Sales Director in London

An award-winning laboratory automation company based in London is seeking an experienced Sales Director to join its growing team. This role is suited to a senior technical sales professional with a strong background in selling precision life science instrumentation and/or automated systems.

This is an opportunity to play a key role in a revenue-generating deep-tech startup: building a sales function, shaping early commercial strategy, and bringing an innovative material-handling platform to market.

The company operates at the forefront of laboratory automation. Its platform enables contact-free manipulation of materials, allowing users to safely handle, study, and manipulate samples in ways not possible with conventional technologies. Applications span life sciences, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and agritech, with current efforts focused on validating high-value use cases through collaborative R&D and early customer engagement. The company is on track to launch its first commercial platform within the next 18–24 months.

Reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer, the Sales Director will be responsible for winning business by identifying, engaging, and closing co-development R&D collaborations, and subsequently driving early instrument sales. The role involves close collaboration with founders, scientists, and product leaders to secure strategic customers, run technical demonstrations, negotiate commercial and collaboration agreements, and convert early scientific interest into signed partnerships.

This is a highly technical sales role, well suited to someone who enjoys scientific collaboration, early-access programmes, and long validation cycles, and who can translate these into structured commercial outcomes.

• Sales Process Design for Early Paid Partnerships: Work with the CCO and CPO to identify, engage, negotiate, and sign collaborative R&D partners, driving conversations efficiently toward clear decision points.
• Develop targeted materials for customer meetings that clearly communicate scientific value, partnership models, timelines, and expected outcomes.
• Qualify and prioritise early customers by balancing near-term conversion opportunities with longer-horizon, high-impact collaborations.
• Build and maintain accurate pipeline tools and forecasting, providing clear visibility of deal value, risk, and timing for leadership and investors.
• Future Instrumentation Sales Pipeline Development: Build and own an instrumentation sales pipeline supporting early-access programmes, beta evaluations, pilots, and commercial rollout.
• Define sales stages across instrument launch phases, from early access through procurement and full commercial deployment.
• Create and execute transition plans from co-development partnerships to commercial customer acquisition.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with scientific founders and application scientists to coordinate technical demonstrations, feasibility studies, and data exchange.
• Partner with Product teams to translate customer insight into product specifications and roadmap decisions.
• Support Marketing in engaging key scientific communities and communicating programme opportunities.
• Deliver clear, accurate revenue projections and pipeline updates to support fundraising and investor communications.
• Market Insight and Strategy: Collaborate with Product and Scientific teams to develop messaging, value propositions, and pricing models for both co-development partnerships and future instruments.
• Monitor the competitive landscape and trends in laboratory automation, analytical instrumentation, and automated workflows.

• Education: Degree (BSc, MSc, MChem, or equivalent) in a relevant STEM discipline.
• Experience: Significant experience in technical sales, business development, or go-to-market roles within life sciences, laboratory automation, or analytical instrumentation, with a track record of closing complex deals.
• Experience structuring co-development, collaborative R&D, or early-access scientific programmes is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of scientific sales cycles, technical validation processes, and laboratory procurement.
• Demonstrated discipline in forecasting, with the ability to assess deal risk, timing, and probability accurately.
• Experience building commercial processes and playbooks while actively engaging with customers.
• Proficiency with CRM systems and sales analytics tools.
• Ability to communicate complex scientific concepts to both technical and commercial stakeholders.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving startup environment with evolving products and strategy.

• A foundational role shaping the commercial strategy of a breakthrough laboratory automation company.
• Ownership of the sales function from early co-development engagements through to commercial product launch.
• Close collaboration with multidisciplinary teams working at the frontier of scientific innovation.
• Competitive salary and significant influence over commercial scaling strategy.
• Opportunity to build and lead a global sales team.