Head of Sales & Partnerships

Job Description

Remote — Selected International Markets | Independent Contractor | Base + Commission + Options About RFPBench RFPBench is building an AI-assisted RFP management platform for both sides of the RFP process : organizations that issue and evaluate RFPs and vendors that respond to them. The platform brings RFP authoring, response management, collaboration, AI assistance, evaluation, and decision governance into one structured workflow. We are looking for our first senior commercialization hire to help turn an emerging product into a repeatable pipeline of trials, pilots, and paying customers. The Role The Head of Sales & Partnerships will be RFPBench’s primary hands-on commercial lead. Approximately 70–80% of the role is direct sales and business development : researching prospects, opening conversations, running discovery, demonstrating the product, following up, progressing pilots, and converting qualified opportunities into customers. The balance is focused on partnerships, sales enablement, and bringing structured customer feedback back to the founder and engineering team. This is not a role for someone who primarily wants to manage an existing sales team. At this stage, you must enjoy doing the work personally while helping build the commercial process that can later scale. The founder will retain product-management and roadmap ownership. Your job is primarily to sell, develop relationships, learn from the market, and communicate customer insight clearly. What You Will Do Create new business: Personally generate opportunities through targeted outbound prospecting, referrals, partnerships, and other appropriate channels. Research target accounts and identify the right decision-makers and influencers. Build and maintain a qualified pipeline rather than relying primarily on inbound demand. Run discovery, demonstrations, and sales conversations: Conduct discovery with procurement, sourcing, proposal/response, sales, technology, and executive stakeholders. Understand customer workflows, pain points, buying criteria, internal stakeholders, and decision processes. Deliver polished online product demonstrations and presentations tailored to customer needs. Follow up persistently, professionally, and intelligently throughout the sales process. Develop trials and pilots into customers : Recruit qualified organizations for early access, trials, and structured pilots. Help define objectives, success criteria, participants, and commercial next steps. Maintain active customer engagement throughout pilots. Identify blockers and objections and help move successful engagements toward paid conversion. Bring the market back into the company: Capture recurring objections, workflow problems, buying concerns, and feature requests. Distinguish isolated requests from broader market patterns. Turn customer conversations into concise, structured input for the founder/product function and engineering team. Help the team understand why customers are requesting something, not simply what they asked for. Support messaging, partnerships, and market development: Help improve sales messaging, decks, one-pagers, outreach sequences, webinars, and other sales material based on what customers actually respond to. Identify relationships with RFP/procurement consultants, proposal specialists, technology providers, industry groups, and other potential partners. Develop referral, partnership, webinar, and pilot-introduction opportunities. Help build the commercial operating system : Establish disciplined prospecting, qualification, follow-up, CRM, pipeline management, and forecasting practices. Help develop repeatable sales playbooks and demonstration processes. Use AI and automation intelligently for account research, contact discovery, personalization, campaign preparation, and follow-up support. As the company grows, help recruit, onboard, and coach additional commercial staff while remaining close to customers. What We Are Looking For — Essential Exceptional professional English. You must communicate fluently and credibly in spoken and written English, present confidently to senior North American stakeholders, and use U.S. English and North American business terminology naturally. Proven new-business acquisition. You can point to B2B customers you personally helped create and win, explain how the opportunities originated, how you progressed them, and what you personally contributed. Hands-on B2B SaaS or complex-solution sales experience. You are comfortable with consultative selling, multiple stakeholders, and products that require discovery and explanation rather than a transactional script. Strong outbound ability. You can originate opportunities yourself and do not depend on a large inbound funnel or separate SDR organization. Excellent discovery and demonstration skills. You ask useful questions, listen carefully, understand business workflows, and can turn that understanding into a compelling customer conversation. CRM and pipeline discipline. You consistently track opportunities, follow-up, pipeline stages, and next steps. Early-stage ownership mentality. You are comfortable working directly with founders and engineers and building processes while executing them. Technical learning agility. You can learn and credibly explain an AI-enabled SaaS product, including workflow, data, security, and integration concepts, without needing to be an engineer. Highly Desirable Experience helping build an early-stage sales function or sales team. Experience selling SaaS or complex solutions to established mid-market or enterprise organizations. Practical experience with AI-enabled prospecting, research, sales-intelligence, or workflow-automation tools. Experience with RFPs, procurement, sourcing, proposal/bid management, security questionnaires, or related workflows. Partnership, referral, or ecosystem-development experience. Experience presenting webinars, workshops, podcasts, or educational sessions. Fluency in Spanish or French . Why Join RFPBench Become the company’s first senior commercial hire . Help shape the go-to-market model rather than inherit one. Work directly with the founders and engineering team. Help determine the first repeatable customer segments, sales motion, messaging, and partnership strategy. Build the commercial function that can grow into a larger team as the company proves conversion and scales. Join as the MVP moves into pilots and real customer validation — not simply at the idea stage. Location & Working Hours This is a fully remote international contractor position . We currently welcome applications from selected markets in Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Initial target markets include the Philippines, South Africa, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico , and we remain open to exceptional candidates in comparable markets. North American customer coverage is essential. You must maintain a regular working schedule that provides meaningful overlap with North American business hours and be available for scheduled customer meetings outside that core overlap when reasonably required. The specific schedule will be agreed upon based on your location and customer-coverage responsibilities. Contractor Arrangement & Compensation Engagement is as an independent contractor . You will provide your own normal computer, phone, internet access, and working equipment. Competitive monthly contractor fee , based on market, experience, and track record. Uncapped performance-based commission with meaningful upside. Stock Options Commission will be weighted primarily toward successful customer conversion and revenue growth. During the initial ramp period, qualified pipeline development and pilot progression may also form part of performance objectives. Specific monthly fee, commission mechanics, performance objectives, and time-off/public-holiday arrangements will be agreed before engagement. Selection Process Because this role depends heavily on communication and practical selling ability, shortlisted candidates should expect: 1. A live presentation or product-demonstration exercise . 2. A short written communication exercise . 3. Discussion of real examples of customers you personally helped win — including how the opportunity was created, how you progressed it, and the commercial outcome. We care less about impressive job titles than about evidence that you can personally create opportunities, build trust, sell a complex product, follow through, and help us build a repeatable commercial engine.