Head of Sales

Lighthouse; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Visa sponsorship

Competitive base and equity

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401k

Equipment/office stipend

Annual team off-sites

In-person in SF or NY

Job summary

Lighthouse is seeking a Head of Sales to build and lead the sales function. You will own the forecasting, playbooks, processes, and team, while personally sourcing and closing deals for a period. This player-coach role focuses on turning a strong foundation into a disciplined, scalable sales engine.

You might be a strong fit if you have been an AE and sales leader in an early-stage B2B tech company, with a process-driven and analytical approach, and enjoy building large-scale teams over time.

Qualifications

• Proven GTM execution at a high-growth startup.
• Experience sourcing and closing business.
• Ability to create process, playbooks, and structure.
• Exceptional storytelling and customer understanding.
• Track record leading sales teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the sales team.
• Own the sales operating system with playbooks, forecasting, and pipeline management.
• Sell alongside the team and carry a personal quota for an initial period.
• Build a predictable sales engine and capacity planning.
• Incorporate feedback with Growth, Customer Experience, Legal and Product.

Skills

Sales leadership

B2B tech

Process-driven

Forecasting

Executive presence

Job description

Location: San Francisco, New York (in-person)

Reports to: CEO

Type: Full-time

About Lighthouse

Lighthouse is the fastest immigration solution for frontier companies. We start where the stakes are highest - U.S. employment-based immigration for the companies building frontier AI and hard tech. Our customers include Cursor, Thinking Machines, Exa, Ramp, MatX, and Atomic Semi.

The role

We're looking for a Head of Sales to build and lead the sales function at Lighthouse. You'll inherit a strong foundation and take ownership of turning it into a disciplined, predictable sales engine.

This is a player-coach role. You'll lead and develop our sales team while staying close to the work - carrying a personal quota initially, opening doors, running deals, and learning firsthand what makes our customers buy. At the same time, you'll build the forecasting, playbooks, processes, and team we need to scale.

We're looking for someone who has seen great sales organizations up close but still loves building. You're curious about customers, rigorous about process, and ambitious about becoming an exceptional sales leader.

What you'll do

• Lead and develop the sales team. Manage the sales team, onboard and train new sellers, and build a team where great people consistently get better.

• Own the sales operating system. Build and continuously improve our sales definitions, playbooks, forecasting, pipeline management, discount approvals, and core processes.

• Sell alongside the team. Carry a personal quota for your first ~6 months, source and close your own business, and use what you learn to make the broader team better.

• Build a predictable sales engine. Own bottom-up forecasts, understand team capacity, and determine when and where we need to add sales resources.

• Bring the market back into Lighthouse. Build tight feedback loops with Growth, Customer Experience, Legal, and Product so what we're hearing in sales consistently makes the rest of the company better.

You might be a strong fit if

• You’ve been a successful AE and sales manager, with experience sourcing and closing business and helping other sellers succeed.

• You have experience in an early-stage B2B technology company where you had to create process, playbooks, and structure rather than inherit them.

• You’re highly curious and an exceptional story teller - you ask great questions, do your research, and genuinely want to understand how a customer and their business work.

• You’re a process-driven, analytical operator who can point to measurable improvements you've made to pipeline, forecasting, conversion, rep performance, or revenue.

• You have strong executive presence and a builder mentality. You can open doors through relationships, sell credibly to senior buyers, and want to grow into the kind of leader who can eventually build and run a much larger sales organization.

We do not expect candidates to have a legal or immigration background. What matters is proven GTM execution at a high-growth startup and the drive to build something from the ground up.

What success looks like

• Your first 30 days: You deeply understand our customers, sales motion, pipeline, and team. You're actively selling alongside the team and have established a clear operating cadence for pipeline, forecasting, and coaching.

• 6 months: You're forecasting within ~10%, our sales definitions and playbooks are documented and consistently used, the team is performing against clear expectations, and you've demonstrated that you can personally source and close Lighthouse customers.

• 12 months: Lighthouse has a predictable, scalable sales engine with the team, capacity plan, processes, and operating infrastructure to support our next stage of growth.

Culture

• Lighthouse is a technology-led company. We frequently ask ourselves "How can we automate this?"

• We're intentionally meeting-light and work in weekly sprints. We entrust you to manage your time.

• We are and seek low-ego, high-throughput people who are a pleasure to be around.

• We pride ourselves on attention to detail and ability to do "finished work" - whether it's a project, document, or code, you proofread and make it letter perfect

• We ask "why?" every day. We're constantly making improvements to our processes and encouraging feedback.

• Genuine interest in startups, technology, and enabling global talent to build in the U.S.

Pay and Benefits

• We sponsor visas, obviously.

• Competitive base and equity, scales with experience.

• Health, dental, vision, 401k.

• Equipment/office stipend.

• Annual team off-sites in cool places.

• In person in SF or NY.

Lighthouse is an equal opportunity workplace; we welcome people from all backgrounds, communities, and experiences.