Sales Manager, Startups | New Business UK&I

The OpenAI Startups team helps founders build and scale products with AI. We combine technical understanding, commercial judgement and startup ecosystem relationships to help customers build and grow their businesses with OpenAI.

You will lead a startup sales team in EMEA, helping founders and their teams build and grow with OpenAI. The role brings together early-stage customer acquisition and commercial complexity, with opportunities that require a thoughtful understanding of customer needs, technical requirements and business priorities.

You will hire and develop Account Directors, set clear direction and coach the team to build trusted customer relationships and deliver sustainable growth. You will work closely with technical and commercial partners to help customers understand the value of OpenAI and make confident decisions. This role is based in London. We use a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week.

In this role, you'll:

• Recruit, onboard and develop a strong team of Account Directors. Set clear expectations, coach customer conversations and deal strategy, and give direct, actionable feedback.
• Build and execute a sales strategy that wins new startup customers and supports their long-term success.
• Coach the team through early-stage customer acquisition and sales opportunities with complex technical and commercial requirements.
• Maintain a healthy pipeline and reliable forecasts, using sound judgement and a clear understanding of customer needs.
• Build trusted relationships with founders, technical leaders and commercial decision-makers. Help customers understand how OpenAI can support their products and business goals.
• Partner across technical, product, marketing and commercial teams to support customers and resolve challenges.
• Develop repeatable sales practices that help a growing team work effectively while maintaining a high standard of customer experience.
• Bring customer feedback and market insight into the business to help improve our products and how we serve startups.

We're seeking experience in:

• Six or more years leading sales teams, including hiring, developing and managing technical sellers in fast-changing markets.
• Working closely with startups as a founder, early employee or commercial leader serving startup customers.
• Selling platform or software products in a product-led or consumption-based business, with a record of converting technical adoption into revenue.
• Leading early-stage customer acquisition or complex commercial sales, with the judgement to adapt to different customer needs and buying processes.
• Building repeatable sales processes while maintaining a strong focus on customer fit and value.
• Coaching technical and commercial discovery, qualifying opportunities and managing evidence-based forecasts.
• Discussing AI applications and APIs credibly with founders and technical leaders, and connecting technical capabilities to business value.
• Working across technical, product, marketing, operational and commercial teams, and translating customer learning into better products and programmes.

You’ll thrive here if you understand founder urgency, earn trust through useful advice and communicate candidly about what is possible. You create clarity when priorities change, are curious about AI and learn quickly. You enjoy developing sellers and building a collaborative team that delivers for customers.

What success looks like:

• Your team builds strong customer relationships, wins new startup business and helps customers achieve lasting value with OpenAI.
• Sellers grow in capability and confidence, commercial judgement is strong, and the team delivers reliable results as the business grows.

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.