Senior Director of Sales (Workforce Development)

Description

Responsible for providing senior leadership for sales strategy and execution across SME Workforce, including Tooling U-SME, with accountability for driving sustained revenue growth across education, workforce development, government, and industrial markets. This role leads the full revenue lifecycle, new business development, sales execution, and post-sale outcomes ensuring consistent performance, forecasting accuracy, and long-term customer value.

This position oversees sales leadership and holds teams accountable for revenue performance, pipeline health, customer outcomes, and overall effectiveness. It is responsible for building and leading a high-performing, consultative sales organization grounded in a strong understanding of manufacturing workforce needs and capable of delivering complex, value-driven solutions that expand SME's national impact.

The role establishes clear expectations and operating standards for sales execution, including pricing, positioning, go-to-market alignment, and the processes, tools, and data required to support disciplined execution and reliable results. It owns accountability for post-sale strategy and outcomes within workforce sales, including customer adoption, retention, expansion, and measurable return on investment.

In addition, this position drives integrated revenue growth across SME by identifying strategic enterprise accounts requiring coordinated, cross-organizational engagement and partnering with other SME leaders to deliver unified value propositions. The focus of this responsibility is alignment, coordination, and shared accountability not enterprise-wide sales ownership.

This role serves as a key member of the leadership team, partnering closely with senior leaders across SME to align workforce sales strategy with organizational priorities, market positioning, and long-term growth objectives.

MAJOR FUNCTIONS:

• Develop a high-performing, consultative sales organization capable of uncovering complex customer needs, designing value-driven solutions, and expanding SME's national impact across the manufacturing ecosystem as a trusted partner.
• Provide leadership and executive direction to the workforce sales organization, establishing clear authority, expectations, and accountability for performance, culture, and results across all sales teams and channels.
• Foster a culture of innovation within the sales organization by encouraging new approaches, models, and scalable solutions to address evolving workforce challenges
• Provide direct leadership, coaching, and people management for assigned direct reports, and ensure effective recruitment, retention, talent development, and performance management practices are consistently applied across the workforce sales organization, aligned with SME's strategic and cultural priorities.
• Own sales compensation strategy for workforce sales, including the design, alignment, and ongoing evaluation of commission, incentive and bonus plans for sales teams and sales leaders, ensuring compensation reinforces revenue goals, desired behaviors, and long-term customer outcomes.
• Define and execute forward-looking sales strategies that position SME as the premier partner in manufacturing workforce development across education, industry, and government, ensuring alignment with SME's mission and long-term impact goals.
• Own and lead all revenue-generating sales activities across SME Workforce including Tooling U-SME, with accountability for revenue performance, growth strategy, forecasting accuracy, and execution discipline.
• Translate industry trends, workforce needs, and market intelligence into strategic priorities that guide sales focus, product and service evolution, partnership opportunities, and integrated enterprise value propositions.
• Own post-sale strategy and outcomes, including customer adoption, utilization, ROI realization, renewals, and expansion, ensuring clear expectations, performance metrics and accountability for long-term customer outcomes that drive sustained revenue growth.
• Provide executive ownership and leadership of the SME Fusion Conference, including strategic vision, revenue growth, sponsorship strategy, enterprise engagement, and national brand positioning.
• Build strong cross-functional partnerships with marketing, technology, product, and delivery teams to ensure cohesive go-to-market execution, consistent pricing, and a high-quality end-to-end customer experience.
• Ensure the sales organization can design and deliver high-impact, customized proposals that differentiate SME in the marketplace, unlock new revenue pathways, and reinforce SME's reputation as a trusted workforce development partner.
• Strengthen sales infrastructure, processes, and tools including Salesforce, analytics, dashboards, and forecasting methodologies to drive operational rigor, forecasting accuracy, and consistent performance in a complex, matrixed environment.
• Lead select enterprise integrated revenue initiatives, identifying high-potential customers for multi-unit engagement and coordinating unified offerings across all of SME.
• Partner with the SME Education Foundation to embed strategic fundraising and philanthropic initiatives into major enterprise account strategies, extending SME's impact across the full customer ecosystem.
• Use data, analytics, and performance insights to guide strategic decision-making and deliver clear, actionable reporting to senior leadership and executive stakeholders.
• Serve as a visible senior leader and external ambassador for SME with key customers, partners, workforce organizations, and national manufacturing stakeholders for a revenue and SME Solutions.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

MINIMUM EDUCATION, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor's degree in a related field required.
• At least 12 years of progressive sales experience, including senior-level responsibility for leading sales leaders and teams across multiple markets, customer segments or sales channels.
• Demonstrated success leading complex, consultative, solution-based sales organizations, preferably within manufacturing, workforce development, education, government, or similarly complex B2B environments. Proven ownership of revenue strategy and performance within a defined business unit, including accountability for revenue targets, pipeline health, forecasting accuracy, and sustained growth.
• Experience designing and executing long-term, sustainable revenue growth strategies, balancing near-term performance with market development and customer outcomes.
• Track record of meeting and exceeding revenue targets through disciplined execution, effective use of data and metrics, and strong operational rigor.
• Experience operating effectively in fast-paced, evolving environments with shifting priorities, ambiguity and competing demands.
• Strong executive negotiation and relationship-building skills, with the ability to engage credibly with senior customers, partners, and stakeholder audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to translate market insights, customer needs, and organizational priorities into clear, executable sales strategies.
• Advanced capability in data-driven decision-making, including use of metrics, forecasting, dashboards and performance reporting to guide strategy and execution.
• Proven ability to build, coach, and hold sales teams accountable, including responsibility for hiring, performance management, development and retention.
• Effective collaborator with the ability to influence and align across functions without direct authority in a matrixed organization.
• Leadership presence and judgement appropriate for a senior role representing SME internally and externally.

KEY COMPETENCIES:

Core Competencies:

• Communication and Collaboration
• Relationship Management
• Professionalism and Integrity
• Critical Thinking and Decision-Making
• Execution
• Initiative, Leadership, and Development

Leadership Competencies:

• Leadership and Vision
• Talent Management and Development
• Change Leadership

Job Competencies

• Manufacturing Industry & Workforce Expertise
• Workforce Sales Strategy & Execution
• Revenue Growth & Commercial Execution
• Consultative Selling & Solution Design
• Post-Sales Ownership & Customer Value Realization
• Sales Operating Discipline & Performance Management Data-Driven Sales Leadership
• Cross-Functional Revenue Integration
• Commercial Innovation & Scalable Growth Models

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Normal office environment
• Regular, in-person attendance required
• Primary office location: Cleveland, OH
• Travel required

OH

NO Security Clearance