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Sales Director, SMB

OfferFit

Chicago, IL · $91k–$163k a year · Posted October 28, 2026

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Pay compared with the market

This listing pays about $126,500 a year. Across 58 open sales director listings that state pay, the middle half runs $125,500 to $226,000 and the median is $160,000. That is inside the middle half of those listings, 21% below the median.

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How AI is used in this kind of work

AI use among sales managers is little observed so far. Measured exposure for sales managers: 4% (little observed).

Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.

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About the job

At Braze, we have found our people. We’re a genuinely approachable, exceptionally kind, and intensely passionate crew.

We seek to ignite that passion by setting high standards, championing teamwork, and creating work-life harmony as we collectively navigate rapid growth on a global scale while striving for greater equity and opportunity – inside and outside our organization.

To flourish here, you must be prepared to set a high bar for yourself and those around you. There is always a way to contribute: Acting with autonomy, having accountability and being open to new perspectives are essential to our continued success.

Our deep curiosity to learn and our eagerness to share diverse passions with others gives us balance and injects a one-of-a-kind vibrancy into our culture.

If you are driven to solve exhilarating challenges and have a bias toward action in the face of change, you will be empowered to make a real impact here, with a sharp and passionate team at your back. If Braze sounds like a place where you can thrive, we can’t wait to meet you.

We are seeking an experienced, entrepreneurial SaaS sales leader to build, scale, and lead our Braze For Startups (SMB) sales organization. This highly visible leadership role is for someone who has successfully built and scaled an SMB or velocity-sales business within a high-growth or enterprise-scale SaaS company.

The ideal candidate combines hands-on sales leadership with the strategic and operational depth to build a repeatable growth engine. They will lead a team of SMB Account Executives and outbound prospecting professionals while defining the sales motion, coaching methodology, performance standards, hiring plan, and operating cadence necessary to scale efficiently.

This leader will have a strong understanding of the SMB buyer journey and a demonstrated ability to create demand, convert pipeline, improve sales productivity, and drive predictable new-business revenue. They will be comfortable operating with meaningful autonomy, making informed decisions quickly, and partnering cross-functionally to build the systems and programs needed to grow the segment.

The successful candidate will also bring experience developing external ecosystems that accelerate growth. This includes building relationships with venture capital firms and their portfolio companies, digital agencies, consultants, system integrators, technology partners, and other influential partners that can generate pipeline, improve customer adoption, and expand market reach.

Experience selling marketing technology, customer engagement, marketing automation, CRM, email, mobile, analytics, or related SaaS solutions is strongly preferred.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Own the strategy, execution, and performance of the SMB sales segment, including revenue attainment, pipeline generation, conversion, sales productivity, and forecast accuracy

Build and lead a high-performing team of Account Executives

Create a clear and repeatable SMB sales motion across inbound, outbound, partner-led, and sales-assisted acquisition channels

Establish the business operating cadence, including pipeline reviews, forecast calls, deal inspection, performance management, quarterly planning, and executive business reviews

Recruit, onboard, coach, develop, and retain exceptional sales talent; build the management bench and career paths required to scale the organization

Develop sales playbooks, enablement programs, prospecting standards, qualification methodologies, discovery frameworks, and objection-handling tools that improve consistency and conversion

Partner with Sales Operations to design territory and account-assignment models, lead routing, pipeline definitions, capacity plans, compensation structures, dashboards, and forecasting processes

Work closely with Marketing to improve demand generation, campaign conversion, account targeting, lead quality, lifecycle programs, and attribution across the SMB funnel

Collaborate with Customer Success and Account Management to ensure smooth handoffs, strong customer activation, retention, adoption, and expansion opportunities

Build and operationalize relationships with venture capital firms, startup ecosystems, accelerators, agencies, consultants, system integrators, and technology partners

Develop partner-led and ecosystem-led growth motions, including referral, co-sell, implementation, marketplace, and portfolio-company programs

Represent the company with customers, partners, industry communities, and senior stakeholders; bring market, customer, and competitive insights back to the broader go-to-market organization

Identify opportunities to improve SMB packaging, pricing, onboarding, product adoption, and go-to-market efficiency through direct customer insight and data-driven analysis

Operate as a strategic business leader with the autonomy to prioritize investments, improve execution, and build the programs necessary to make SMB a durable growth engine

WHO YOU ARE

7+ years of progressive SaaS sales and go-to-market experience, ideally including SMB, commercial, velocity, growth, or emerging-business segments

At least 3+ years of direct people-management experience leading SMB sales teams, including Account Executives and preferably SDR, BDR, or outbound prospecting organizations

Demonstrated success building or materially scaling an SMB sales team, sales motion, or revenue segment within a high-growth or large-scale SaaS environment

A strong record of hiring, coaching, developing, and retaining quota-carrying sales talent and frontline sales managers

Experience owning meaningful revenue targets and consistently delivering against new-business, pipeline, productivity, and forecast goals

Deep knowledge of SaaS sales metrics and levers, including ARR, ACV, pipeline coverage, conversion rates, sales-cycle length, quota attainment, productivity, CAC efficiency, retention, and expansion

Experience creating and improving sales processes, performance-management systems, forecasting cadences, qualification standards, and sales enablement programs

Proven ability to lead both an outbound prospecting function and a full-cycle SMB Account Executive team

Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with experience partnering closely with Marketing, Customer Success, Account Management, Product, Sales Operations, Finance, and Partnerships

Experience building relationships with venture capital firms, accelerators, startup communities, agencies, system integrators, consultants, and/or technology partners

Demonstrated ability to develop partner-sourced or partner-influenced pipeline through co-sell, referrals, agency relationships, technology integrations, and ecosystem programs

Experience selling marketing technology, customer engagement, marketing automation, CRM, email, mobile, analytics, data, or related SaaS solutions is strongly preferred

Executive-level communication skills, including the ability to lead compelling customer conversations, executive presentations, QBRs, internal business reviews, and partner discussions

Strong business acumen and the ability to navigate complex organizations, identify economic buyers and decision-makers, and guide stakeholders through the SaaS buying process

A data-driven operating style, sound judgment, high accountability, and comfort making decisions in an evolving, ambiguous environment

Strong external presence and a natural ability to build trusted relationships through professional communities, social channels, events, and industry networks

Familiarity with current digital, mobile, AI, customer-engagement,