Regional SDR Director

Canonical publishes Ubuntu and has been remote-first since 2004, with 1,200+ colleagues across 75+ countries and very few office-based roles.

The role

Canonical is expanding its sales and field engineering teams globally, and is hiring Regional SDR Directors to run inbound and outbound teams across AMER, EMEA and APAC.

Your primary objective is directing regional SDR and BDR managers and teams across all three regions, and maintaining a multi-million dollar pipeline. This is leading leaders rather than managing reps directly.

What makes this different: it is a sales academy

The framing here is worth understanding, because it is not a conventional sales leadership job.

Canonical's SDRs and BDRs are typically outstanding STEM graduates entering the software industry and starting their sales careers. The organisation is deliberately built as a training ground, not just a pipeline engine. As the listing puts it, the goal is not only managing inbound leads for a global tech company but developing sales professionals with high integrity, high empathy and a rigorous work ethic.

Canonical notes the team has trained dozens of tech sales professionals now working at Canonical and across the industry, and links to a video profiling graduates of the programme.

So this suits someone who genuinely cares about developing people — many of whom will move on to more senior sales and alliances roles — rather than someone purely focused on quota.

What they value

• Excellent academic results at school and university
• Bachelor's or equivalent degree in Business or STEM
• Knowledge of and passion for business development, sales and technology
• A track record of delivering exceptional outbound sales development results
• Commitment to continuous learning: curious, flexible, scientific
• Creative problem solving and cross-team collaboration
• Leadership experience in some form
• Ability to use data to drive team activity and continuous improvement
• Multi-regional strategic vision tailored to AMER, EMEA and APAC market dynamics
• A record of recruiting, mentoring and developing SDR Team Managers
• Cross-functional alignment with Regional Sales VPs, Marketing and Field Engineering
• Expertise with modern sales tech stacks and CRM analytics for predictable pipeline forecasting
• Scalable talent pipeline management feeding senior sales and alliances roles across all three regions
• Experience driving accountability and culture across asynchronous, remote-first global teams

Benefits

• Distributed work with twice-yearly in-person team sprints
• USD 2,000 personal learning and development budget per year
• Annual compensation review, plus performance-driven annual bonus or commission
• Recognition rewards, annual holiday leave, maternity and paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events

No salary figures are published on this listing.

Location

The posting lists four options: Home Based Americas, Home Based APAC, Home based EMEA, and Home based Worldwide. Filed as Worldwide, the broadest of the four.

Do note the role covers teams across all three regions, so expect meaningful cross-timezone coordination whichever base you choose.

Before applying

AI use disqualifies your application. You must confirm you used only your own words.

Expect Canonical's standard academic screening: high-school mathematics and native-language performance bands justified against national scoring systems, plus your degree result. Candidates without a degree may enter "no degree."

Three written answers are required, and they are practical rather than generic:

• Your approach to coaching, training and development
• The most complex product you have ever represented to the market
• What advice you would give an SDR moving from an inbound to an outbound role

That last question is a genuine test of craft. Worth thinking through properly rather than improvising.