Vertical Sales Lead

Summary

Join D-Wave, a leader in quantum computing, as a Vertical Sales Lead for research labs and universities in the Americas. You will drive sales growth of SaaS and learning solutions, expanding revenue and building a strong pipeline of new opportunities. This role requires leading a high-performing team, conducting market research, building relationships with key decision-makers, and managing the entire sales process from proposal to contract negotiation. The ideal candidate possesses extensive experience in enterprise SaaS sales within the research sector and a proven track record of success. D-Wave offers competitive pay, company ownership, unlimited vacation, parental leave, flexible work arrangements, and various other benefits.

Requirements

• 15+ years of experience selling high value enterprise SaaS products and solutions in research applications, data analytics, or data science market categories in the research labs and universities sector
• Experience growing bookings from past first customer to $5M+ yearly in an enterprise SaaS vendor
• Demonstrated successes in building an opportunity pipeline in the research labs and universities sector
• Proven track record in targeted value-based selling
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts to diverse audiences
• College educated with a PhD degree in Computer Science, or related STEM field degree
• Willing to travel frequently (up to 50%+), including some international travel in the Americas

Responsibilities

• Execute D-Wave's sales strategy within the Americas region to drive new business in the research labs and universities sector
• Identify research and education opportunities involving D-Wave quantum computing, and effectively communicate D-Wave’s vision, strategy, and product capabilities to faculty, researchers, students, and grant sources
• Build, mentor, and motivate a high performing account team, including cross-functional internal resources, to pursue opportunities to land into new accounts, and expand business in existing accounts
• Work with a cross-functional team to define the landscape of use cases for Quantum computing in the research labs and universities sector
• Profile target accounts to identify the faculty, researchers and grant sources for domain areas that would benefit from Quantum computing
• Work as part of a cross-functional team to proactively engage with faculty, researchers and grant sources for Quantum computing use cases in the research labs and universities
• Establish and cultivate relationships with faculty, researchers and grant sources to create opportunities that align the company’s solution with the research labs and universities’ needs and strategy
• Co-lead demand generation activities in the Americas targeting the research labs and universities sector in partnership with our Marketing team, selecting target accounts, representing D-Wave at conferences, seminars, and other events, qualifying new leads, delivering product presentations, and developing proposals that result in a growing pipeline of new opportunities
• Quarterback cross-functional teams to create customer proposals including managing submissions to RFI/RFP and their lifecycle of activities
• Actively participate in capture activities including proposal reviews and business case development
• Ensure the development and submission of white papers and RFI/RFP responses to proactively shape strategic opportunities
• Conduct after-action reviews for all pre and post proposal activities to document lessons learned and identify necessary adjustments to capture technique, strategy, and actions
• Work with Sales Operations, Legal, Finance and Professional Services to prepare a contract packet for customer signature
• Negotiate subscription services, professional services, financial terms, and legal terms with customer’s representatives from operations, IT, procurement and legal
• Address customer’s vendor qualification requirements such as information security reviews and customer references
• Support the customer’s activities to establish D-Wave as a vendor in the customer’s procurement systems and issue the applicable documents such as the customer’s purchase order
• Co-lead the effort to select and position D-Wave products and services to meet individual customer needs by understanding their research and educational challenges and creating value propositions tailored to their unique situation
• Drive your personal activities and your account teams to achieve and exceed your targets while accurately forecasting new bookings

Preferred Qualifications

• Well connected with existing customer relationships across several functions into leading research labs and universities
• Intellectually curious, honest, with integrity and a passion for discovery and success

Benefits

• Competitive Pay
• Company Ownership
• Unlimited Vacation
• Great benefit offerings
• 12 Weeks Parental Leave
• In-Office Not Required
• Flexible Work Arrangements
• Telehealth and Telemental Health
• Employee Networking and Events
• Inclusive Culture
• Meaningful Perks and Rewards
• Learning and Development Opportunities