Sales Director, AI Sales

Sonar•San Francisco, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Sonar is seeking a Sales Director, AI Sales to build, lead, and personally sell alongside a founding team of 6-8 Senior Account Executives. This role will focus on AI-native startups (Series A-C) and digital-native unicorns headquartered in the Bay Area. The Director will own the team's number, culture, and a portfolio of strategic accounts, reporting directly to the Sonar CRO. This is a technical, field-based role requiring fluency in the product and a strong understanding of the buyer's technical needs. The revenue engine is built on high-volume, product-led growth, and the Bay Area team will run both strategic enterprise pursuits and efficient PLG conversion motions in parallel. The ideal candidate is a hands-on sales leader with experience building and leading teams selling technical products to engineering buyers in the Bay Area, comfortable with ambiguity, and passionate about the future of AI.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive B2B SaaS sales experience.
4+ years in a frontline sales leadership role (Manager or Director) carrying a team quota and personally hitting it.
Experience leading teams selling technical products to engineering, DevOps, platform, or security buyers.
Documented track record of consistent team quota attainment (multiple years of 100%+).
Personally closed seven-figure deals as an individual contributor earlier in your career.
Hired and ramped at least 6-10 quota-carrying AEs in a single role, with strong retention and ramp metrics.
Hands-on experience running developer-led / PLG-to-enterprise motions.
Technical fluency (Git, CI/CD, code review workflows, SDLC tooling) to engage engineering leaders.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area; willing to be physically present in San Mateo and with customers across SF, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and the Peninsula multiple days per week.
Experience building or managing a velocity or inside-sales track alongside a strategic enterprise motion.
Proficiency with inside-sales tooling: Salesforce (SFDC), Outreach or Salesloft, Gong or Chorus.
Built a sales team from zero at a Series B/C or growth-stage company.
Sold into AI-native companies or digital-native unicorns.
Experience building a new product line or specialist motion as a Director or Senior Manager.
Prior experience selling code quality, code security, AppSec (SAST / SCA), developer productivity, or AI coding tools.
Technical background (CS degree, prior engineering or DevRel experience, or visible technical depth).

Nice To Haves

Experience at a dev tools, code intelligence, AppSec, developer productivity, observability, or AI infrastructure company.
Comfortable with ambiguity and writing the playbook as you go.
Reads AI Twitter / X and has a point of view on where AI coding agents are headed.
Expects the team to be in the room rather than on Zoom.

Responsibilities

Build, lead, and personally sell alongside a founding team of 6-8 Senior Account Executives.
Own the team's revenue number, team culture, and a small portfolio of strategic accounts.
Set the operating cadence, including forecasting, pipeline reviews, deal inspection, and account planning.
Act as the executive sponsor in key deal negotiations.
Spend significant time in customer offices, at meetups, and at the San Mateo HQ.
Lead a team that runs both strategic enterprise pursuits and efficient PLG conversion motions.
Ensure pipeline velocity alongside pipeline size, managing time-to-close, stage-conversion rates, and PQL conversion.
Oversee the inside-sales infrastructure, including Salesforce hygiene, Outreach/Salesloft sequence discipline, and Gong review cadence.
Systematically convert Sonar's PLG signal at scale through repeatable plays.
Recruit, hire, and ramp the founding AEs with a relentless bar.
Turn field signal into roadmap priorities for Product and Engineering.
Partner with Marketing and Developer Advocacy to convert developer adoption into enterprise revenue.
Represent Sonar externally in the Bay Area at AI ecosystem events, customer roundtables, and analyst conversations.