Sales Director, Cognism
France
International sales intelligence platform
Be an early applicant
International sales intelligence platform
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To drive the next evolution of sales and marketing technology.
Role
Who you are
- 7+ years in B2B SaaS, with 3+ years leading multi-layered sales teams (AEs and AMs) focused on New Business and Account Management at 30M - 150M ARR scale
- Proven track record delivering plan across New ARR, Renewals (GDR), and Expansion in a regional leadership role
- Deep expertise in forecasting, pipeline inspection, deal strategy, and renewal readiness
- Hands-on, field-focused leader with strong coaching skills and executive presence
- Fluent in Salesforce and a modern GTM tech stack (e.g., Gong, Outreach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, OpenAI, Pigment, Cognism)
- Experience building trusted executive relationships and driving high-value partnerships with leading French enterprises
- Native-level French fluency and strong English proficiency are required
- We welcome applications from individuals typically underrepresented in tech, so if this role excites you but you’re unsure if you meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply!
What the job involves
- As Sales Director, France you will lead a high-performing team of Account Executives and Account Managers responsible for driving New ARR, Renewals, and Expansion across one of our most strategic regional markets
- Based in France, you will act as the regional lead and represent the voice of the French market across the business
- This role reports to the SVP of Revenue and Growth and is a key member of the EMEA leadership team
- Serves as the country' senior commercial leader and site lead, overseeing AM/AE performance while shaping local culture, alignment, and operations
- Lead a team of Account Executives and Account Managers across New Business, Expansion, and Renewals through a consistent operating rhythm of pipeline and commit reviews, renewal readiness, and quarterly business reviews that maintain focus, accountability, and execution excellence
- Own execution end-to-end - partnering with SDR and Marketing leadership to drive pipeline creation, enabling AEs to convert new opportunities, and empowering AMs to strengthen, renew, and grow customer relationships
- Translate global and regional goals into clear commercial priorities and actions that drive measurable results in the French market
- Lead from the front by joining strategic customer conversations and modelling best-in-class discovery, value articulation, objection handling, and negotiation
- Deliver plan across New ARR, Gross Dollar Retention, and Expansion ARR for the French region
- Conduct weekly inspections of pipeline composition, qualification, and value to ensure balance, predictability, and accuracy
- Apply a Data → Insight → Action approach to identify early indicators, diagnose root causes, and drive repeatable performance
- Manage executive sponsorship for top French accounts to accelerate strategic deals and proactively mitigate renewal or expansion risks
- Partner cross-functionally with RevOps, SDR Leadership, Marketing, Product, Data, and Customer Success to ensure tight alignment on execution, customer outcomes, and retention
- Enforce pricing, process, and forecasting rigor to ensure speed, predictability, and consistency
- Collaborate with Enablement to deploy methodologies, frameworks, and playbooks that raise execution standards across the French sales organisation
- Build, coach, and retain a high-performing French sales team with strong bench strength and succession planning
- Provide hands-on coaching to both managers and individual contributors, raising the bar on deal strategy, qualification, and customer engagement
- Foster a culture grounded in accountability, inclusion, integrity, and high performance
Our take
Cognism is a lead generation platform that provides clients with a SaaS solution that facilitates prospecting and improves conversions. According to Cognism, over 1.800 international businesses use its solution to drive new revenue, across industries such as marketing, HR, and technology.
The company differentiates itself through patented AI technology that delivers various data about leads to clients, helping them streamline the prospecting process. For example, Cognism provides clients with real-time company and people data and their AI technology identifies new business opportunities. Moreover, the solution easily integrates with all major CRM systems, which facilitates targeted communication strategies.
It also differentiates itself through its dedication to building a leading GDPR-compliant prospecting solution. The company's substantial funding has been primarily invested in international expansion across Europe, strengthening its position in the US, and improving its regulatory expertise in order to set the standard for data compliance.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Jan 2022
$87.5m
SERIES C
Mar 2021
$12.5m
LATE VC
Total funding: $129m
Company benefits
- Generous Annual Leave/ Paid Time Off (PTO)
- A day off for your Birthday!
- Great Maternity and Paternity packages
- Monthly Wellbeing Allowance
- Access to Spill – our slack integrated Wellbeing Service
Company HQ
Vauxhall, London, UK
Leadership
James Isilay
(CEO)Studied Information Systems Engineering at Imperial College London. Previously worked for 7 years at UBS Investment Bank, holding various positions such as Quantitative Developer, FX Derivatives IT Developer and Junior Exotic Options Trader.
Stjepan Buljat
(CIO)Previously worked for 10 years at ETNA, holding various positions such as IT Architect, R&D Team Leader and Product Development Manager.
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