Director of Sales and Marketing- SFBUE

About SFBUE

San Francisco Bay University Education (SFBUE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of San Francisco Bay University (SFBU) established to extend and commercialize the university’s innovation beyond higher education. SFBUE operates at the intersection of human capability, artificial intelligence, workforce transformation, enterprise technology, research, and learning innovation.

SFBUE is developing Capability Science as a scientific foundation for understanding human capability in the AI Age, Capability Management as the enterprise discipline through which organizations understand, develop, deploy, and improve those capabilities, and SFBUE products as the AI-native commercial platform that operationalizes this work at scale. SFBUE also supports selected SFBU initiatives, including Pro+, while building a broader portfolio of enterprise services, research partnerships, methodologies, and commercial offerings.

Position Overview

Reporting to the Vice President of Strategy & Operations, the Director of Sales and Marketing will own and execute SFBUE’s go-to-market strategy for its emerging enterprise products and services. This is a hands-on, 0-to-1 leadership role focused on customer discovery, category development, building market awareness, generating demand, and winning early enterprise customers. The Director will lead both sales and marketing efforts, working directly with prospective customers and partners to validate offerings, drive revenue, and build a repeatable, scalable go-to-market approach. The ideal candidate brings an entrepreneurial mindset, strong commercial instincts, and experience building and selling new offerings in early-stage environments. This is an exempt, full-time hybrid position, with up to 50% travel expected for in-person collaboration in Fremont, California, as well as for external business activities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Own go-to-market strategy: Develop and execute the sales and marketing strategy for new products and services, identifying target customers, priority markets, positioning, and growth opportunities.

• Drive sales and revenue: Build and manage the enterprise sales pipeline, lead customer conversations, develop proposals, negotiate deals, and close early customers.

• Lead customer discovery and 0-to-1 validation: Engage prospective customers to understand their needs, test market hypotheses, recruit early customers and pilot partners, and turn initial traction into a repeatable sales process.

• Lead marketing and category development: Develop positioning, messaging, campaigns, thought leadership, content, and events that educate the market, establish SFBUE's leadership in emerging categories, and generate qualified demand.

• Build partnerships and ecosystem engagement: Develop relationships with enterprise customers, industry organizations, research partners, and other stakeholders. Lead ecosystem marketing initiatives that build awareness, credibility, and adoption.

• Shape commercial offerings: Work with product and leadership teams to refine pricing, packaging, value propositions, and customer acquisition strategies based on market feedback.

• Establish sales and marketing operations: Implement CRM processes, track pipeline and conversion metrics, manage forecasts, and report on commercial performance.

• Collaborate across teams: Work closely with product, research, technology, and leadership teams to align customer needs with product development and business priorities.

• Perform other duties as needed.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This role may manage external agencies, contractors, and future sales and marketing team members. The Director is expected to be a hands-on leader who can execute independently while building the foundation for a growing commercial team.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, strategy, technology, organizational development, education, or a related field.

• 8+ years of experience in B2B sales, marketing, business development, go-to-market strategy, or related roles.

• Demonstrated success bringing a new B2B product, service, or business line to market and generating early commercial traction, ideally in a startup or early-stage environment.

• Strong enterprise sales and consultative-selling skills, including experience engaging senior executives and closing complex deals.

• Experience developing positioning, pricing, packaging, pilots, proposals, and go-to-market plans.

• Ability to build sales and marketing processes from scratch, including CRM, pipeline management, forecasting, and performance tracking.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex offerings into clear customer value.

• Ability to work independently, prioritize effectively, and execute in an early-stage environment with ambiguity and limited resources.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in an early-stage startup or launching a new business, product, or market from 0 to 1.

• Experience selling enterprise AI, workforce transformation, HR/talent technology, learning technology, or complex B2B software and services.

• Experience developing and executing marketing campaigns that generate qualified enterprise leads.

• Experience with category creation, market education, or introducing new products and concepts to enterprise buyers.

• Existing relationships with enterprise leaders in workforce strategy, talent, learning, AI transformation, technology, or related functions.

• Experience selling both professional services and recurring software solutions.

• Master’s degree, MBA, or other relevant advanced degree.

• Bay Area presence and ability to work in person with SFBU/SFBUE stakeholders and external partners on a regular basis.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong entrepreneurial mindset and ability to take ownership of building a business from its earliest stages.

• Proven ability to sell emerging products and services before every aspect of the offering is fully developed.

• Strong sales execution, relationship building, negotiation, and closing skills.

• Ability to develop clear messaging and execute practical marketing initiatives that generate demand.

• Ability to translate complex technical, scientific, or strategic concepts into compelling customer value propositions.

• Data-driven approach to sales and marketing, with a focus on measurable results and continuous improvement.

• Demonstrated strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Salary Range

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $185,000– $215,000 annually, depending on experience, qualifications, and scope. The role may also be eligible for performance-based incentive compensation and long-term incentive participation, subject to applicable plans and approvals.

Application Process

For full consideration, please submit your completed application, letter of interest describing your experience based on the stated responsibilities, your leadership approach, a current CV/ resume, and the names and contact information of three references.

This position description is not intended to cover or contain a comprehensive list of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time, with or without notice.

SFBUE is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer: SFBUE is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment. SFBUE does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by law.

In accordance with federal and state disability laws, SFBUE provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you require assistance during the application or interview process, please contact hrmgr@sfbu.edu.