US Sales Development Team Lead - Agentic AI

Sales·San Francisco·Full time·On-site

About us

Humaans is building the next generation of infrastructure for the workplace; software designed for companies that are scaling fast, operating globally, and pushing into new boundaries.

What started as a system of record has evolved into a broader platform for operating people globally. With Athena, our agentic AI layer, Humaans moves beyond data management into intelligent orchestration, connecting workflows across HR, IT, Finance, and Operations so organisations can act faster and with greater confidence, redefining how work gets done.

We work with ambitious teams across Europe and the US, from AI-native companies like Lovable, Poolside, Fyxer AI, and Tandem Health, to established, high-growth organisations scaling internationally and through acquisition, including Quantexa, Sellpy, Manychat, Gigs, Croud, and Threecolts. These teams don’t buy software for features,they buy leverage. The ability to run faster, cleaner, and with more control as complexity compounds.

To date, we’ve raised $20m in venture funding from some of the most respected founders, operators, and funds in technology: Lachy Groom (Physical Intelligence), Stewart Butterfield (Slack), Tobias Lütke (Shopify), Dylan Field (Figma), Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn), Claire Johnson (Stripe), Oliver Jay (OpenAI), Jay Simmons (Bond) as well as Y Combinator, Moonfire, Frontline Ventures, Pathlight Ventures, and Exor.

If you have massive ambition and want to work on a hard problem, with a small team that moves fast, at a moment when the category is genuinely up for grabs - this is it.

The Role

We're looking for a founding Sales Development Team Lead to build and run the outbound engine for our agentic AI product in America. You'll be the person who builds a group of hungry sales associates into a precision pipeline machine: setting the standard, building the playbook, and coaching the team to consistently generate the meetings that fuel our largest US logos. AI is how your team moves faster than the competition: better research, sharper sequences, smarter prioritisation. You'll be expected to know how to use it and how to make sure your team does too.

This is a player-coach role. You'll carry your own outbound, make calls, and open target accounts yourself, then turn what works into the playbook the team runs. You'll be close to the work, running call reviews, shaping sequences, and holding the bar on quality, while creating the conditions for your team to grow fast. You won't be inheriting a playbook, you'll be writing it by doing it first. You'll work closely with our Founding US GTM Lead.

Humaans is at the stage where the decisions you make now shape the company for years. You'll be building an AI-native sales development function in a greenfield US market, defining what it looks like, how it operates, and who it becomes. That work will compound for the next decade.

Focus/Ownership

The US outbound function for Athena, end-to-end: team performance, pipeline contribution, process, and development.
Outbound strategy from a blank page, refining the playbook, and segmentation for the US enterprise, and using AI-assisted tooling to build sequences that adapt faster than a human-only process can.
Coaching and developing your team through structured 1:1s, call reviews, and live deal support, creating a culture of continuous improvement and high performance.
A tight partnership with the Founding US GTM Lead and Revenue Operations to ensure strong pipeline quality, healthy conversion rates, and a seamless handoff.
Data and AI-powered analytics to drive decisions, tracking activity metrics, pipeline contribution, and conversion rates, and using AI tooling to surface patterns faster and act on them sooner.
Acting as an early voice of the US market back to Product and Engineering as Athena's category takes shape.

How you operate

You have a true builder's mindset, creative in how you open doors, persistent without being reckless, and comfortable hearing "no" repeatedly while refining the approach, and you teach your team to do the same.
You don't wait for perfect enablement, context, or certainty, you create clarity as you go.
You measure your success by what your team produces, not what you do individually.
You actively leverage AI and data as force multipliers: account research, sequencing, messaging iteration, prioritisation, and follow-ups.
You move fast, test hypotheses, and adjust quickly when something isn't working.
You bring a creative mindset to prospecting, constantly testing and implementing unconventional, high-impact approaches to engage target accounts.

Requirements

5+ years in outbound sales, with at least 2 years managing or leading a BDR team in a B2B SaaS environment.
A track record of building pipelines consistently and coaching others to do the same, you know what good looks like and you can teach it.
Proven experience with cold calling and the ability to coach others on effective cold calling techniques.
Deep familiarity with outbound tooling and sequencing platforms (including Clay, Claude Code, Lemlist, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Prospeo, internal tools and much more), including how to layer AI features into how the team operates day-to-day.
Has built or refined an outbound workflow using AI and can speak to what changed in output quality, speed, or conversion.
Strong analytical instincts, comfortable using data to diagnose underperformance and make the case for process changes.
Experience selling, or building pipeline for, early-stage or category-creating products, where you're generating demand before the market fully understands the category.
Experience in a high-growth, VC-backed environment where the pace is high and the playbook is still being written.
A clear, direct communicator who can influence up, down, and across the organisation.

This is an in-person role. Our GTM team comes together in the office Monday through Thursday, while most of the team collaborates in person on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Package & Benefits

Early stage startups can be messy – we know that. We're putting effort in providing you with the best employee experience and a quality driven environment in exchange for trusting us.

Market-leading compensation that reflects your value
25 days paid time off each year plus public holidays
Share Options with 5-year exercise window so you don’t feel pressure to exercise if you leave
Free Thursday lunches at HQ, quarterly team events, and company offsites.
Top tier private coverage for health, vision and dental care
A new MacBook and tools you need to do your best work
Enhanced parental leave with up to 16 weeks for primary and 4 weeks for secondary
Learning & development budget

Why Join Humaans Today?

HR tech is having its AI moment and we’re positioned to own it. Humaans started as a next-gen HRIS taking on large incumbents in a massive market. We’ve since evolved into something even bigger: an AI platform that sits across workforce data and automates the operational layer of HR entirely; the natural progression of what we’ve been building toward.

The product is highly differentiated. It’s built around a structured workforce data model that makes AI reliable in an HR context, something no one else has gotten right. Customers notice the difference immediately.

We’re backed by Y Combinator, Lachy Groom, Moonfire, Frontline Ventures, and operators who’ve built some of the most consequential software companies of the last decade: the founders of Slack, Figma, and Shopify, and Asana’s former CRO and Head of OpenAI International.

We’re a small team with an unapologetically high bar. It shows up in the product, in how we communicate, and in the standards we hold each other to.

Our Commitment to Diversity

At Humaans we’re looking for genuinely good people that are transparent and emphatic. We’re committed to providing equal opportunities, a diverse and inclusive work environment, and ensuring a fair interview process for everyone. You’re welcome to apply no matter your gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, disability, or race.

Privacy notice

We care about your privacy. When you apply for a role at Humaans, we’ll collect and process your personal data as part of our recruitment process. This includes things like your CV, contact details, and any other information you choose to share. We may also contact you about future opportunities. You can ask us to delete your data at any time. For more details, see our Privacy Policy.