Overview:

Guild Education is helping working adults in America go back to school, advancing their education and career while on the job. Guild works with employers to offer employees Education as a Benefit, improving a company’s recruitment and retention efforts, while supporting the goals and aspirations of employees for higher education advancement and degree completion.

We offer a mix of customized classes and programs, and we also work in partnership with top American universities to provide college degree programs for our students. Our work is directly with top American employers looking to build modern and relevant programs for their employees. We help Guild members take the next step towards a meaningful career, with a community to support them along the way.

Key Facts

• Mission driven, double bottom line company, providing education for working adults
• Top Tier Investors  Redpoint Ventures, Social Capital, Harrison Metal, and Cowboy Ventures
• Recently closed a $8.5M Series A
• Successful, experienced founding team and CEO, with 50 employees based in the Denver, CO HQ
• Massive market opportunity -- $3B total addressable market!
• Already closed a double-digit million dollar deal with Chipotle, pilots with Hospital Corp of America, Denver Public School District, Public Service Credit Union, and in talks with multiple Fortune 1000s -- all without outbound sales effort

The Job Responsibilities for VP of Sales & Client Partnerships:

The mission of the Vice President, Sales is to…

…work with CEO, Management Team and Board of Directors to structure and build Guild’s sales and customer success organization, to lay the GTM foundation for accelerated growth, and to land and cultivate new F1000 customers. This is not a short term play. We are putting the pieces in place to build an industry defining company.

We are looking for an inspirational sales leader who is able to balance an ability and willingness to roll up their sleeves and close deals with the ability to structure, build and lead a high performance commercial organization. The Guild sales process is akin to a large enterprise model requiring evangelical selling, the cultivation of long-term relationships, and a commitment to lasting client satisfaction. The Guild Sales Leader must take the long view and be focused not just on closing deals but on Customer Lifetime Value.

The VP Sales will report directly to the CEO at Guild, Rachel Carlson, and will be a key member of the executive leadership team. This role will ideally be based in Denver, CO; however we are open to hiring nationally if needed.

Roles & responsibilities include:

• Establish, cultivate and nurture long-term customer relationships. Guild’s platform requires an investment in customer development and expansion, the cultivation and maintenance of internal champions, and on-going customer satisfaction. Drive revenue growth by expanding accounts through customer success methodologies: adopt the technology, leverage it effectively, and realize ROI.
• Architect and implement a repeatable and scalable blueprint for customer success, inclusive of implementation services, marketing distribution, customer support, training, and account management; partner with internal teams at Guild and external customers to ensure maximum customer satisfaction over the lifetime of the contract; develop data-driven, strategic insights that improve our product value for customers.
• Attract, develop and retain top Sales and Account Management talent. Build a strategic, solution-oriented team specifically suited to selling Guild’s products and services
• Make Guild’s employer partners your #1 priority at all times; represent the employers within Guild’s executive team, and work to instill a healthy, sustainable employer focus across the entire company.
• Engage regularly with customers via strategic and operational reviews to evaluate customer needs and strategic direction. Serve as liaison between major account customers and internal teams (e.g. E-staff, Product Development, Services, etc.)
• Create and execute a business development strategy for both go-to-market and product partnerships..

• Contribute to company leadership as a top member of the leadership team
• Partner with our team to develop and refine corporate strategy; Integrate the sales and partnerships dimension into the fabric of the company; develop essential internal relationships; cultivate working relationships between sales, marketing, admissions and product.

We want you if your mindset includes:

• A sense that you’re a builder, not an editor
• A strong sense of accountability and co-ownership of challenges
• A desire to work in an environment where priorities change as we learn
• Ambition to help achieve our mission while progressing your career
• A love for the all hands-on deck feel of a startup—no task too big or too small
• Humility as a team player with a willingness to a diversity of assignments - incredibly difficult challenges to somewhat mundane tasks - depending on the day
• Passion for entrepreneurship & social impact in the higher education and employment space

We want you if your background and skillset includes:

• Strong sales leadership experience; a demonstrated track record as a top performer throughout his or her career.
• Strong consultative selling background. LOB buyer group experience preferred. Demonstrated ability to be effective in front of a C-level audience and close large enterprise deals.
• Proven ability to scale an organization and ramp sales. Demonstrated experience building sales infrastructure and operations in a high-growth, entrepreneurial environment, ideally in the $0M --> $25M ramp phase.
• Experience in hiring and coaching sales management, reps, account managers, and sales operations teams, and motivating and retaining teams in rapid cycles of growth and change.
• Proven ability to build long-standing, win-win business relationships, with an emphasis on a track record of leading revenue growth through a combination of direct sales and partnerships.
• Track record of driving high renewal rates, short time to value, high customer satisfaction (NPS score), increased adoption, and stickiness by measuring usage/utilization metrics to improve efficiencies, productivity, and customer experience. Passionate about creating “wildly successful customers” and “customers for life”, including proof points of past successes doing so
• Experience with customer success and relationship management of large strategic clients and senior (C-level) executives
• Experience delivering enterprise software to large enterprise customers highly desirable; Experience selling into verticals is a plus.
• Experience in creating and refining a company’s story by collaborating with internal teams (i.e. product marketing, marketing, services, etc.).
• Quality companies in the background. Pedigree counts. Brings a mix of large/small company experience.
• Unquestionable integrity, credibility, and character; demonstrated high moral and ethical behavior.
  

REWARD PACKAGE

Compensation will consist of the following elements:

• A competitive cash compensation package (base and incentive) in line with an entrepreneurial growth company.
• Equity ownership in the form of stock options, with a ton of upside.
• The personal reward associated with a position of leadership in a growing company. This position is one of major importance, high impact and high visibility.
• A CEO and board of directors that are committed to your own personal success and career development.

Why join us?

• We’re a mission-driven company with a proven business model that addresses a massive problem and market opportunity. It’s our goal to to support as many Guild members as possible, and change the world along the way
• We offer a competitive salary and benefits package
• We’ve recently closed our $8.5M Series A round, and we’re eager to bring new members to our team who can help us keep up with our growth
• We’re a rapidly growing team with 40+ years of combined experience at three different ed tech companies, guided by leading investors including Redpoint Ventures, Social Capital, Harrison Metal, and Cowboy Ventures
• Training in Design Thinking - we’re disciples of the process with experience building businesses at Stanford’s Design School, and we love sharing the methodology
• Our co-founders have collaborated together for 10+ years, including two past ventures in education technology and higher ed, and are committed to building a community and company where we all love to work
• Unlimited growth potential - we’re looking to grow smart, talented people with our company

What you won’t get from Guild:

• Micro-management or hourly directions. We want people who thrive when given ownership and autonomy to take initiative and run with projects. That said, we’ll support you and give you feedback regularly
• A 9-5 mentality. We believe in what we’re trying to accomplish and work hard to try to do it. This doesn’t mean putting in face time. It does mean working until the job is done
• Reverence for the status quo. We believe what’s out there today for our students doesn’t cut it, plus we love change and believe it’s our job to function as a learning organization. That means near-constant evolution, reflection and change
• Corporate pace or precision. At Guild, done is better than perfect. If you like having certainty about your plans or dislike quick turnaround times, we’re not a great fit
• Corporate perks. We’re scrappy and place our students first above all else. Everyone who works with us full time is an equity owner, and we want you to love coming to work but that unfortunately won’t include a $500 chair or an on-tap kombucha bar ;-)