Sales leader (strategic accounts)

Knak is a mission-driven company. Why? Because our time is limited, our competition is fierce, and our margin for error is small. For us to have the greatest impact on the world, we need to be laser focused on our core mission, which is... Empowering people to be creative. That’s why Knak exists.

We are a world-class enterprise email and landing page creation platform with a focus on making successful and happy customers by providing them with an incredibly powerful, yet easy to use creation platform. Our industry leading SaaS solution is built by Marketers, for Marketers. We know that it’s the small things that make the biggest impact and that emails and landing pages are where the rubber hits the road when it comes to Marketing Automation. We change the way Marketers work by making them more efficient, while improving conversion rate of their campaigns and helping them stay on brand. Oh, and we have a bit of fun while doing it, too!

The Role

As the Sales Leader for Large Enterprise / Strategic Sales, you will be responsible for driving Knak’s growth across large enterprise and strategic accounts. You’ll lead a team of Account Directors focused on new business acquisition and expansion, helping them navigate complex sales cycles, buying committees and contract negotiations, build strong customer relationships, and consistently deliver against revenue targets.

You’ll combine strategic planning with hands-on sales leadership, developing a structured and effective sales process while coaching your team throughout the sales cycle. Working closely with Marketing, Product Marketing, Product, People & Culture, and senior sales leadership, you’ll help build a predictable pipeline and scale a high-performing strategic sales team.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of Account Directors focused on acquiring new large enterprise and strategic customers.
• Provide hands-on coaching throughout the sales cycle through regular 1:1s, deal reviews, and pipeline reviews, while driving consistent adoption of sales best practices.
• Build, implement, and continuously refine a structured sales process, including standardized sales stages, CRM workflows, and qualification criteria.
• Develop and execute strategic sales plans to achieve revenue targets and expand Knak’s customer base.
• Analyze market data, identify priority verticals or territories, and collaborate with Marketing to focus outreach and pipeline-generation efforts.
• Hire, onboard, coach, and develop new sales team members as the team scales.
• Partner with Employee Success on recruiting and onboarding, and work with Product Marketing to continuously improve sales enablement.
• Monitor sales performance metrics including pipeline velocity, quota attainment, and win rates, providing senior leadership with clear reporting and actionable insights.
• Participate directly in complex strategic opportunities, coach Account Directors on consultative selling, and provide leadership through key negotiations.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with strategic accounts to support successful sales outcomes and long-term customer relationships.
• Make hiring, training, and performance management decisions for the strategic sales team.
• Collaborate closely with Marketing, Product Marketing, and Product to strengthen lead generation, sales enablement, and the customer feedback loop.

Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of SaaS sales leadership experience with a strong track record of meeting and exceeding team quotas.
• Proven ability to sell into and expand into the Fortune500.
• Proven ability to design, implement, and refine a structured sales process.
• Excellent coaching and mentoring skills, with the ability to develop Account Directors into high performers.
• Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to establish trust with both internal and external stakeholders.
• A strategic mindset paired with strong execution discipline and the ability to balance long-term planning with day-to-day sales leadership.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to clearly communicate technical and business concepts to a variety of audiences.
• Results-oriented, self-motivated, and comfortable working in a fast-paced start-up environment.

Nice to Have

• Degree in a business-related field.

What We Offer

At Knak we have four foundational pillars. Culture, customers, product and growth. Culture is our number one pillar because we know that is at the core of building a strong company that can build amazing products and delight our customers. We do this with a laser focus on hiring the right people who are smart, positive and who want more than the typical nine-to-five offers.

We offer an extremely rewarding, second to none work environment as acknowledged by Ottawa’s Best Places to Work 2025! We show our investment in our people through our competitive salaries, equity in the company, great benefits, paid vacation, Life leave days (because life happens), team lunches and off-sites, and most importantly our commitment to YOUR career growth.

If this sounds like something you’re looking for, then we’d love to hear from you! If you don’t see yourself fully reflected in every job requirement listed on the posting above, we still encourage you to reach out and apply. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups often only apply when they feel 100% qualified. We strongly encourage applicants of all genders, ages, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations, and life experiences to apply. Knak believes in creating an inclusive, barrier-free working environment. If you require ANY accommodation to the interview process please contact culture@knak.com.

At Knak, our recruitment process includes AI screening for keywords and minimum qualifications as well as video interviews which are transcribed with AI. Humans are still at the core of our decision making! Please note that this job post is for an existing vacancy.

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