial frameworks around them (SLAs, capacity contracts, peering). - Enough technical fluency to be credible with a partner's engineering team: you understand transit versus peering, ports and capacity, and the basics of the handoff. - Strong relationship building, written and verbal communication, and real post sales and retention discipline. - Bachelor's degree in Business, IT, Telecommunications, Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent track record. - Based in Nairobi, or ready to relocate, and willing to travel within Kenya. *Nice to have* - An existing peering or IX network and a feel for IXP economics and route server dynamics. - Prior experience onboarding or reselling downstream ISPs onto a wholesale or aggregation platform. - Exposure to enterprise connectivity sales alongside the carrier book. - Experience selling into a startup or growth stage operator where you built process, not just worked it. **How we'll evaluate your portfolio** Because the book is central, the process examines it directly and respects confidentiality. - Portfolio walk through. You talk us through the segments of your network (carriers, ISPs, peers, enterprises), describing relationship depth, the decision makers you reach, and how recently each was active. We care about breadth, depth, and currency, not a contact count. - Deal case studies. Be ready to walk through two or three wholesale deals end to end: how the relationship started, how you structured and closed it, the commercial shape, and how it has performed since. Reference checks with named clients or partners may be requested where appropriate. - Live relationship validation. A practical conversation about which relationships you could realistically activate for Share in the first 90 days, and a written 30 / 60 / 90 day plan against your own book. - Technical and commercial credibility. A working session with a member of our network team to confirm you can carry a handoff conversation. We never expect you to disclose anything that breaches a current employer's confidentiality. We are assessing the strength and currency of your relationships and your judgement, not asking for commercially sensitive data. **Compensation** This role is built to make closing pay. A competitive base keeps you steady while you work your book; the real upside sits in the per-deal bonus, which is uncapped and earned every time you sign and bring a deal live. Base. A competitive monthly base salary, set against your experience and the strength of the book you bring. Per-deal closing bonus, the headline. A substantial, KPI-driven cash bonus paid on every wholesale contract you sign and activate. It is a one-time payment per closed deal, scaled to the size and strategic value of the deal, and it is uncapped. The more you close, and the bigger you close, the more you earn. Standard deals pay well; named anchor and strategic-target deals pay more. There is no limit on the number of deals you can land or what you can take home from them. Paid promptly. Bonuses are paid in the payroll cycle following service activation, so the reward lands close to the win. **Equity and benefits** - Meaningful equity in a mission driven, investor backed company (US incorporated, Kenya operating entity). - Private health and wellness cover, plus full statutory entitlements under Kenyan law (NSSF, SHIF / SHA, and AHL contributions, with PAYE handled on payroll). **Location, reporting and terms** - Location: Nairobi - Territory of focus: East Africa and South Africa - Reports to: the founding team, working closely with network engineering. - Travel:Across East Africa, as required for business development. - Engagement: Full time employment under Kenya law. - Confidentiality: given access to client and pricing data, the role carries confidentiality and non solicitation obligations, subject to enforceability under Kenyan law. If your book is real and your phone already rings, we want to talk.