Alation

Director, Inside Sales

Alation$150K — $203K *
Enterprise Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in enterprise/commercial SaaS sales, with 3+ in front-line management.
  • Proven track record of exceeding team quotas in B2B sales.
  • Experience in new logo and existing customer expansion focusing on NRR/GRR metrics.
  • Strong inside sales discipline and activity metrics management.
  • Expertise in renewal processes and maintaining high retention rates.
  • Familiarity with AI tools for sales operations and coaching.
  • Hands-on leadership style involving direct selling and coaching.

Responsibilities

  • Build and lead a high-performing Inside Sales team for Commercial accounts.
  • Own the segment quota across new business and customer expansion.
  • Actively sell alongside the team, providing live coaching during deals.
  • Develop and enhance the sales playbook and account management strategies.
  • Establish and uphold inside sales performance metrics and discipline.
  • Manage the end-to-end renewal process, ensuring strong retention rates.
  • Collaborate with Marketing and Operations for demand generation and pipeline initiatives.
  • Instill a culture of accountability and transparency in sales metrics and performance.

Benefits

  • Hybrid work model, commuting to the office three days a week.
  • Collaborative, high-energy work environment in Redwood City.
  • Emphasis on professional development and career growth opportunities.
  • Access to cutting-edge AI sales tools and resources.
  • Opportunity to shape and define sales culture and strategies.
Full Job Description
Job Description:

We are hiring a Director of Inside Sales to build and scale our Commercial segment team, focused on accounts in the $1B-$10B company-revenue range. This is a player-coach, hands-on leadership role for someone who has built and run high-performing inside sales teams in a complex enterprise software environment, and who understands how to drive growth across both new logo acquisition and the expansion / retention of an existing customer base. This role reports into the SVP Sales, partnering closely with our VP of Customers and GTM Operations at our HQ.

We work in a hybrid model-you'll join us in our Redwood City office 3 days per week (Tue, Wed, Thurs) to collaborate, connect, and help build a high-energy Inside Sales culture in person

What You'll Do

You will own the number for the segment: new ARR, expansion ARR, Net Revenue Retention (NRR), and Gross Revenue Retention (GRR). You will partner closely with Marketing, Sales, Deployment Strategist, Enablement and Operations to build a repeatable, metrics-driven sales motion that scales.
  • Build and lead a team of Inside Sales Account Executives covering Commercial accounts ($1B-$10B revenue), including hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, and career development.
  • Own the segment quota across new logo and existing customer expansion; forecast accurately, manage pipeline rigor in Salesforce, and operate a clean weekly cadence (pipeline, forecast, deal reviews, 1:1s).
  • Sell alongside the team - get into deals, coach live, run discovery and executive conversations, negotiate, and help close strategic opportunities. This is not a hands-off role.
  • Build and improve the Commercial sales motion: expansion and renewal playbook, account plans and MEDDPICC qualification, multi-threading, and value-selling against complex enterprise data and AI use cases.
  • Drive inside sales discipline - set the bar on weekly activity metrics (customer meetings, calls, emails, pipeline generation), inspect them rigorously, and coach the team to hit them consistently.
  • Run the renewal process end-to-end in partnership with Marketing and operations - own renewal forecasts, early risk signals, on-time renewal rates, multi-year extensions, and price uplift; protect GRR and expand NRR.
  • Partner with BDR/SDR leadership and Marketing on demand generation, account-based programs, and pipeline coverage for the segment.
  • Instill an "inspect what you expect" culture - clear leading indicators, weekly scorecards, transparent dashboards, deal inspection, and accountability for the numbers. No surprises in the forecast.
  • Operate AI-native ways of working across the team - use Alation, Salesforce, Outreach, Claude and modern AI sales tooling to accelerate research, prospecting, deal prep, call review, forecasting, and coaching. Set the example for what an AI-first sales org looks like.
  • Represent the segment's GTM strategy to leadership: present at QBRs, weekly forecast calls, and exec staff meetings; surface what's working, what's not, and what we need to change.

What You'll Bring
  • 8+ years in enterprise / commercial SaaS sales, with 3+ years in front-line sales management. Experience selling complex enterprise software (data, analytics, AI, governance, data infrastructure, or adjacent categories strongly preferred).
  • Proven track record of consistently hitting and exceeding team quota in a B2B multi-stakeholder enterprise sale
  • Demonstrated success driving revenue growth across both new logo acquisition and the existing customer base - you can speak fluently to NRR, GRR, gross retention, net expansion, churn, and the levers behind each.
  • Operator mindset with deep inside sales discipline - you live in the activity metrics, run a tight weekly cadence, and lead with an "inspect what you expect" philosophy. You can show the dashboards you run your team on.
  • Strong command of the renewal process - quoting, risk scoring, save plays, escalation paths, multi-year, and uplift - and a track record of protecting GRR while growing NRR.
  • AI-native operator. You actively use AI tools to do your job better (research, prospecting, call prep, forecasting, coaching) and have an opinion on how to roll AI tooling into a sales team's daily workflow.
  • Hands-on, player-coach mentality. You are willing and able to get into deals, run discovery, build business cases, and close - not just inspect a forecast.
  • Experience building and scaling Commercial / mid-market or inside sales teams - hiring bar, ramp, enablement, comp design input, territory carving.
  • Excellent cross-functional operator: works seamlessly with Marketing, CS, SE, RevOps, Product, and Field Sales.
  • Outstanding communicator and coach. You can move easily between a 1:1 deal coaching session and an executive-level forecast review.
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.


50/50 split. The on target earnings (OTE) range is specific to the United States and is $185,616 - $371,232

#LI-Hybrid

#LI-MS1

Compensation Pay Range:
$150,609.00 - $203,322.00

Salary Information

The base salary range is specific to the United States. The salary of the final candidate selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to internal equity, experience, education, work location, specialty and training. If the final candidate has a different level of experience, the base salary target range may be lower or higher than what is published.

About Alation

Alation is a data intelligence company that empowers organizations to trust their data and drive business outcomes through a single source of truth. Alation?s enterprise data catalog leverages AI and machine learning to automate the discovery of data, sensitive information, and data lineage to promote accurate data governance. Alation?s platform is used by some of the world?s largest and most innovative organizations, including Pfizer, American Family Insurance, and Munich Re.
Learn more about Alation
Size
400 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

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