Description

The Director, Industry Go To Market (X-Industry Lead) is a senior commercial leadership role within the Central GTM Industry team, reporting to the Chief Customer Officer (CCO). The CCO Office serves as the strategic engine for CxO industry engagement, driving growth and retention across top and strategic accounts in Central EMEA. You operate at the intersection of sales, solution engineering & industry architects, professional services, alliances, marketing, and business value services — acting as a force multiplier across all functions.

As a X-Industry Lead, you take direct ownership of driving NNAOV in your industries, steering top account sales teams together with sales leaders, and assembling and leading cross-functional "tiger teams" to operate as one cohesive force. You bring a hands-on, can-do attitude, deep AI and Agentic expertise, and the executive gravitas to represent Salesforce at the highest levels, externally and internally with the ability to lead and orchestrate matrixed organizations, cutting through complexity to align stakeholders and deliver against critical timelines.

Specific Responsibilities

1. Drive Commercial Outcomes & NNAOV in Key Industries

• Steer top account sales teams, in close partnership with sales leaders, to identify and capture Net New Annual Order Value (NNAOV) within priority industries (e.g. Financial Services, Retail/Consumer Goods, Telecommunications, etc.).

• Create monthly transparency for leadership on industry performance drivers on top account progress, including Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and strategic product coverage (e.g. CRM, Beyond CRM / Salesforce as a Platform and specifically AI & Data solutions around Data360 and Agentforce with a focus on Agentic Enterprise License Agreement Sales).

• Create a regular exchange that enables Salesforce to be alerted by competitive moves and maintain the leadership position and propose mitigation actions.

• Advocate to COO Distribution / CRO for funding, resources, and sponsorship to capture industry opportunities.

• Drive structured Account Planning (aligned to the Agentic AP framework) and own pre-sales and post-sales motion design for top accounts.

2. Lead Cross-Functional Tiger Teams

• Bring together tiger teams from all functions (SE, BVS, CSG, A&C, AFDC, Marketing, Partner) and ensure they operate as one cohesive, accountable team.

• Act as the orchestrating PMO layer to pre-structure successful sales and post-sales motions — including handover plans, QBRs, and Partner/Professional Service execution.

• Help align roles and responsibilities across Prime AE, Specialist AE, SE, BVS, AFDC, and A&C across all stages of the customer journey from discovery through consumption and growth.

3. Customer-Facing Thought Leadership & CxO Engagement

• Lead and facilitate Salesforce Innovation Centers (SICs) and external presentations (e.g., Worldtours, executive roundtables) as a visible, credible industry expert.

• Develop and deliver bespoke CxO presentations and tailored executive talking points for top accounts and strategic events.

• Implement CxO-relations motions to foster top executive engagement and drive QBRs aligned to Agentic roadmaps.

• Leverage industry experts and adapt global POVs to scale relevant thought leadership across Central EMEA.

4. Deep AI & Agentic Expertise

• Act as a trusted advisor on the agentic enterprise within the industry, ensuring business vision and use case fit, while orchestrating technical and business teams for execution

• Embed the Agentforce vision into a centralized, industry-tailored narrative - articulating how the agentic enterprise comes to life across engagement, agency, work, and data layers.

• Produce and oversee CxO demo and video content, including visionary live Agentforce bespoke demonstrations.

• Coach account teams on crafting and delivering CxO-level narratives anchored in AI transformation and measurable business value (with focus on time-to-project and scale).

5. Set Direction & Prioritize Industry Content

• Collaborate with sales leadership to define and prioritize CxO industry assets — focusing on consolidation, editing, and dissemination in partnership with the global industry Center of Excellence (COE).

• Develop industry success stories and value cases (e.g., BVS) that demonstrate tangible ROI and are scalable across the region.

• Structure CxO content repositories leveraging GenAI capabilities (e.g., Slack AI) for streamlined retrieval and enablement.

• Coordinate the global COE industry enablement strategy within Central EMEA, ensuring adoption of available playbooks (Fast Start, Seller Growth Days, Industry Channels).

6. Maintain & Improve the Central EMEA Operating Model

• Establish structured processes to collect critical product feedback from the field and route it to the relevant product organizations (Industry Clouds and broader portfolio).

• Validate plans and investments from the industry marketing team for the CxO motion, including a six figure HY1 budget allocated to Key Account CxO engagement (Agency, Video, SIC Support).

• Steering overall CCO Team Operations, incl. definition of success criteria, monitoring and reporting

• Ensure consistent adoption of the Agentic Account Planning template across top accounts; actively drive alignment with First Line Managers (FLMs) and AVPs on deviations.

• Support driving cadence and V2MOM alignment across the CCO organization.

Requirements

• Experience: 8–10+ years in a relevant industry or in Industry GTM at a strategy/management consulting company or high-growth SaaS company.

• Commercial Drive: Proven track record of steering and influencing top account sales motions to deliver NNAOV; comfortable owning commercial outcomes alongside sales leaders.

• AI/Agentic Expertise: Deep, hands-on knowledge of the AI and Agentic landscape; can hold credible technical conversations with CxOs and account teams alike.

• Tiger Team Leadership: Demonstrated ability to bring together cross-functional teams and drive them to operate as one — without formal authority.

• Executive Presence: Strong presentation skills with experience at SICs, Worldtours, and senior executive events. Able to inspire and challenge at CxO level.

• PMO & Execution: Structured, hands-on approach to building and driving pre- and post-sales motions, with a strong bias for action, combining strategic rigor with a pragmatic, roll-up-your-sleeves mindset to step in and drive analysis, content, and execution wherever progress is needed.

• Influence & EQ: High EQ, tact, and ability to navigate productively through conflict, lead cross-functionally, and have courageous conversations.

• Analytical Skills: Strong data and logical reasoning skills; comfortable with pipeline metrics, BVS, and complex account planning models.

• Ambiguity: Self-starter who sets a clear vision, prioritizes, and executes with limited information and minimal supervision.

• Values: Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, Equality, and Sustainability.