Director of Product Sales

Eclipse Foundation | Remote – Europe (ideally Germany, Belgium) or Canada

Smart Connect Solutions is supporting the Eclipse Foundation in the exclusive search for a Director of Product Sales.

THE ROLE & STRATEGIC CONTEXT

The Eclipse Foundation is one of the world's largest open source software foundations, with more than 400 projects and collaborations, over 300 member organisations and a global developer community.

Eclipse is looking for a Director of Product Sales to lead and further develop its commercial sales activities across a diverse portfolio of software, digital products and commercial programmes.

The role will report directly to the senior executive responsible for the commercial organisation and will lead an existing small sales team.

The objective is to grow and diversify commercial revenue while building a more structured, repeatable and scalable sales approach across the portfolio.

This is a leadership role with a strong execution component. The successful candidate will set direction, strengthen the commercial approach, lead the team and remain close enough to key opportunities to support execution where needed.

The role offers a high level of autonomy and is suited to someone who is comfortable making decisions, creating structure and moving things forward independently.

The Commercial Portfolio

The current portfolio spans several revenue models and product areas, including:

SaaS & Infrastructure Monetization, including Open VSX and other developer-facing platforms;
Embedded & Safety-Critical IP Licensing, including ThreadX Safety Artifacts;
B2B Media & Corporate Sponsorships, including website advertising, corporate programmes and event sponsorships;
future digital, data and AI-enabled offerings.

Strong experience in one or more relevant commercial models is more important than prior expertise across the entire portfolio. The ability to understand new products quickly and translate them into clear customer value will be important.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Commercial Strategy & Revenue Execution

Own revenue and commercial performance across the portfolio, including recurring revenue, bookings, pipeline, forecasting and profitability within the assigned scope.
Define, refine and execute the sales and go-to-market approach across the commercial portfolio.
Identify and develop new revenue opportunities and build more repeatable, scalable and, where appropriate, transactional sales approaches.
Support important sales opportunities directly where this adds value.

Operational Excellence & Forecasting

Establish and continuously improve sales processes, playbooks and operating rhythms.
Maintain strong CRM and pipeline discipline and provide reliable visibility of opportunities, forecasts and commercial performance.
Contribute to commercial planning, prioritisation and the development of future revenue streams.

Team Leadership & Culture

Lead, coach and develop the existing sales team.
Create clear priorities, accountability and a practical working rhythm while maintaining a high level of autonomy within the team.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Feedback Loops

Work closely with Product Management, Marketing and Ecosystem Development to convert market and ecosystem traction into sustainable revenue opportunities.
Use customer and market feedback to identify unmet needs and provide useful input to Product Management and Product Development.
Provide senior leadership with a clear and reliable view of commercial progress, risks and opportunities.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

We are looking for a commercially strong sales leader with a proven track record in B2B technology or software product sales, rather than predominantly services-led sales.

Strong experience in B2B product sales and a proven ability to generate and close new business.
Experience building or improving sales processes and scalable commercial approaches.
Experience leading and developing a sales team.
The ability to combine strategic thinking with practical execution.
A high degree of ownership, initiative and independence.
Strong pipeline-management, CRM and forecasting discipline.
The ability to work credibly with senior commercial stakeholders as well as technical and product teams.
Experience working in international and cross-functional environments, with strong communication skills and fluent English.

Experience in one or more relevant commercial models is sufficient; deep prior experience across the entire portfolio is not expected.

WHAT WE VALUE

We are particularly interested in people who have built, improved or scaled commercial activities rather than only operated within a mature sales structure.

Builder mentality: comfortable creating structure, improving processes and developing scalable ways of selling.
Execution and ownership: able to make decisions, take initiative and move things forward independently.
Customer proximity: stays close to customers and commercial opportunities and understands what is happening in the market.
Leadership with practical execution: able to lead a small team without becoming detached from the business.
Foundation environment: able to pursue commercial growth while working comfortably within the collaborative culture and mission of an open-source foundation.

Experience with developer tools, cloud infrastructure, embedded software, open-source technologies, AI-related products, HubSpot or comparable CRM tools, and structured sales methodologies such as MEDDPICC would be useful but is not essential. Experience in a startup, scale-up, smaller product company or internationally distributed team would also be valuable.

LOCATION & TRAVEL

The role is remote.

Candidates based in Europe or Canada are preferred.

Travel is expected to remain limited, with approximately 25% considered the upper end.

Interested in the Opportunity?

If your experience is relevant to the role, we would be pleased to hear from you.

You do not need to match every element of the profile. We are interested in understanding what you have built, sold and led, and how your experience could translate into the Eclipse environment.

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