Senior Sales Manager

Senior Sales Manager

Location: Turin / Hybrid
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Employment: Full-time

Experience: 5+ years

Focus: Closing deals, growing the customer portfolio, developing towards team leadership

About GrantSpider

GrantSpider is building the AI Grant Office: a platform that helps universities, research centres and innovative companies manage the full grant lifecycle - from opportunity discovery and partner identification to proposal development, submission and post-award management.

We are evolving from an advanced AI copilot into an enterprise-ready grant autopilot, and we need someone to own our commercial relationships as we grow. We are an early-stage, fast-growing startup looking for a Senior Sales Manager who can close deals, grow the customers they win, and earn their way into leadership as the team scales.

The role

We are looking for a highly independent Senior Sales Manager who can own the full sales cycle - from first contact to signed contract to expanding the relationship over time.

We are running an efficient engine for lead generation and inbound meetings, but you will not simply work the leads handed to you. You will be expected to understand a technical product and a specialist buyer, run your own outreach, navigate multi-stakeholder decisions, negotiate and close deals, then keep those accounts growing. This is a hands-on closing role first: your core job is winning deals and growing the portfolio.

This role is designed to grow. We are a small, founder-led sales team. As we scale, a Senior Sales Manager who consistently outperforms targets, grows the customer portfolio and shows the judgment to lead can step into a Head of Sales role: owning the function, building the process and making the hires. We'd rather promote a proven performer into that seat than hire over them.

You will work directly with the founders, and closely with Marketing on market expansion, funnel and lead generation, carrying GrantSpider's commercial relationships.

What you will work on

• Running outreach to leads and generating your own pipeline alongside inbound
• Managing the full sales cycle: discovery, demos, proposals and closing
• Navigating complex, multi-stakeholder buying processes in research institutions and companies
• Negotiating deals and structuring commercial terms
• Owning account management: onboarding, retention and satisfaction
• Growing accounts through upsell, cross-sell and renewals
• Maintaining clean, accurate pipeline and forecasting in the HubSpot CRM
• Feeding customer insight back to product and marketing
• Over time, and as the team grows: helping shape the sales process and mentor new hires

What we are looking for

• At least 5 years of experience in B2B sales, ideally SaaS or technical products
• A strong track record of owning deals from first contact to close
• Strong discovery and consultative selling skills
• Confidence handling multi-stakeholder, considered sales cycles
• Negotiation skills and commercial judgment
• Account-management instinct: you grow relationships, not just sign them
• Ability to independently build pipeline in an ambiguous, early-stage environment
• Ability to explain a technical product clearly and credibly
• The character and judgment we'd trust to eventually lead the function

Nice to have

• A network in the research and innovation field
• Exposure to grants, funded projects or grant consultancy
• Experience selling into universities, research centres or the public/innovation sector
• Familiarity with the EU research, innovation or grant-funding ecosystem
• Experience with CRM, sales tooling and forecasting discipline
• Previous experience in an early-stage startup with limited process
• Italian and English at professional level; other European languages a plus

You may be a strong fit if

• You prefer owning the whole relationship rather than a single stage of it
• You build pipeline proactively instead of just waiting for leads
• You listen for the real problem before pitching
• You move quickly and stay organised across many open deals
• You care whether the customer succeeds and grows, not only whether the deal closes
• You want a role with real upside and a genuine path to leadership

Compensation

• €50,000–60,000 gross annual base salary, depending on experience and capabilities + €20,000–30,000 OTE (uncapped), with commission tied to closed deals and portfolio growth
• Possibility of equity recognition under GrantSpider's ESOP, based on seniority and long-term contribution
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements

Why join

• Own commercial relationships from your first weeks
• Sell an ambitious AI product used in complex, real-world workflows for grants and tenders
• Work directly with the founders on go-to-market and commercial strategy
• Earn your way into sales leadership as the company scales
• Help define the sales playbook of a rapidly growing startup

How to apply

Apply via LinkedIn and reply to the mandatory qualification questions, which will be used for the preliminary screening in combination with a review of your LinkedIn profile. xrdbqlu Shortlisted candidates will be invited to share more information and/or to online interviews.