Sales Enablement Lead

Job description

Perplexity is seeking its first Sales Enablement hire to build the function for our Enterprise, Commercial, and BDR teams. Our sales org is growing quickly and selling a product that evolves almost every week to buyers who range from IT and security to legal, research, and the C-suite. This role owns how sellers ramp, how they tell the Perplexity story, and how they get better every quarter. This is an individual contributor role reporting into Sales leadership. It is hands-on: you will set the strategy and also write the onboarding curriculum, record the demo, build the battlecard, and run the Friday call review. You will partner closely with Sales leadership, AI Strategists, Product, Product Marketing, Revenue Operations, and Strategic Finance. WHAT YOU'LL DO Onboarding and ramp - Design and run a repeatable onboarding program for new BDRs, Commercial AEs, and Enterprise AEs, with a defined bar for what "ramped" means at each role and clear ramp-time targets - Own the first 30/60/90 for every new seller, including product certification, pitch and demo certification, tooling proficiency, and territory readiness - Build in feedback loops so every cohort improves the next one Messaging, pitch, and demo - Codify the Perplexity Enterprise, Commercial, and API pitch into a single, current, opinionated narrative that every seller can deliver the same way - Build and maintain the standard demo flow for each product surface (Enterprise Pro, Computer, API) and keep it current as the product ships - Partner with Product Marketing on positioning, use cases, buyer personas, and vertical narratives (Financial Services, Legal, Healthcare, Consulting, and others as they emerge) Ongoing enablement and coaching - Run a regular enablement cadence (weekly rep-facing sessions, monthly deep dives, quarterly kickoffs) driven by what the field actually needs - Build a live call-review and coaching program with Sales leadership, using recorded calls to reinforce what good looks like and surface where reps are getting stuck - Own the enablement content library — playbooks, talk tracks, discovery questions, objection handles, competitive battlecards, ROI framing — and keep it usable, current, and findable Product-to-field translation - Sit close to Product to translate each release into "what this means for the field": what to say, who to say it to, when to bring it up, and what proof to lean on - Build a launch process that turns product updates into field readiness quickly and consistently Sales methodology and skill development - Partner with Sales leadership to select and operationalize the qualification and deal-management framework that fits Perplexity's motion — training, reinforcement, coaching, and inspection - Build role-specific skill programs (discovery, multi-threading, negotiation, executive presence, technical selling to IT and security buyers) Measurement and iteration - Define what enablement is accountable for: ramp time to first deal, pitch and demo certification pass rates, win rate on contested deals, content adoption, and manager coaching consistency - Report against those metrics and kill programs that do not move them WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - 6+ years in sales enablement, sales training, sales operations, or a quota-carrying / sales-adjacent role at a B2B software company, with clear ownership of a program you built end to end - A track record of building or scaling enablement from zero or near-zero — you have been the first or second enablement hire before, or you have owned a function that ran like one - Strong instincts for sales messaging and translating a complex, fast-moving technical product into a story that sellers can tell and buyers can act on - Fluency running coaching and call reviews with sellers and Sales leadership — you can spot what a rep needs from listening to five minutes of a call - Ability to work cross-functionally with Sales leadership, Product, Product Marketing, Revenue Operations, and Strategic Finance - Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience - Willingness to be in the San Francisco or New York office four days per week NICE TO HAVE - Experience at a Series B–D company selling a fast-changing product to a mix of technical and business buyers - Background enabling both direct sales and a self-serve to enterprise motion - Experience selling or enabling into AI, developer tools, search, or enterprise infrastructure - Familiarity with modern enablement and revenue tooling (CRM, LMS, conversation intelligence, content management) - Previous time as an AE, SDR, or SC before moving into enablement