Senior Director, US Sales

Job Summary

The Senior Director of Sales, United States, will lead a high-performing sales team to drive customer engagement, secure new business, and deliver revenue growth for Oxford Nanopore Technologies across the U.S. market. Working closely with the senior commercial leadership, this individual will play a key role in shaping and executing the sales strategy for industrial, healthcare, and academic research life sciences sectors. The Senior Director of Sales will be accountable for achieving agreed-upon commercial targets and expanding ONT’s presence across strategic customer segments.

Key Responsibilities

ONT is seeking an accomplished commercial leader with a proven track record in the life sciences or related industries. The ideal candidate brings experience from both early-stage and established organizations—an important combination that ensures adaptability, strategic foresight, and the ability to scale commercial operations effectively. We are looking for a collaborative team player who understands disruptive strategies and can lead the initiatives necessary to accelerate ONT’s commercial growth. This role includes full leadership and line management responsibility for the U.S. sales team, encompassing both field and inside sales.

Key Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Collaborate with senior sales leaders and the executive team to develop strategic commercial plans aimed at disrupting the current NGS market, expanding U.S. market share, and entering new markets.
• Build, lead, and mentor the U.S. sales team to achieve ambitious growth targets in alignment with ONT’s overall commercial and business objectives.
• Analyze and communicate trends in device and consumable sales, providing accurate forecasting and business insights to senior commercial stakeholders.
• Manage product pricing and portfolio mix to drive profitable revenue growth and meet agreed commercial KPIs across all systems in the U.S.
• Optimize sales team productivity by aligning responsibilities, priorities, and execution across field sales, sales specialists, and field applications teams.
• Establish team-specific KPIs and collaborate with regional sales managers to ensure adherence to best-in-class sales processes and continuous education on ONT’s innovations and market developments.
• Partner cross-functionally with regional leads in Finance, Contracts, Operations, Strategic Marketing, Technical Services, Customer Services, and other adjacent business units to ensure seamless commercial execution.
• Provide regular reporting and business updates to executive leadership on sales performance, market dynamics, competitive positioning, and pipeline development.
• Identify and nurture high-level KOL relationships in key market segments
• Recruit, develop, and retain top sales talent, fostering a high-performance culture with strong team engagement and accountability.
• Ensure compliance with corporate policies, industry regulations, and ethical standards in all sales activities.

Qualifications/ Education

• Advanced degree in Molecular Biology, Genomics, or a related discipline
• MBA or business-related postgraduate qualification (Desirable)
• Equivalent relevant experience
• Proven track record of commercial leadership in a comparable industry within North America
• Demonstrated success in developing and executing sales strategies
• Experience leading geographically distributed or remote sales teams
• Expertise in consultative selling methodologies
• Deep industry knowledge and network across the Life Sciences, Biotech, Healthcare, and pharmaceutical sectors
• Strong people leadership, with ability to manage, coach, and develop high-performing teams
• Experience creating technical value propositions and supporting sales content (Desirable)
• In-depth understanding of genomics and/or life sciences combined with significant commercial experience
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with a collaborative approach
• Strong analytical, commercial, and financial acumen
• Sound judgment with pragmatic decision-making and negotiation capabilities
• Strategic mindset with ability to design and execute impactful, disruptive sales strategies
• Stakeholder-focused; aligns actions and decisions to internal and external needs
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills
• Familiarity with CRM systems and data analysis tools for tracking performance and forecasting trends (Desirable)

The salary for this role is between $249,000 and $320,000 USD. The salary offered will reflect the skills and experience of the candidate.

Certain roles within ONT are eligible for annual bonus and stock. These awards are allocated based on individual performance.

Employees based in the US have the option to choose healthcare benefits, participate in the company 401(k) plan and company match, we also offer short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, and commuter benefits to name a few.