Director of Sales and Marketing

Service Line:     Revenue

Position Title:   Director of Sales and Marketing 

Reporting to:     CEO

Direct Reports:  US Business Development Manager; UK Business Development                                Manager; Content Marketing Specialist; Growth Marketing                                        Specialist

Location:            US, Eastern or Central Time Zone (Remote, travel as required)

About 9Spokes

9Spokes is a powerful business ecosystem with global scale. It offers Financial Institutions and Fintechs a set of solutions to support their SMB/SME clients to thrive in today’s open data and open banking environment.

Powered by all types of financial data important to the SMBs, 9Spokes delivers meaningful, personalized, and shareable insights to Financial Institutions and Fintechs and to their SMB clients to help inform their next move and steer them towards their goals. It’s a collaborative resource that facilitates holistic conversations between businesses and their financial services providers that goes beyond just the financials; helping to improve visibility and reduce risk. Businesses gain a value-added business hub, while their financial service providers get the insights needed to offer products and services better tailored to their customers’ needs.

Find out more at 9spokes.com.

Role Overview

9Spokes is looking for a Director of Sales and Marketing to lead our commercial function in North America. Reporting to the CEO and sitting on the Senior Leadership Team, this role takes overall responsibility for sales and marketing — setting the direction of both functions, working closely with our Business Development Managers, and driving the pipeline and revenue outcomes that underpin our FY27 plan.

This is a senior, commercially-accountable leadership role. You will own the sales operating rhythm and work directly alongside the BDMs on strategic accounts and live opportunities. On the marketing side, you will set the architecture — campaign strategy, content priorities, HubSpot design, and measurement — and lead the marketing team that brings it to life.

A deep working knowledge of the US banking or credit union sector is essential. You will have spent meaningful time selling or marketing SaaS products into Financial Institutions and will understand how they buy, procure, and operate. Without this grounding, the role is unlikely to be a fit.

Key Accountabilities

The following covers the Director of Sales and Marketing key accountabilities; however, this is not an exhaustive list, and the role will include additional responsibilities.

Sales leadership and commercial performance

• Lead the North American sales function and carry overall accountability for new business, client retention, and revenue growth.
• Work alongside the US and UK BDMs on deal strategy, senior stakeholder engagement, and progression of high-value opportunities.
• Own the sales operating rhythm — pipeline reviews, forecasting, deal reviews, and the weekly commercial cadence.
• Invest in the commercial team through sales enablement, tooling, shared playbooks, and opportunities for development and growth.

Marketing strategy and architecture

• Set the direction for 9Spokes’ US marketing: positioning, campaign architecture, channel mix, measurement, and brand presence in market.
• Architect and own the HubSpot approach — system design, lead management, pipeline integration, and reporting — so it meaningfully supports commercial decisions.
• Lead the content and campaign agenda in line with our content-led GTM strategy, ensuring flagship thought leadership lands with the right audiences.
• Set priorities for events and conferences, ensuring 9Spokes shows up credibly at the industry moments that matter and that each event delivers a clear pipeline return.

Channel partnerships

• Identify and develop channel partnership opportunities with fintechs, banking technology providers, and other potential distribution partners that can extend 9Spokes’ reach into Financial Institutions.
• Build the partnership pipeline: research, outreach, early-stage conversations, and shaping the commercial logic of potential partnerships.
• Progress partnerships through to the point where strategic, technical, or transactional complexity warrants broader engagement from the wider 9Spokes team, then stay engaged through closure and into ongoing partner management.
• Maintain and grow existing channel partner relationships, ensuring they translate into pipeline and revenue.

Market intelligence and positioning

• Keep a close read on the competitive landscape, market trends, and buyer dynamics in US banking and credit union technology, and use it to sharpen 9Spokes’ positioning.
• Translate competitive intelligence and win/loss insight into commercial decisions, sales enablement, and product feedback to the Auckland team.
• Bring an informed, outside-in view to SLT discussions on strategy, pricing, and proposition development.

Commercial performance and reporting

• Own the monthly KPI pack reported to the Senior Leadership Team and Board — pipeline health, engagement, content reach, event returns, and partnership progress.
• Build and refine the measurement framework as we learn what actually drives growth, and adapt the mix accordingly.
• Contribute to annual planning, budget setting, and forecasting alongside the CEO and SLT.

Team leadership

• Lead a team of four: US and UK Business Development Managers, Content Marketing Specialist, and Marketing Specialist.
• Create the conditions for strong commercial performance across the team — clear priorities, good tools, direct and honest communication, and room to develop.
• Participate as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contributing to company-wide strategy, planning, and executive reporting.

Customer, partner and cross-functional focus

• Build and maintain senior relationships with key FI clients and prospects.
• Represent 9Spokes externally at industry conferences, partner events, and client engagements.
• Work closely with the Head of Product and the broader product team in Auckland to translate product capability into propositions that resonate with Financial Institutions.
• Partner with the Technical Account Manager on product narrative and demonstrations in active sales cycles.

Qualifications, Key Skills and Experience

The successful candidate will bring experience and working knowledge across the following areas:

• Experience in B2B SaaS, including meaningful time across both commercial leadership and marketing leadership.
• Deep working knowledge of the US banking or credit union sector — direct experience selling or marketing SaaS products into Financial Institutions is essential.
• Track record of commercial ownership — carrying a pipeline and revenue number, and delivering against it.
• Genuine HubSpot fluency; able to architect and critique a HubSpot implementation, not just operate one.
• Experience leading commercial teams in a small or mid-sized SaaS environment where leaders are expected to stay close to the detail.
• Strong commercial judgement; calm under pressure; a direct and credible communicator with senior stakeholders in and outside the business.
• Experience originating and developing channel or distribution partnerships in financial services or fintech is preferred.
• Comfortable working across time zones in a globally distributed team headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.
• Willing to travel approximately 25% for events, client meetings, and periodic visits to the wider team.
• Based in US Eastern or Central Time Zone; this is a remote role.

Compensation

Base salary up to US$185,000, plus uncapped team-based variable compensation with significant upside for outperformance.

Security Responsibilities

All 9Spokes staff have basic information security responsibilities that relate to the physical and virtual safety and security of 9Spokes-controlled information and must comply with the associated company policies and procedures.

As a 9Spokes employee you will be required to:

• follow the 9Spokes policies and procedures applicable to your job function;
• understand information security, including how to handle information, reporting risks and/or breaches, and how to support colleagues to do the same.