The posting
ABOUT ZIP
Zip is the AI platform for enterprise procurement — built for humans and agents working together. By orchestrating procurement across teams, tools, and suppliers with the help of AI agents, companies can secure the resources they need to innovate faster than ever before.
The world’s most influential enterprises trust Zip, including T-Mobile, OpenAI, AMD, Mars, Dollar Tree, and more. Together they’ve saved over $8 billion and processed over $500 billion in spend. Zip’s team includes product leaders from Apple, Airbnb, and Meta, as well as former procurement leaders from United Health, Sanofi, MGM Resorts, Discover, and NASA.
Backed by Adams Street, Alkeon, BOND, CRV, DST, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator, Zip has raised $371 million, most recently at a $2.2 billion valuation and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, Inc. Best in Business, and LinkedIn Top Startups.
YOUR ROLE
Zip is looking for a Senior Director of EMEA Commercial Sales to lead and scale our Commercial business across Europe.
This is a second-line leadership role. You will initially lead two frontline Commercial Sales Managers and, through them, a growing team of Account Executives. As Zip expands across Europe, you will build the leadership structure, sales capacity, and go-to-market approach required to capture that opportunity.
Your leverage comes through your managers, but this is not a role for someone who operates from a distance. You will stay close to the business: understanding the pipeline, inspecting deals, helping your managers improve their teams, and personally getting involved in the opportunities where your experience can change the outcome.
You will own the performance of EMEA Commercial end to end: the number, pipeline, forecast, talent, geographic expansion, and operating rhythm of the segment.
Commercial is already an important part of Zip's EMEA business. The opportunity now is to turn it into a scaled, predictable growth engine across the region.
YOU WILL
- Own EMEA Commercial performance. Deliver quarterly and annual new-business revenue targets through the frontline managers and Account Executives who report into your organization.
- Build and develop exceptional frontline managers. Coach your leaders on pipeline management, forecasting, deal inspection, rep development, and performance management. Hold them accountable for running their businesses with the same rigor you bring to yours.
- Scale Commercial across Europe. Determine where and when to add coverage as Zip expands into new countries and markets, and build the teams and leadership required to win locally without creating unnecessary complexity.
- Own pipeline well before the quarter begins. Establish coverage requirements, identify future gaps early, and work across Business Development, Marketing, Partnerships, and the AE organization to address them before they become revenue problems.
- Drive rigorous forecasting. Build a business that is predictable. Know what is real, what is at risk, what has changed, and why, and ensure your managers operate with the same level of precision.
- Stay close to the deals. Ensure your managers are inspecting opportunities rigorously, and personally engage in important customer conversations where executive involvement can improve discovery, create urgency, strengthen sponsorship, or move a deal forward.
- Build a high-performance organization. Recruit outstanding managers and sellers, raise the talent bar as we grow, develop top performers, and address underperformance quickly and directly.
- Improve the Commercial sales motion. Diagnose where performance is constrained by pipeline, execution, territory design, productivity, process, or capability and make the changes required to improve it.
- Operate cross-functionally. Build strong partnerships with Business Development, Solution Consulting, Advisory, Marketing, Partnerships, GTM Operations, Customer, and Zip's Executive team.
- Represent the Commercial business internally. Provide clear, credible reporting on performance, pipeline, forecast, market dynamics, competitive trends, and the investments required to continue scaling.
- Build for where Zip is going, not where it is today. Create the leadership bench, operating model, and market coverage that will support a significantly larger EMEA Commercial organization over the next several years.
TO EXCEL IN THIS ROLE
- You have successfully led frontline sales managers, not only individual sellers.
- You know that your job as an L2 is not to run every deal yourself. You make your managers better at running their teams while knowing when your involvement can materially improve an outcome.
- You are rigorous about pipeline creation and pipeline quality. You think several quarters ahead rather than discovering a pipeline problem once the quarter has begun.
- You run a predictable business and have a strong track record of forecast accuracy and operational discipline.
- You are comfortable getting into the details. You can move from a regional strategy discussion to inspecting a deal, a territory, a rep's pipeline, or a manager's operating cadence without losing altitude.
- You have built or expanded sales teams across multiple European markets and understand that what works in the UK does not automatically translate into Germany, France, Benelux, Nordics, or Southern Europe.
- You have a track record of hiring and developing strong sales leaders and creating a bench of future leadership talent.
- You are equally comfortable with high expectations and hands-on coaching. You give clear, actionable feedback and address problems early.
- You operate well in a fast-growth environment where the organization, product, market, and playbook are all evolving quickly.
- You have a strong executive presence and can build credibility with senior customer stakeholders while keeping the Account Executive and frontline manager at the center of the relationship.
QUALIFICATIONS
- 7+ years of B2B technology sales experience, including meaningful sales leadership experience.
- 2+ years managing frontline sales managers or equivalent second-line leadership responsibility.
- Proven track record of consistently achieving or exceeding revenue targets through teams.
- Demonstrated experience scaling sales organizations across territories, countries, or customer segments.
- Strong experience with pipeline management, forecasting, sales process, territory design, productivity metrics, and performance management.
- Experience hiring and developing both sales managers and Account Executives.
- Experience operating in a high-growth SaaS or enterprise technology company.
- Experience selling through value-based, multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
- Based in the UK and able to work from Zip's central London office three days per week.
NICE TO HAVES
- Experience building sales teams outside the UK and entering new European markets.
- Experience leading a high-velocity Commercial or mid-market SaaS organization.
- Experience selling to Procurement, Finance, IT, Legal, or other cross-functional enterprise buyers.
- Experience at a company scaling from an early EMEA presence into a substantial pan-European business.
PERKS & BENEFITS
At Zip, we’re committed to providing our employees with everything they need to do their best work.
- 📈 Start-up equity
- 🦷 Full health, vision & dental coverage
- 🚍 Commuter benefit
- 🚠 Team building events & happy hours
- 🌴 Flexible PTO
- 💻 Apple equipment plus home office budget
- Employer pension contribution
We're looking to hire Zipsters and that means hiring people who take ownership, communicate openly, have an underdog mindset, and are excited to increase the pace of innovation for every business in the world. We encourage all candidates to apply even if your experience doesn't exactly match up to our job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workspace where everyone (regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and more) feels like they belong. We look forward to hearing from you!
