Our client is a mission-driven EdTech company dedicated to providing a college and career counseling platform, used by high schools and districts, to support students and counselors at scale. As they enter a pivotal year of commercial expansion, they are seeking a seasoned, highly entrepreneurial sales leader to join their venture-backed team and take full ownership of the national go-to-market strategy. This person’s work will directly impact students and families navigating one of life’s most defining journeys, transforming how millions access expert college admissions support. Reporting directly to the CEO, they will serve as a key member of the Executive Team with a clear, performance-based trajectory toward a VP of Sales or CRO role as they build and scale the national K-12 sales motion from the ground up.

The successful candidate will thrive at the intersection of mission, market insight, and measurable results. They will be responsible for shaping and executing a high-impact sales strategy that drives adoption across school districts and educational organizations, while remaining strategically focused on meeting and exceeding sales targets. As a strategic thought partner, they will translate high-level growth targets into actionable execution plans, prioritizing key accounts and collaborating closely with product, partnerships, and executive leadership to align offerings with real-world district needs.

Location: This is a national role, and while it is preferred that the candidate lives in the Greater Los Angeles territory, other states will be considered if the person is located close to a large metro airport.

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive National Growth from zero to scale: Take full ownership of the sales journey from initial market entry to repeatable revenue, moving from the first few wins to a sustained national scale. This includes managing complex, RFP‑driven sales to unified and large urban districts and managing multistakeholder buying groups (superintendent, director of secondary education, counselors, CTE directors, CTOs, legal, boards).
• Build the Startup Playbook: Lead the development of our client’s sales strategy and execution plan. This includes defining the ideal customer profile, territory segmentation, qualification framework, and key performance dashboards, and then refining these elements using win-loss insights and real-world feedback.
• Align to Funding Streams:  Tie every proposal to specific state and federal funding sources (Titles I–IV) to ensure districts can move forward without budget hurdles.
• Advocate for the Product: Channel real-world market feedback directly to the product team to influence the roadmap and ensure messaging resonates with superintendents, CFOs, Boards and Counselors.
• Create Urgency: Align platform outcomes with district equity mandates, funding timelines and board agendas to convert interest into closed deals.
• Scale the Organization: As traction builds, help hire and mentor a high-performing sales team, instilling the systems and culture you helped create.
• Serve as a Strategic Partner to the districts and be effective in driving deals to closure.
• Establish a Data-Driven Sales Engine: Define and monitor key performance indicators, including discovery-to-demo ratios and RFP success rates, while providing monthly strategic intelligence to the CEO and executive leadership to ensure forecast accuracy.
• Sensitivity to Data: Model high levels of integrity and discretion to safeguard sensitive student data while demonstrating an authentic passion for college access and educational equity.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in education, business, or a related field.
• 8–10 years of proven, quota-carrying success selling into secondary schools or districts (middle and/or high schools), with a demonstrated ability to advance and close deals across long, multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
• Established relationships with secondary-school administrators and decision-makers (e.g., board, superintendent, director of secondary education, principals, counseling leadership, CCMR leads, C&I, student services, or central office), with a strong understanding of how purchasing decisions are made.
• Demonstrated ability to convert school or district interest into closed business, including navigating budget constraints, approval processes, timing considerations, and competing district priorities.
• Proven strength in managing complex stakeholder environments, effectively influencing and aligning multiple decision-makers with differing roles, incentives, and concerns.
• Exceptional persuasion and problem-solving skills, with a track record of overcoming objections, unblocking stalled deals, and crafting practical, school-specific solutions.
• Entrepreneurial, execution-oriented mindset, comfortable operating with autonomy, ambiguity, and minimal structure while consistently driving deals forward.
• Strategic thinker capable of defining market strategy at both the regional and national level and translating it into execution.
• Working knowledge of core K–12 systems and data flows (e.g., SIS/LMS platforms, rostering and secure data exchange such as Clever, PowerSchool, SFTP).
• Functional fluency in AI and data concepts, with the ability to translate technical capabilities into clear, educator- and student-friendly value narratives for non-technical school and district leaders.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, equally effective in discovery conversations, stakeholder alignment meetings, and executive or board-level discussions.
• Ability to travel up to 40% nationwide, including some weekend conferences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience at or selling against Naviance, PowerSchool, Xello, SchooLinks, Clever, or similar.
• Deep expertise in educational funding streams and compliance standards to effectively position our solutions within district budgetary frameworks.
• Familiarity with SIS/LMS integrations and data‑privacy regulations (FERPA, COPPA, state laws).
• Understanding and experience with CRMs.

Benefits:

Our client provides a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your total well-being, featuring robust medical insurance that covers prescription drugs, mental health services, and emergency care with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions. In addition to optional dental and vision insurance, employees receive a set number of days for paid vacation as well as for annual paid sick leave.

Salary Range:

This role offers the following: $125,000–$140,000 base salary + sales commission + meaningful early-stage equity + benefits.

About our client:

Our client is mission-driven EdTech startup, addressing a massive gap in the college admissions process where school counselors are overloaded with caseloads and many families cannot afford private support. To bridge this divide, they’ve developed an AI-powered co-pilot that makes high-quality guidance accessible and equitable for all.

They are a category-defining company, being the only EdTech startup backed by the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, with a world-class team hailing from Amazon, Disney, and Harvard. This is an opportunity to join an impact-driven organization where you can own your strategy, influence a cutting-edge product, and help ensure every student’s dream for success has a fair chance.