Insider Guide
UK AE Benchmarking Report
2026 pay benchmarks for venture-backed B2B SaaS companies — Seed to Series C
What AEs are paid at Seed to Series C SaaS companies, by sales motion. Every figure in this report comes from a named company: there are no anonymous averages.
The Snapshot
| Sales Motion | What They Sell | Base Range | Median Base | Typical OTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMB | Deals under £25k, cycles under 60 days | £50k–£75k | £65,000 | £130,000 |
| Mid-Market | Deals of £25k–£100k, cycles of 1–6 months | £51k–£100k | £74,000 | £148,000 |
| Enterprise | Deals of £100k+, cycles of 6–12+ months | £70k–£150k | £110,000 | £220,000 |
Typical OTE is shown at 2x base: the split used by every company in this report that publishes one. Ranges and medians are drawn from the 25 named companies in the tables below.
How we built this. Published 2025–26 job adverts at named Seed to Series C SaaS companies, verified compensation-platform data, and Timberseed placement records. Every salary is the upper end of a real advertised or recorded range. No estimates, no anonymised composites.
What Stands Out
- 01. The title doesn't set the price. The motion does. Enterprise seats in this report start at £70k base. The highest Mid-Market seat pays £100k. Benchmark against deal size and cycle length, not the words at the top of the job spec.
- 02. Early-stage pays a premium, not a discount. The highest Mid-Market base here belongs to an early-stage company, not a Series C one. First closers carry founding-hire risk and build the playbook, and the market prices that in.
- 03. 50/50 is the default, not the ceiling. Every company in this report that publishes an OTE doubles the base. Offer less than 2x and experienced closers read it as a signal about your pipeline, not your budget.
- 04. AI-native companies are setting the top of the range. They hold the highest base in both SMB and Mid-Market, and two of the three highest OTEs at Enterprise. If you're hiring against them, you're hiring against their numbers.
- 05. London is still moving. SaaS salaries rose 6.7% in London over the past year, against 4.0% across the UK as a whole. A benchmark you set in 2025 is already behind.
Year-on-year movement: IT Jobs Watch UK SaaS salary medians, twelve months to August 2026.
SMB Account Executives
High-velocity closing roles selling to smaller customers (deal sizes under ~£25k). Salaries show the upper end of each company's range.
| Company | Industry | HQ | Stage | Starting Salary | OTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opply | Food Supply Chain | London | Seed | £50,000 | £75,000 |
| Magentic | AI Procurement Agents | London | Seed | £65,000 | £130,000 |
| Zinc | Reference & Background Checking | London | Series A | £60,000 | £60,000 |
| Airspeed | AI Revenue Execution | London | Series A | £65,000 | £65,000 |
| Super Payments | Payments | London | Series A | £70,000 | £70,000 |
| Cledara | SaaS Spend Management | London | Series A | £51,000 | £86,000 |
| Fyxer AI | AI Email Assistant | London | Series B | £75,000 | £150,000 |
Other benefits across these companies include: share options, work from home allowance, personal development fund, monthly well-being day, gym membership, company retreats, private medical insurance.
Mid-Market Account Executives
Closing roles with deal sizes of ~£25k–£100k and 1–6 month cycles. Salaries show the upper end of each company's range.
| Company | Industry | HQ | Stage | Starting Salary | OTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platformed | AI RFP & DDQ Automation | London | Early-stage | £90,000 | £180,000 |
| trumpet | AI Digital Sales Rooms | London | Seed | £80,000 | £160,000 |
| Ravio | Compensation Platform | London | Series A | £72,000 | £102,000 |
| Codility | Developer Skills Assessment | London | Series A | £100,000 | £100,000 |
| Omnea | AI Procurement | London | Series B | £60,000 | £120,000 |
| Juro | AI Contract Automation | London | Series B | £65,000 | £130,000 |
| Attest | AI Consumer Research | London | Series B | £75,000 | £150,000 |
| Tomorro | LegalTech | Paris | Series B | £70,000 | £70,000 |
| Cognism | Sales Intelligence | London | Series C | £51,000 | £102,000 |
| Drata | AI Compliance | San Diego | Series C | £88,000 | £176,000 |
Other benefits across these companies include: share options, work from home allowance, personal development fund, monthly well-being day, gym membership, company retreats, private medical insurance.
Enterprise Account Executives
Closing roles with deal sizes of £100k+ and 6–12+ month cycles. Salaries show the upper end of each company's range.
| Company | Industry | HQ | Stage | Starting Salary | OTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suade | RegTech | London | Series A | £70,000 | £70,000 |
| Harmoney | AI Counterparty Risk | Ghent | Growth (minority) | £100,000 | £200,000 |
| Antithesis | Autonomous Software Testing | Virginia, US | Series A | £120,000 | £240,000 |
| Next Communications | Comms & UCaaS Software | Amsterdam | Series A | £150,000 | £150,000 |
| Scarlet | HealthTech (AI Device Approval) | London | Series A | £150,000 | £250,000 |
| UpSlide | Document Productivity for Finance | Paris | Growth (minority) | £72,000 | £144,000 |
| Xelix | AI Accounts Payable | London | Series B | £70,000 | £140,000 |
| Sona | AI Workforce Management | London | Series B | £120,000 | £240,000 |
Other benefits across these companies include: share options, work from home allowance, personal development fund, monthly well-being day, gym membership, company retreats, private medical insurance.
From the Timberseed Database
Across our Account Executive placements in the UK and Europe: starting OTE range of £75k to £240k, averaging around £144.6k.
All were experienced hires, typically with 12–18 months of SDR success or equivalent, placed into closing roles across Agentic AI, Cloud, FinTech and LegalTech. We recruit across the UK, Europe and the US East Coast, from a network of more than 30,000 go-to-market professionals.
If You're Hiring in 2026
- 01. Write the spec around the motion, then benchmark. Decide the deal size, the cycle length and the customer profile first. Those three things tell you which table to price against, and they'll tell candidates whether the job is the one they want.
- 02. Budget the OTE before you set the base. Strong closers read the multiple, not the base. A £75k base with a £110k OTE will lose to a £65k base with a £130k OTE, every time.
- 03. Pay properly for your first closer. The first AE builds the playbook the next five will run. That's a different job to joining a working team, and this data shows the market already pays for it.
Benchmarking a specific role? Send us the spec and we'll tell you what it should pay, and whether the market agrees with your structure. We place go-to-market talent into venture-backed SaaS companies across the UK, Europe and the US East Coast, working our network of 30,000+ professionals directly rather than through job boards. Get in touch with Rupert at rupert@timberseed.com.
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