Regional SDR Director at Canonical

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm leading the global adoption of open source software. As the publisher of Ubuntu, a critical open source project and a foundational platform for AI, IoT, and cloud technologies, we are actively transforming the world of software. Established in 2004, Canonical has embraced a remote-first work environment, with most colleagues working from home since its inception. We recruit globally and maintain high standards for all new hires, expecting excellence and a commitment to being the best in our field. Working at Canonical means stepping into the future, challenging your thinking, optimizing your work, learning new skills, and elevating your professional game.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a workplace free from discrimination. We believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and background creates a superior work environment and better products. Regardless of your identity, your application will receive fair consideration.

The Role: Regional SDR Director

Canonical is a premier provider of open source software and operating systems to global enterprise and technology markets. Ubuntu, our platform, is widely adopted in breakthrough enterprise initiatives including public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT. Our clientele includes the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, alongside industry leaders across diverse sectors. Canonical is a pioneer in global distributed collaboration, with over 1200 team members spanning 75+ countries and very few office based roles. Teams typically gather two to four times annually in person, in engaging locations globally, to synchronize on strategy and execution. The company is founder led, profitable, and experiencing rapid growth. We are expanding our sales and field engineering teams worldwide, including our sales development representative (SDR) teams.

Our SDRs and BDRs are typically high achieving graduates from STEM fields who aspire to enter the software industry and commence their sales careers at Canonical. We are seeking Regional SDR Directors to lead our inbound and outbound teams across the Americas (AMER), Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific (APAC). Beyond managing inbound leads for a global tech company, our objective is to cultivate exceptional sales professionals characterized by high integrity, strong empathy, and a rigorous work ethic. Consequently, our sales development organization also functions as a sales academy. We are therefore searching for Regional SDR and BDR Directors who are deeply invested in skill development and culture building across AMER, EMEA, and APAC.

You will thrive in this role if you are organized, persistent, analytical, hard working, and dedicated to ensuring that smart, ambitious individuals acquire and refine the skills necessary to represent you and the company exceptionally well throughout their careers, both within your team and as they advance to more senior sales and alliances positions. You should be driven to enhance your own skills alongside those of your team, and enjoy exploring new technologies. Canonical is uniquely positioned within the vast wave of open source innovation, offering a broad and rapidly expanding portfolio of solutions to customers, and ample opportunities for continuous learning about new technologies or specialization in preferred fields. You should also be receptive to innovation and willing to experiment with new outbound strategies to adapt to evolving market dynamics.

In this role, your primary objective is to direct regional SDR and BDR managers and their teams across AMER, EMEA, and APAC, while maintaining a multi-million dollar pipeline.

Key Qualifications and Responsibilities

We value:

• Excellent Academic Results: Strong performance at both school and university levels.
• Educational Background: Bachelor’s or equivalent degree in Business or a STEM field.
• Passion for Sales: Demonstrated knowledge and enthusiasm for business development, sales, and technology.
• Proven Track Record: A history of delivering exceptional outbound sales development results.
• Commitment to Learning: A curious, flexible, and scientific approach to continuous learning and improvement.
• Problem Solving: Creative problem solving abilities and a collaborative approach to cross team initiatives.
• Leadership Experience: Previous leadership experience in any capacity.
• Data Driven: Ability to leverage data to inform team activities and drive continuous improvement.
• Strategic Vision: Multi-regional strategic vision tailored to the market dynamics of AMER, EMEA, and APAC.
• Leadership Development: Proven track record in recruiting, mentoring, and developing SDR Team Managers (leading leaders).
• Cross Functional Alignment: Strong ability to align with Regional Sales VPs, Marketing, and Field Engineering teams.
• Sales Tech Expertise: Expertise in utilizing modern sales tech stacks and CRM analytics for accurate pipeline forecasting.
• Talent Management: Experience in scalable talent pipeline management to foster senior sales and alliances positions across all three regions.
• Remote Team Leadership: Experience driving accountability and culture within asynchronous, remote first global teams.

Over the past few years, this team has successfully trained dozens of talented tech sales professionals who are now contributing at Canonical and across the industry.

What We Offer

We take into account geographical location, experience, and performance when determining compensation worldwide. Compensation is reviewed annually (and more frequently for graduates and associates) to ensure outstanding performance is recognized. In addition to base pay, we provide a performance driven annual bonus or commission. We offer all team members supplementary benefits that align with our values and ideals, balancing local needs with global fairness.

• Distributed work environment with twice yearly team sprints in person.
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year.
• Annual compensation review.
• Recognition rewards.
• Annual holiday leave.
• Maternity and paternity leave.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Opportunities to travel to new locations to meet colleagues.
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long haul company events.