Sales Director

Encord; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

4 days/week

Flexible PTO

Learning budget

Health/dental/vision

Travel opportunities

Offsites

Daily meals

Job summary

Encord is seeking a founding Sales Director to drive revenue growth across markets from London to the US. You will hire, coach, and scale a high‑performing sales organization while directly selling to strategic enterprise and mid‑market accounts.

You will partner with the VP of Global Sales and co-founders to shape GTM, expand ICPs, and navigate multi‑stakeholder deals, with travel across Europe and North America as needed.

Qualifications

• 7–12 years in GTM roles at B2B SaaS with leading sales teams.
• Proven ability to hire, develop, and retain top sales talent.
• Strong commercial intuition with senior stakeholders.
• Gravitas to engage senior leadership and credible coaching.
• Top-percentile performance in leadership or competitive environments.
• Clear GTM vision to build from scratch in a fast-moving setting.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a high-performing sales team — hiring, coaching, developing Encord sellers.
• Own revenue growth across your market — scale to multi‑million ARR.
• Navigate complex enterprise and mid-market sales with diverse customers.
• Partner with the VP of Global Sales on GTM strategy and expansion.
• Run sales cycles during ramp periods to share hands-on experience.
• Shape Encord positioning and pitching as the go-to-market standard.
• Represent Encord at events and senior customer relationships.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with Product, Engineering, and CS.

Skills

Sales leadership

Enterprise sales

Technical sales

GTM strategy

Coaching

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

About Us

Encord is the universal data layer for AI that helps 300+ AI teams train and run models on the right data. Our platform indexes, curates, annotates, and evaluates data across the full AI lifecycle, from development through production.

Trusted by Woven by Toyota, AXA, UiPath, Zipline, and more. We're an ambitious team of 100+ working at the frontier of AI and have raised $60M in Series C funding from Wellington Management, CRV, Next47 and Y Combinator.

The role

We're looking for a founding Sales Director to lead revenue growth across our markets. This is a rare opportunity to join a hyper‑growth AI infrastructure company in a true leadership seat — reporting directly to the VP of Global Sales and working alongside the co‑founders. You'll come in as a leader, inherit and grow a team, and shape how we go to market as we scale.

What You'll Do

• Lead and grow a high-performing sales team — hiring, coaching, and developing Encord sellers while staying close to the market yourself
• Own revenue growth across your market — taking the product to leading AI and tech businesses and scaling to $millions in ARR
• Navigate complex, full-cycle enterprise and mid-market sales with customers ranging from fast-growing startups to Fortune 500s
• Partner with the VP of Global Sales on GTM strategy, ICP expansion, and new verticals — with a clear path to owning an expanded geography, sector, or team as we scale
• Roll up your sleeves and run sales cycles yourself during the ramp period — learning the product, the buyers, and the motion firsthand so you can coach your team from experience, not theory
• Become the authoritative voice on how Encord is positioned and pitched — setting the standard for the team around you
• Represent Encord externally — at industry events, in senior customer relationships, and across the broader AI and Physical AI ecosystem
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to shape the roadmap and inform go‑to‑market decisions
• Step up wherever needed: marketing, events, community, onboarding — this is a founding leadership role

Who We're Looking For

• A proven sales leader with a track record of building and scaling high-performing teams — and the commercial credibility to lead from the front
• Someone who thrives in ambiguity — you don't wait for a playbook, you write it
• Deep experience selling technical products to technical buyers — ML engineers, data scientists, CTOs, and AI platform leads
• A builder mentality — you want to leave something behind, not just hit a number
• High commercial IQ — able to navigate complex, multi-stakeholder deals while keeping momentum and coaching others to do the same
• Genuine excitement about Physical AI and where the market is going

Experience Requirements

• 7–12 years in GTM roles at B2B SaaS companies, with a proven track record of leading and scaling high-performing sales teams
• Demonstrated ability to hire, develop, and retain top sales talent — you've built teams, not just joined them
• Strong commercial intuition with the ability to build rapport and influence at all levels — from junior operators to CTOs
• The gravitas to engage and win over senior leadership, and the ability to instil that same credibility in the people around you
• Track record of top‑percentile performance in sales leadership, academia, sport, or any competitive environment you've entered
• A clear point of view on what great GTM looks like — and the conviction to build it from scratch in a fast‑moving environment

Why Encord

• Competitive salary, commission, and meaningful equity in a high‑growth start‑up
• Clear, accelerated growth opportunities as the company scales rapidly
• Strong in‑person culture: 4 days/week
• Flexible PTO to fully recharge
• Annual learning & development budget
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
• Frequent travel opportunities across the U.S., London, and Europe
• Bi‑annual company offsites, daily lunches/dinners and monthly socials