Senior Director Sales

About

Prelude is a life science technology company looking to make the world safer and healthier by accelerating new product development of life-saving medicine and devices for humans and animals. Our mission is to simplify clinical research through smarter technology and superior service. Clinical trial designs are becoming increasingly complex, making new research more daunting and labor-intensive for clinical research organizations of all sizes. With Prelude’s Clinical Data Management (CDMS) platform, complex research is made easy through the industry’s most user-friendly, flexible eClinical technology platform, enabling easy, adaptable trials and automating 90% of clinical data management work.

Description

The Senior Director of Sales is responsible for the overall achievement of the company's sales goals. He/she is responsible for helping break into a new market opportunity. This person is akin to the first sales hire at a brand new startup, bringing a hunger, tenacity, and creativity to the relentless pursuit of new partnerships. They are a prolific networker and lead generator. They will bring proven tactics in generating pipeline and managing a prospect from intro call through close. Given the enterprise nature of our deals, they must focus on building long term relationships in an enterprise sales function rather than transactional quick sales. While they are leading by example they will document and craft the blueprint of success and train the other reps to follow their lead. The SENIOR DIRECTOR Business Development also manages support functions essential to sales force productivity. These include planning, reporting, quota setting and management, sales process optimization, sales job design, sales training, sales program implementation, sales compensation design and administration, and recruiting and selection of sales force talent.

Responsibilities

• Own the full sales cycle: prospecting, intro calls, demos, proposals, and close
• Lead by example in pipeline generation, sales discipline, and customer experience
• Evangelize Prelude’s differentiated platform to mid-market pharmaceutical and biotech organizations
• Reduce average sales cycle from 6 months to 4 months or less
• Create, test, and refine sales messaging, playbooks, and talk tracks
• Identify and pursue top 50 human health accounts with a hunter mindset
• Partner with marketing to ensure lead quality and campaign alignment
• Track and report on pipeline metrics, win/loss patterns, and sales performance drivers
• Coach team to meet goals and replicate winning motions
• Develop a high-urgency sales culture with accountability and team ownership
• Close first 5-10 deals or $500K in ARR bookings in new market within 6-9 months, validating GTM messaging
• Build and document repeatable sales process with clear stages and conversion benchmarks
• Establish partnership agreements with 3-5 Contract Research Organizations (CROs)
• Reduce sales cycle to <4 months

Specific Measures of Success

• Add additional $10-$15MM in ARR in 2-3 years
• Demonstrate strong networking skills, generating 12 new relationships with new pharma / biotech accounts
• Generate over $1M in pipeline acting as a quasi “first sales rep at a startup” while building out the playbook for how to win in a competitive space
• Create and deploy go-to-market strategies for new market, including value propositions, sales processes, and quarterly business reviews that drive quota achievement
• Create a business cadence to drive results and provide visibility to all stakeholders including marketing, sales management, implementation, operations, and finance.
• Participate as a valued member of the executive team, and collaborate across all functions (product, marketing, operations, finance, etc.) to create value.
• Recruit and hire a team of A Players
• Develop and capture market share within the human health market, including CROs and sponsors

Recruiting Points

• Preferred location: Austin
• If remote, ability to travel to Austin 50% of the time
• Loves the thrill of the hunt and leading by example in pursuing new opportunities and managing them through to close with minimal support
• 10 years in SaaS sales with experience scaling startups from between $0–25M in revenue
• 3 years in a leadership role (player-coach or team-building preferred)
• Experience selling to pharmaceutical or biotech companies a plus
• Comfortable running entire sales process independently
• Proven ability to enter competitive markets and win early share
• Strong CRM hygiene and pipeline management habits
• Excellent communicator and relationship builder

Mindset & Traits

• Entrepreneurial and resourceful — thrives in ambiguity and fast-paced settings
• High sense of ownership and accountability
• Data-driven but action-oriented — biased toward execution
• Collaborative with cross-functional teams (product, marketing, ops, finance)
• Passionate about building, mentoring, and scaling winning teams