
Head of Sales
- South Africa
- Permanent
- Full-time
30% per year over the next four years. You know software teams inside-out, have built and led technical sales teams in a developer house, contracting firm or IT consultancy, and you thrive closing complex deals across multiple stakeholders and geographies.Key Responsibilities
- Own new business development for platform (Pay as you go [PAYG] and subscriptions) and services (embedded and contracting) from lead creation to closed deal.
- Lead and coach SDRs and AEs: run a crisp operating cadence (standups, pipeline reviews, call reviews, deal strategy sessions, etc.) and create a culture of continuous improvement.
- Spearhead new business development for contracting: partner with the Head of Contracting Delivery and Head of Marketing including market insights, messaging, enablement, packaging and pricing.
- Drive enterprise selling: build executive relationships (CTO/CIO/CEO), navigate complex stakeholder maps, RFPs, and security/procurement reviews
- Be the team's deal athlete: step into late-stage negotiations, untangle blockers (legal, finance, infosec), and model best-in-class closing.
- Institutionalise sales methodology (e.g. MEDDIC/Challenger/SPICED): with clear stage definitions, exit criteria and qualification standards.
- Collaborate with the sales team on CRM strategy and data hygiene: turn product usage/intent signals into prioritised, high-intent leads and sequences the team can execute.
- Forecast with confidence: establish leading indicators, improve predictability, and community risks and opportunities clearly.
- Partner with marketing on unified campaigns, events and content; feed the voice of the market back into positioning and messaging.
- Partner with operations, finance and legal to assess the viability of potential deals, ensuring opportunities align with delivery capabilities and operational priorities.
- Parter with operations to scope requirements, remove delivery barriers and ensure a smooth handover from sales to execution, supporting ongoing delivery, account expansion and deal renewals.
- Partner with product to channel market feedback into the product roadmap.
- Build the ecosystem: cultivate referral channels with accelerators, VC funds, employer of record providers and other community partners in SA and abroad.
- Apply smart automation/AI to prospecting, personalisation and call coaching, without losing the human touch.
- Champion clean handoffs to delivery: protect brand trust by selling what we can deliver, and delivering what we can sell.
- A repeatable, insight-driven pipeline that reliably surfaces qualified opportunities for platform and services.
- Significant growth in new contracting business within the first 6 months.
- A confident, coached sales team that knows the playbook, executes it and improves it, constantly.
- Enterprise wins feel de-risked: fewer surprises late in cycle, smoother legal and procurement, stronger champion development.
- Forecasts match reality: leaders trust your read on the quarter and your rational for bets.
- CRM is a source of truth: clean data, clear next steps and measurable conversion through each stage.
- Marketing and sales act as one unit: with shared narratives and feedback loops that sharpen targeting, messaging and packaging.
- OfferZen is seen as a trusted advisor to tech leaders: credible on team design, modern engineering practices, and the impact of AI/open source/etc. on the future of tech hiring.
- The team embodies a hands-on, startup mindset: picks up the phone, tests ideas fast, learns in public and ships improvements quickly.
- Leadership: 4+ years of experience in SDR/AE roles, with another 4+ years of experience managing or leading a technical sales team.
- Enterprise sales: comfortable with multi-stakeholder cycles, executive conversations, complex negotiations and RFPs.
- Domain fluency: understands how product/engineering teams are built (e.g. can tell the different between a devops engineer and a backend engineer) and the challenges and opportunities presented to product teams through the evolution of AI.
- Services context (very strong plus): background in a developer house, contracting firm, IT consulting or tech recruitment.
- Process builder: skilled at implementing qualification frameworks, stage definitions, exit criteria, etc.; designs playbooks that stick.
- Commercial acumen: pricing, package and deal structuring that protect margin and set delivery up for success.
- CRM & tooling: power user of Hubspot (or a related tool) and sales engagement tools, such as sales navigator, lusha, apollo, surfe, etc.
- Communication & presence: clear writer/speaker, credible with CTOs/CIOs/CEOs; excellent listener and negotiator.
- Networked: Strong relationships in the South African tech ecosystem; comfortable opening doors locally and internationally.
- Startup DNA: bias to action, resilient, willing to get hands dirty, experiment and iterate quickly; low ego is a must.