Expansion Lead

About the Role

At Zinc, we're rapidly technologising how we serve candidates, recruiters, and customers, without eroding what makes our service genuinely good. The Expansion Lead is a new, senior individual-contributor hire reporting to Rakeem, and will be brought in to own a £30M+ expansion opportunity (cross-sell into existing accounts and geo/subsidiary growth) that's currently unowned. This role exists to build and run that motion directly and to spot more expansion opportunities within the renewal conversations the Account Management team are already having. We're looking for someone who's built a sales motion from scratch before: commercially sharp, hands-on, and just as comfortable shaping strategy as closing a deal themselves. You'll own expansion revenue across cross-sell and geographic growth, addressing a pipeline that today goes largely unclaimed because our account management team, focused on retention, doesn't have the capacity to chase it proactively.

Growth trajectory

This is a build role. If it proves out, it becomes the seed of a wider Customer Revenue Growth team spanning upsell, cross-sell and expansion. We're starting narrow on purpose (a small number of clearly defined plays, broadened as they prove out).

The Complexity (why this role isn't for everyone)

• No existing playbook, team or pipeline to inherit: you're proving a brand new commercial motion.
• Real judgement required: expansion into new markets or subsidiaries needs careful handling so it doesn't put existing customer relationships at risk.
• Influence without full authority: you'll work closely with Marketing and an outreach partner.
• The role's future shape is genuinely open — it could stay a single senior IC plus outreach support, or grow into a wider team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own expansion, directly
• Own two growth plays: cross-sell (new products into existing accounts) and geographic/subsidiary expansion (opening up new markets within accounts we already serve). Volume-driven, market-led upsell stays with the AM team as part of renewals; this role is about the pipeline nobody currently owns.
• Build how pipeline gets tracked
• Design how expansion pipeline gets built, tracked and reported, and keep forecasting reliable in partnership with Finance and RevOps.
• Partner with a dedicated outreach hire
• Work alongside a paired outreach role that handles prospecting volume, so you can stay focused on strategy and the highest-value conversations rather than volume outbound.
• Partner with marketing
• Work with Marketing on lifecycle campaigns (usage triggers, NPS, engagement signals) that scale outreach without replacing genuine, relationship-led conversations.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Hard skills

• Full-cycle sales experience: has run a complete sales motion before, from strategy through to closing, not just managed one that already existed.
• Data-literate and commercially numerate: comfortable reading benchmarking data, sizing opportunity and building a forecasting model with Finance.
• Pipeline and mechanism design: able to design how pipeline gets built, tracked and reported, ideally with RevOps support.
• Cross-functional delivery: gets real output from Marketing and an outreach partner without owning either function directly.
• Risk judgement on complex deals: able to spot when an expansion opportunity needs careful sequencing to protect the wider account.

Soft skills

• Builder, not inheritor: genuinely energised by standing up something from nothing.
• Collaborative without authority: motivates others to prioritise this work alongside their day job.
• Strategic and hands‑on in the same week: equally comfortable shaping strategy and getting into an individual deal or coaching conversation.
• Drives visibility: makes sure the business notices and keeps investing in this work.
• Comfortable with ambiguity: the shape of this role, and what it becomes if it works, isn't fixed yet.

What we offer

• 24 days holiday + Bank Holidays + your birthday off
• £1200 annual benefits allowance (ThanksBen, from month 2)
• Early finish Fridays (16:00)
• Yearly company retreat abroad
• 30 days to Work from anywhere
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption Leave (13 weeks full pay, 17 weeks half pay, then SMP for maternity, 1 month full pay for paternity/adoption)
• Statutory pension with NEST (3% employer, 5% employee)
• Zinc shares, issued through the EMI Scheme
• Unlimited access to Spill Therapy
• Company socials, quarterly team socials
• Free Monday lunches
• Nursery workplace benefit scheme (Yellownest)
• Option to lease an electric car through Electric Car Scheme
• Celebrated Zinc anniversaries