Head of Emea Business Development

OpenAI OpenAI · AI Frontier · Dublin, Ireland · Go To Market

Head of EMEA Sales Development to build and lead OpenAI’s first enterprise Sales Development organization in EMEA. This role is a core part of the Enterprise GTM leadership team and will design the operating model, hire the initial leadership and SDR teams, and define how OpenAI engages, qualifies, and advances enterprise opportunities. The mandate is to convert product usage, pilots, and inbound demand into high-quality, winnable pipeline for our Large Enterprise and Strategic Accounts teams.

What you'd actually do

  1. Stand up OpenAI’s first enterprise EMEA Sales Development function, including org design, hiring plan, tooling, and performance management.
  2. Build and scale a global SDR organization aligned to Large Enterprise, Strategic Accounts, and industry verticals.
  3. Own the enterprise pipeline generation strategy, ensuring consistent, high-quality opportunity flow into the field.
  4. Translate product usage, pilots, developer activity, and inbound interest into qualified enterprise opportunities.
  5. Create vertical-specific and account-based SDR motions for Financial Services, Life Sciences, and Retail.

Skills

Required

  • 10+ years in enterprise sales, revenue, or GTM leadership
  • 3–5+ years of second-line SDR leadership building and managing managers
  • Experience building enterprise demand engines from scratch in product-driven or platform businesses
  • Experience selling into regulated or high-stakes industries (FS, Life Sciences, Retail)
  • Highly data-driven, with experience in pipeline analytics and forecasting

Nice to have

  • Fluent in product-led and usage-based GTM (PQLs, pilots, free-to-paid, expansion)
  • Thrive in matrixed GTM organizations spanning Sales, Product, Marketing, and Partnerships
  • Strong talent builder with the presence to engage senior enterprise and CRO-level stakeholders

What the JD emphasized

  • 0 → 1 build
  • enterprise sales
  • SDR leadership
  • regulated or high-stakes industries