Strategic Account Executive, Zum
SaaS Sales
$90-115k
Student transportation services
Be an early applicant
Student transportation services
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
$90-115k
201-500 employees
Company mission
To bring student transporation into a new era enabling greater safety, sustainability, equity, and transparency.
Role
Who you are
- 5+ years of B2B SaaS sales experience, ideally as a strategic or enterprise Account Executive, with a track record of closing six-figure and multi-year deals and consistently meeting quota
- Direct experience selling technology or services to K-12 school districts or other public-sector buyers, including familiarity with RFPs, cooperative purchasing, and board approvals; school transportation experience a plus
- Proven ability to run complex sales cycles with multiple stakeholders, from superintendents and CFOs to operations and IT leaders
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, particularly in consultative selling, presentation, and negotiation, and strong analytical and creative problem solving abilities
- Ability to hold your own in meetings with both senior officials and day-to-day operators and speak as a thought leader in the transportation space
- Entrepreneurial self-starter who is comfortable with travel within the territory, motivated by the mission of improving students' daily journey to school, and excited to work in a fast-growing, quickly changing environment
What the job involves
- As a Strategic Account Executive, you will own the full sales cycle for Zūm's SaaS offerings, providing self-operated districts AI-driven routing, real-time vehicle and student visibility, and tools that improve on-time performance and communication with parents and students. You will build trusted relationships with transportation directors, superintendents, and district technology teams, guiding them through complex, multi-stakeholder, public-sector buying processes. This role reports to our Vice President of SaaS Sales
- Own your territory from first conversation to signed contract, and build account plans that map each key district's decision-makers, influencers, budget calendar and procurement path
- Effectively prospect, develop, and close new districts, consistently meeting or exceeding quarterly and annual quota
- Run discovery and tailored demos of Zūm CMX that connect real-time visibility, AI-driven routing, and fleet efficiency to each district's goals for on-time performance, attendance, trust from parents and students, and cost savings
- Maintain a healthy, well-documented pipeline, and accurate forecast in our CRM
- Use in-depth knowledge of industry trends to consult and support prospective customers, and share customer and competitive insights across Sales, Marketing, Product, and Legal teams
- Respond to and shape RFPs, RFQs, and proposals, partnering with Product, Solutions, Legal, and Finance to craft pricing and contract structures that win
- Represent Zūm at national and state education and transportation conferences, building a strong reference network in your territory
Our take
The largest mass transit system in the US is student transportation, and it’s more than double the size of all others combined. It’s rife with inefficiencies, however: circuitous routes mean many students are spending more time travelling and less time sleeping, exercising, or participating in enrichment activities, affecting student outcomes and inequalities.
Zum is looking to overhaul school transport with the help of cloud computing and AI. It has a central hub from which it manages route planning and vehicle assignments across 4,000 areas and school districts in California, meaning fleet deployment, maintenance, and operational efficiency can be optimised. It also offers cameras and tracking in vehicles, and is committed to having a fully electric, 10,000-strong bus fleet by 2025.
It's an ambitious plan, but it’s clear that the US school busing system is in dire need of an overhaul. We’re seeing startups like Via offer a similar service to NY schools, gathering similarly strong momentum. With Zum having reached Unicorn status in 2024 thanks to new funding, and its California roll-out continuing without a hitch, it appears, for now, to be leading the modern student transportation startup pack.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
18% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Apr 2026
$100m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Jun 2024
$32m
GRANT
Total funding: $468.8m
Company benefits
- Medical, dental and vision benefits, including paid membership to One Medical
- Unlimited vacation policy
- Free daily catered lunches + fully stocked kitchen at HQ
- Ability to have a huge impact at an early-stage, mission-driven startup
- Fun office culture and a team you would be proud to work with
Company HQ
Redwood Shores, Redwood City, CA
Leadership
Ritu Narayan
(Co-Founder & CEO)Worked as a Lead Product Manager at Yahoo!, eBay, then took up a Sloan Fellowship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Vivek Garg
(Co-Founder & COO)Spent over a decade as a Major in the Indian Army, then went on to found and lead BAPAR, before taking up a Researcher role at Stanford University's SEED Institute.
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