Sales Development Manager, Zen Educate
£40-50k
OTE
+Equity and uncapped commission
Mid and Senior level
London
5 days a week in office (Oval, London)
Education recruitment platform
Be an early applicant
Education recruitment platform
201-500 employees
B2BMarketplaceEducationRecruitment
Be an early applicant
£40-50k
OTE
+Equity and uncapped commission
Mid and Senior level
London
5 days a week in office (Oval, London)
201-500 employees
B2BMarketplaceEducationRecruitment
Company mission
To make a positive impact and bring about meaningful change within the education recruitment sector.
Role
Who you are
- If you have proven success in outbound sales or experience in EdTech/Education Recruitment, and you’re ready to make an impact in the education space, this could be the role for you
- This is a role for someone who enjoys setting the standard, not managing from the sidelines
- Have strong experience in outbound sales, ideally within B2B SaaS, EdTech, or a similar consultative sales environment
- Are a proven high performer who has consistently hit or exceeded sales development targets
- Have experience coaching, mentoring, or leading SDRs, whether in a formal management role or as a senior team member
- Enjoy balancing hands-on sales activity with developing others and leading by example
- Are confident running one-to-ones, delivering feedback, and facilitating group training or team sessions
- Are comfortable using data and metrics to understand performance, diagnose issues, and drive improvement
- Communicate clearly and credibly with senior stakeholders, both internally and externally
- Are naturally collaborative and enjoy working closely with peers across sales and commercial teams
- Are motivated by results, ownership, and continuous improvement
- Care deeply about doing work that has purpose and impact, and are excited by Zen’s mission
- Thrive in a fast-paced, office-based team environment and enjoy being part of a highly engaged sales floor
What the job involves
- I’m searching for a Sales Development Manager to take a leading role within our high-performing SDR team
- You’ll set the standard, share your experience, and help train and mentor, while uplifting those around you
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of SDRs through regular one-to-one sessions, call coaching, deal reviews, and feedback
- Design and deliver structured onboarding, ongoing training, and group coaching sessions
- Set clear expectations around activity, quality, and outcomes, leading by example
- Run daily stand-ups, weekly team meetings, and performance reviews
- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and peer learning
- Track and analyse key SDR metrics including activity, conversion rates, and meeting quality
- Use data to identify performance gaps and coach individuals towards improvement
- Provide clear reporting and insights to senior sales leadership on team performance and trends
- Support performance management conversations where required
- Actively participate in outbound sales development by prospecting, qualifying, and booking meetings for Account Managers and AEs
- Manage your own pipeline and outreach activity using the Zen platform
- Demonstrate best-in-class outbound behaviours that the team can learn from
- You’ll lead from the front, balancing hands-on sales development with coaching and developing a growing SDR team
- You’ll have meaningful input into how the SDR function operates, from training and messaging to outreach strategy and performance standards, helping shape the next phase of the team’s growth
- As Zen continues to grow, this role offers a strong pathway into senior sales leadership or commercial roles, with increased responsibility as the team and market expand
Application process
- We move fast and respect your time
- 1. Intro call with a member of our people team - A quick chat to get to know each other and cover the basics
- 2. Online first stage interview - To talk in more detail around your experience and career aspirations
- 3. Technical task & final interview at our office - A sales cold call role play and a culture interview with two team members
- 4. A final call with a member of the senior leadership team
Salary benchmarks
Our take
With UK schools under immense financial pressure, Zen Educate is providing a smarter approach to education staffing. Recruitment in schools often relies on inefficient and expensive practices. Zen Educate is focused on tackling the pain points in the industry and providing a way to ensure schools get the best teachers possible.
It provides an online platform as an alternative to recruitment agencies, which is the only online platform accredited by the UK's Department of Education, helping schools fill staffing needs quickly and cost-effectively. Schools using the platform have reportedly saved 20-30% on supply cover costs.
On top of this, the company has also raised significant funding to support acquisitions in the UK and the US, plus the expansion of its operations and offering.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Top investors
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Aug 2025
$17.7m
SERIES B
May 2024
$37m
SERIES B
Total funding: $104.7m
Company benefits
- Macbook and tech equipment provided
- Regular "lunch 'n' learns" every month on a range of topics
- Investment in your professional development
- Regular socials
- Ownership in the company
- Pension scheme
- 25 days of holidays + all UK public holidays off
- Central London dog-friendly office with perks like fresh fruit, bike parking, showers, and an on-site gym and café
- Life insurance
- Vitality health insurance and benefits
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Electric Car Scheme
Company values
- Commit to the mission- We commit to our mission, our customers, and our teams. We work hard because we care more
- Choose greatness over comfort- Greatness and comfort rarely coexist. We seek greatness. We understand success takes grit & determination so we seek colleagues that possess it
- Act like an owner- We all take responsibility for driving the company forward and making it a success. If we see something that could be better, we fix it. We offer stock options to all employees
- Help each other be better- Every person at Zen is someone we can respect and learn from
- A culture of trust- We hire people who are great at their jobs and we let them get on with it while being there to lend a hand when needed
- Challenge the status quo- We take action when we can see opportunities for improvement. We are in it to make our customers' lives better and to fix a broken system
- Embrace learning over perfection- We make decisions quickly and we don't hesitate. We may disagree with a decision, but we support the team and the mission by committing to it. We embrace making unknowable mistakes and learning from them
Company HQ
HQ, London
Articles
Leadership
Slava Kremerman
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously a member of the Leadership Team at Nutmeg a FS startup, they also worked at Barclays and Aon.
Oren Cohen
(Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer)Ran the UK office of Optimizely, a Silicon Valley tech company. Prior to this, they worked at G-STAT and Intel.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Zen Educate
- At Zen, we strive to build a culture of equity and inclusion, where everyone is respected, valued and appreciated for their unique traits, experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating a safe, inclusive and equitable environment where our team can thrive, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, religion or beliefs. We value our differences and believe that practices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion help us create a fairer, more compassionate environment for all
- We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and different experiences and perspectives — just like the staff who teach through Zen and the children at the schools we work with. We believe in hiring the best people from the widest pool and creating an inclusive culture where people’s voices are heard and all our team can look forward to coming to work
- We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of our community and promoting an equitable and inclusive environment for all. We seek out diverse opinions, beliefs, and experiences because they collectively make us stronger; we’ve had former teachers, pilots, fundraisers, engineers, lawyers, marketers, social media experts and more join our team
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