Director of SDR

Job description

WE POWER PEOPLE’S PROGRESS. At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalised learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact. We’ve just reached unicorn status with a $150M Series D, accelerating our vision to transform education through human-led, AI-enhanced learning. Today, 100,000+ tutors teach 90+ languages to learners in 180 countries - and we’re only getting started. As a category-defining company, we’re shaping what the future of learning looks like at global scale. Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters. Joining Preply means helping define the future of education at global scale, and building something that truly matters for millions of people, every day. MEET THE TEAM! At Preply, we've built our reputation by excelling in the B2C market, but we are also revolutionizing corporate language learning with our Business solutions. Preply Business offers corporate language training for international teams to build stronger global teams through personalized training for every department and business goal. Guided by our vision to Power People’s Progress and our mission to create life-changing learning experiences, we empower companies to unlock clearer communication and real business impact. As Head of SDR, you will own the Sales Development function. You will lead the SDR organization from the ground up, setting the vision, defining the strategy, and implementing the systems and processes that drive pipeline growth and fuel our success. This is a high-impact leadership role reporting into the VP of B2B, with direct accountability for pipeline contribution and outbound strategy and inbound execution. What you’ll be doing: Team Ownership & Leadership - Lead a high-performing SDR organization, including defining the operating model, hiring top talent, and creating a culture of performance and learning. - Coach SDR Team Leads, embedding a culture of cold calling excellence, peer learning, and continuous development. - Define and execute scalable hiring, onboarding, enablement, and career development programs to attract and retain top SDR talent. Strategy & Systems Development - Own and evolve the global SDR strategy across inbound and outbound motions, tailoring approach by segment (mid-market, enterprise) and region. - Define and implement core systems and processes to drive alignment, efficiency, and accountability across the SDR function. - Work with revops on the reporting suite and cadence needed to monitor performance and ensure the management of SDR headcount capacity needs to hit pipeline goals. - Collaborate with RevOps to deploy tooling and automation that accelerates prospecting quality and efficiency, including account scoring and enrichment. Pipeline & Performance Accountability - Take full responsibility for SDR pipeline contribution targets (e.g., SQL volume, pipeline revenue), ensuring SDRs are consistently generating high-quality meetings. - Build a data-driven culture of performance, using leading and lagging indicators to coach, forecast, and optimize. - Partner closely with Sales and Marketing leadership to ensure alignment on target account strategies, qualification methodology and collaboration processes Process Innovation & Optimization - Continuously iterate on outreach strategy, cadences, and messaging across channels, leveraging the latest innovations in AI and automation. - Drive experimentation in outbound approaches to increase conversion rates and improve funnel velocity. - Monitor team health and productivity, ensuring strong activity levels and ensuring sustainable performance through thoughtful workload management. Cross-Functional Collaboration - Act as the voice of the SDR team across the business, aligning with Product, Marketing, Sales, and RevOps to support revenue goals and market expansion. - Influence strategic decisions across the funnel by sharing market insights and pipeline trends. WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED: - Proven experience owning and scaling a Sales Development function, ideally in high-growth B2B SaaS targeting mid-market and enterprise segments. - Expertise in outbound strategy, including segmentation, scoring, tooling, and multi-channel outreach and multi-threading. - Deep understanding of SDR craft with strong sales enablement, coaching, and performance management chops. - Familiarity with automation tools, AI-powered prospecting, and advanced sales tech stacks (e.g., Outreach, Sales Nav, Parallel dialers). - Data-driven and analytical, with experience in forecasting, capacity planning, and funnel optimization. - Strong leadership presence with a track record of building high-performing, high-morale teams in a fast-paced, international setting. - Culture builder who embraces in-office collaboration and energizes teams through vision and accountability. - Passion for Preply’s mission and excitement about building a world-class outbound engine from the ground up. WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT AT PREPLY: - An open, collaborative, dynamic and diverse culture; - A generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com http://preply.com, Learning & Development budget and time off for your self-development; - A competitive financial package with equity, leave allowance and health insurance; - Not in Barcelona? We offer an attractive relocation package to join us in our Preply Barcelona Hub - Access to free mental health support platforms; - Access to Gympass-partnered wellness and gym centers throughout Spain to promote and support well-being and physical health; - The opportunity to unlock the potential of learners and tutors through language learning and teaching in 175 countries (and counting!). #LI-SC1 OUR PRINCIPLES - Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing. - We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience. - Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters. - Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen. - Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently. - Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions. - Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today's best performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks. - Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference. - Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don’t fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made. - One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other's progress. DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION Preply.com http://Preply.com is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that the presence of different opinions and viewpoints is a key ingredient for our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company. That means that Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.