Director, Inside Sales

Alation•Redwood City, CA

6d•$185,616 - $371,232•Onsite

About The Position

Alation is pioneering the next era of data intelligence — powered by AI agents and trusted data. Organizations around the world rely on Alation to drive self-service analytics, cloud transformation, data governance, and AI innovation. Our technology helps enterprises connect people and data to make faster, smarter, and more confident decisions. With more than $340M in funding – valued at over $1.7 billion and more than 650 customers, including 40% of the Fortune 100. As data becomes the foundation of every business, Alation is leading the way in helping organizations unlock their full potential. By bringing intelligence, automation, and trust to every interaction, we empower customers to scale data-driven innovation with confidence and speed. Joining Alation means being part of a winning team shaping the future of AI-powered data intelligence. We move fast, think big, and deliver results together. We are hiring a Director of Inside Sales to build and scale our Commercial segment team, focused on accounts in the $1B–$10B company-revenue range. This is a player-coach, hands-on leadership role for someone who has built and run high-performing inside sales teams in a complex enterprise software environment, and who understands how to drive growth across both new logo acquisition and the expansion / retention of an existing customer base. This role reports into the SVP Sales, partnering very closely with our VP of Customers and GTM Operations at our HQ. This role is onsite in our Redwood City office. You will own the number for the segment: new ARR, expansion ARR, Net Revenue Retention (NRR), and Gross Revenue Retention (GRR). You will partner closely with Marketing, Sales, Deployment Strategist, Enablement and Operations to build a repeatable, metrics-driven sales motion that scales.

Requirements

8+ years in enterprise / commercial SaaS sales, with 3+ years in front-line sales management.
Experience selling complex enterprise software (data, analytics, AI, governance, data infrastructure, or adjacent categories strongly preferred).
Proven track record of consistently hitting and exceeding team quota in a B2B multi-stakeholder enterprise sale
Demonstrated success driving revenue growth across both new logo acquisition and the existing customer base — you can speak fluently to NRR, GRR, gross retention, net expansion, churn, and the levers behind each.
Operator mindset with deep inside sales discipline — you live in the activity metrics, run a tight weekly cadence, and lead with an “inspect what you expect” philosophy. You can show the dashboards you run your team on.
Strong command of the renewal process — quoting, risk scoring, save plays, escalation paths, multi-year, and uplift — and a track record of protecting GRR while growing NRR.
AI-native operator. You actively use AI tools to do your job better (research, prospecting, call prep, forecasting, coaching) and have an opinion on how to roll AI tooling into a sales team’s daily workflow.
Hands-on, player-coach mentality. You are willing and able to get into deals, run discovery, build business cases, and close — not just inspect a forecast.
Experience building and scaling Commercial / mid-market or inside sales teams — hiring bar, ramp, enablement, comp design input, territory carving.
Excellent cross-functional operator: works seamlessly with Marketing, CS, SE, RevOps, Product, and Field Sales.
Outstanding communicator and coach. You can move easily between a 1:1 deal coaching session and an executive-level forecast review.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

Build and lead a team of Inside Sales Account Executives covering Commercial accounts ($1B–$10B revenue), including hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, and career development.
Own the segment quota across new logo and existing customer expansion; forecast accurately, manage pipeline rigor in Salesforce, and operate a clean weekly cadence (pipeline, forecast, deal reviews, 1:1s).
Sell alongside the team — get into deals, coach live, run discovery and executive conversations, negotiate, and help close strategic opportunities. This is not a hands-off role.
Build and improve the Commercial sales motion: expansion and renewal playbook, account plans and MEDDPICC qualification, multi-threading, and value-selling against complex enterprise data and AI use cases.
Drive inside sales discipline — set the bar on weekly activity metrics (customer meetings, calls, emails, pipeline generation), inspect them rigorously, and coach the team to hit them consistently.
Run the renewal process end-to-end in partnership with Marketing and operations — own renewal forecasts, early risk signals, on-time renewal rates, multi-year extensions, and price uplift; protect GRR and expand NRR.
Partner with BDR/SDR leadership and Marketing on demand generation, account-based programs, and pipeline coverage for the segment.
Instill an “inspect what you expect” culture — clear leading indicators, weekly scorecards, transparent dashboards, deal inspection, and accountability for the numbers. No surprises in the forecast.
Operate AI-native ways of working across the team — use Alation, Salesforce, Outreach, Claude and modern AI sales tooling to accelerate research, prospecting, deal prep, call review, forecasting, and coaching. Set the example for what an AI-first sales org looks like.
Represent the segment’s GTM strategy to leadership: present at QBRs, weekly forecast calls, and exec staff meetings; surface what’s working, what’s not, and what we need to change.