Director, Inside Sales

Alation, Inc.; California (MO); On-site; USD 186,000 - 371,000; Full time

Job summary

Alation, Inc. is hiring for a Senior Inside Sales leadership role. You will build and lead a team of Inside Sales Account Executives, own the segment quota, and manage forecasts in Salesforce. You will sell alongside the team, coach live, and close strategic enterprise opportunities.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in enterprise SaaS sales and 3+ years in frontline sales management, with a proven history of achieving quota and expanding NRR in B2B deals.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in enterprise / commercial SaaS sales.
• 3+ years in front-line sales management.
• Proven track record of consistently hitting/quota in B2B enterprise sales.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a team of Inside Sales Account Executives.
• Own segment quota across new logos and expansions; forecast in Salesforce.
• Sell alongside the team, run discovery, negotiate, and close strategic opportunities.
• Develop and improve the Commercial sales motion with playbooks, MEDDPICC qualification, and multi-threading.
• Drive inside sales discipline with weekly activity metrics and coaching.
• Represent the segment GTM strategy to leadership and participate in QBRs.

Skills

Enterprise SaaS sales

Team leadership

Quota attainment

B2B sales

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Salesforce

Outreach

Claude

AI tools

Job description

Job Overview

Alation is a leading data catalog provider committed to AI-driven data intelligence. Organizations worldwide rely on Alation to drive self-service analytics, cloud transformation, data governance, and AI innovation. Our technology helps enterprises connect people and data to make faster, smarter, and more confident decisions. With more than $340M in funding - valued at over $1.7 billion and more than 650 customers, including 40% of the Fortune 100.

What You’ll Do

• Build and lead a team of Inside Sales Account Executives covering Commercial accounts ($1B - $10B revenue), including hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, and career development.
• Own the segment quota across new logo and existing customer expansion; forecast accurately, manage pipeline rigor in Salesforce, and operate a clean weekly cadence (pipeline, forecast, deal reviews, 1:1s).
• Sell alongside the team - get into deals, coach live, run discovery and executive conversations, negotiate, and help close strategic opportunities.
• Build and improve the Commercial sales motion: expansion and renewal playbook, account plans and MEDDPICC qualification, multi-threading, and value-selling against complex enterprise data and AI use cases.
• Drive inside sales discipline – set the bar on weekly activity metrics (customer meetings, calls, emails, pipeline generation), inspect them rigorously, and coach the team to hit them consistently.
• Run the renewal process end-to-end in partnership with Marketing and operations – own renewal forecasts, early risk signals, on-time renewal rates, multi-year extensions, and price uplift; protect GRR and expand NRR.
• Partner with BDR/SDR leadership and Marketing on demand generation, account-based programs, and pipeline coverage for the segment.
• Instill an "inspect what you expect" culture - clear leading indicators, weekly scorecards, transparent dashboards, deal inspection, and accountability for the numbers. No surprises in the forecast.
• Operate AI-native ways of working across the team - use Alation, Salesforce, Outreach, Claude, and modern AI sales tooling to accelerate research, prospecting, deal prep, call review, forecasting, and coaching. Set the example for what an AI-first sales org looks like.
• Represent the segment’s GTM strategy to leadership: present at QBRs, weekly forecast calls, and exec staff meetings; surface what’s working, what’s not, and what we need to change.
• Outstanding communicator and coach; able to move easily between a 1:1 deal coaching session and an executive-level forecast review.

What You’ll Bring

• 8+ years in enterprise / commercial SaaS sales, with 3+ years in front-line sales management.
• Experience selling complex enterprise software (data, analytics, AI, governance, data infrastructure, or adjacent categories strongly preferred).
• Proven track record of consistently hitting and exceeding team quota in a B2B multi-stakeholder enterprise sale.
• Demonstrated success driving revenue growth across both new logo acquisition and the existing customer base – fluent on NRR, GRR, gross retention, net expansion, churn, and the levers behind each.
• Operator mindset with deep inside sales discipline – lives in activity metrics, runs a tight weekly cadence, and leads with an "inspect what you expect" philosophy. Can show dashboards run.
• Strong command of the renewal process – quoting, risk scoring, save plays, escalation paths, multi-year, and uplift – protecting GRR while growing NRR.
• AI-native operator: actively uses AI tools to improve research, prospecting, call prep, forecasting, coaching, and can roll out AI tooling into daily workflow.
• Hands-on, player-coach mentality – willing and able to get into deals, run discovery, build business cases, and close – not just inspect a forecast.
• Experience building and scaling Commercial / mid-market or inside sales teams – hiring bar, ramp, enablement, comp design input, territory carving.
• Excellent cross-functional operator working seamlessly with Marketing, CS, SE, RevOps, Product, and Field Sales.
• Outstanding communicator and coach.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Compensation

The on target earnings (OTE) range is $185,616 - $371,232.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Alation, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. The Company will strive to provide reasonable accommodations to permit qualified applicants who have a need for an accommodation to participate in the hiring process if so requested. This company participates in E-Verify.