Founding Director of Sales, Regulated Industries (US)

alinia.ai

About The Position

Alinia is building the compliance infrastructure for AI Agents. Our mission is to enable safe and compliant deployment of AI Agents in regulated industries, worldwide. Through our Guardrails Platform, we provide runtime control, auditing and regulatory compliance for agentic systems operating at scale —ensuring AI adheres to business policies and regulatory requirements in the most critical environments. Our Investment Guard is one example of how we help financial institutions deploy AI responsibly, without compromising on speed or innovation. Alinia was founded by Ari and Carlos, who previously led the ML platform at Twitter and LLM governance at Hugging Face. We are backed by leading venture funds in enterprise and financial innovation, and Santander Group is our flagship enterprise customer in financial services. We are now expanding in the United States and are looking for our first GTM and Sales leader to help define how regulated enterprises adopt AI agents—safely and at scale. Your Role This is a founding Director of Sales role for a hands-on leader who wants to build something from the ground up. Reporting directly to the CEO, you will own the entire go-to-market and sales motion for the US, with an initial focus on financial services and other regulated industries. You will be responsible for everything from sharpening our positioning and defining ICPs to building pipeline, running enterprise sales cycles, and closing multi-six-figure and seven-figure deals. Early on, no task is too small. You will lead sales calls, refine messaging, decide which events matter, and personally close our most important customers. Over time, you will scale what works—building the sales team, processes, and playbooks to support sustained growth. You bring a strong point of view on LLMs, AI Agents, compliance, and governance, allowing you to engage credibly with technical, compliance, and executive stakeholders and act as a trusted advisor to customers navigating this new frontier.

Requirements

7+ years of hands-on enterprise sales experience, ideally in B2B SaaS, compliance, data, or AI platforms.
Proven ability to independently close complex enterprise deals and grow accounts over time.
Experience selling into financial institutions or other regulated industries in the US (and/or Europe), with credibility in front of compliance, risk, and technology leaders.
Strong command of complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles and the ability to communicate fluently across technical, business, and regulatory audiences.
Deep understanding of land-and-expand, consumption-based sales models.
Track record of creating demand and delivering measurable business value.
Experience applying structured sales methodologies (e.g. MEDDPICC, account planning, value selling) with disciplined forecasting.
Demonstrated success in shortening enterprise sales cycles through effective deal strategy.
Experience structuring SaaS and on-prem licensing deals, including POCs and multi-year agreements, with Year 1 ACVs typically in the $250k–$500k range.
Exceptional storytelling and communication skills, making AI governance tangible and compelling for executives.
Entrepreneurial mindset: comfortable with ambiguity, motivated by ownership, and excited to shape a category-defining company.
Based in the US (East Coast preferred), with willingness to travel as needed.

Nice To Haves

Professional proficiency in Spanish (Alinia is US–Spain based, with active customers in Spain).
Background in financial regulation or compliance.
Prior experience selling or building products in generative AI or agentic systems.

Responsibilities

Own the full enterprise sales cycle, from qualification and account mapping through negotiation and close, across scale-up, mid-market, and enterprise accounts.
Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, including C-level executives, positioning Alinia as a strategic partner for responsible AI and agent governance.
Drive new business and expansion by identifying high-impact use cases, running tailored demos, and articulating Alinia’s differentiated value in compliant AI deployments.
Collaborate closely with the founders, Product, and Research teams to ensure customer insights directly inform product direction and roadmap.
Represent Alinia at industry events, conferences, and executive forums; help establish our thought leadership in AI compliance and governance.
Design and host executive dinners, workshops, and Alinia-sponsored events to deepen relationships and build market presence.
Contribute directly to revenue growth and long-term customer success across the US and, over time, Europe.