Director, Strategic Sales

About the Role

Tailscale is redefining secure networking by making it simple for organizations to securely connect people, devices, and workloads anywhere in the world.

At Tailscale, we're solving one of the most fundamental challenges in modern infrastructure: secure connectivity. Our product is loved by developers, trusted by IT and security teams, and rapidly expanding within some of the world's largest organizations. As adoption accelerates, we're investing in a Strategic Sales motion that matches the scale of our ambition. If you're excited by the opportunity to build, lead, and sell and want to define how a category-leading company wins the largest enterprises in the world, we'd love to talk.

As we continue moving up-market, we're launching a new Strategic Sales organization focused exclusively on the world's largest enterprises. We're looking for a founding Director of Strategic Sales to help build one of the most important growth initiatives at Tailscale. This is a rare opportunity to define how we engage Fortune 1000 customers, establish a new go-to-market motion, recruit an elite team, and help shape the future of Enterprise Sales at Tailscale.

This is not a traditional frontline management role.

You'll be a seller, coach, and builder, personally leading many of Tailscale's largest strategic opportunities while building a high-performing team of Strategic Account Executives focused on organizations with more than 10,000 employees.

You'll define territory strategy, build an outbound-first motion, recruit exceptional talent, establish repeatable playbooks, and create the operating cadence that becomes the blueprint for Strategic Sales at Tailscale.

Our Strategic Sales organization will operate like an elite SWAT team, small, highly collaborative, and focused on pursuing a select number of transformational customers. You'll work alongside Executive Leadership, Product, Engineering, Customer Engineering, Marketing, GTM Engineering, and Customer Success to win the company's largest opportunities.

Initially, you'll lead a team of approximately 3–5 Strategic Account Executives while continuing to personally own and close strategic opportunities. As the business grows, you'll play a central role in scaling both the team and the operating model.

This role reports directly to the Head of Sales and offers the opportunity to build a category-defining Strategic Sales organization from the ground up.

Key Responsibilities

Build a New Business

• Build Tailscale's Strategic Sales organization from the ground up.
• Design the operating model, territory strategy, account segmentation, and engagement approach.
• Develop repeatable playbooks for winning the world's largest enterprises.
• Help shape the long-term vision for Strategic Sales as the business scales.
• Partner with executive leadership to influence go-to-market strategy for our largest customers.

Lead From the Front

• Personally own a portfolio of Tailscale's highest-value strategic accounts.
• Lead complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles from initial engagement through expansion.
• Develop trusted executive relationships with CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, Chief Architects, Infrastructure leaders, and other senior decision makers.
• Serve as the executive quarterback on the company's largest strategic pursuits.
• Negotiate complex commercial agreements and drive successful outcomes across technical, financial, legal, and executive stakeholders.

Build an Elite Team

• Recruit, hire, and develop exceptional Strategic Account Executives.
• Initially lead a team of approximately 3–5 Strategic AEs, expanding the organization over time.
• Coach account strategy, executive engagement, negotiation, forecasting, and deal execution.
• Foster a high-performance culture built on accountability, collaboration, curiosity, and continuous learning.
• Build a team recognized for winning the most competitive enterprise opportunities in the market.

Create Pipeline

• Lead an outbound-first sales motion.
• Personally prospect into strategic accounts and build executive relationships.
• Partner with SDRs, Marketing, GTM Engineering, Customer Engineering, and Customer Success to develop account plans for our highest-value prospects.
• Create scalable account planning and outbound strategies that consistently generate executive engagement and qualified pipeline.
• Establish best practices for strategic prospecting, account planning, and executive alignment.

Drive Operational Excellence

• Own account planning, forecasting, pipeline health, and business planning for the Strategic segment.
• Inspect deal strategy and qualification throughout the sales cycle.
• Use data to improve execution, identify trends, and optimize performance.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to provide market feedback that influences product direction.
• Build the operating rhythm, metrics, and inspection processes that enable the organization to scale.

What We Are Looking For

• Founding AE at a high growth start-up 
• 5+ years as the top sales rep at a high-growth technology company.
• Proven success selling into organizations with 10,000+ employees.
• Demonstrated ability to close complex six-, seven-, and eight-figure SaaS opportunities.
• A consistent track record of building outbound pipeline and winning net-new enterprise customers.
• Executive presence with the ability to engage CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, and senior business executives as trusted advisors.
• Strong business acumen with experience navigating complex buying committees and long enterprise sales cycles.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building new processes where none exist.
• Passionate about building teams, developing people, and creating scalable organizations.

You'll Thrive Here If You...

• Want to build something rather than inherit it.
• Enjoy leading from the front instead of managing from the sidelines.
• Love hunting transformational opportunities and winning competitive enterprise pursuits.
• Enjoy building outbound strategies as much as closing business.
• Like collaborating across Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Customer Success.
• Are energized by creating playbooks that become the foundation for future growth.
• Want to leave a lasting impact on how a company scales its enterprise business.

As a company, we strive to maintain fair and equitable compensation practices within our team across all roles and all levels. Tailscale's compensation package includes base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits. The salary range displayed on each job posting represents the target range for a new hire's base salary. Individual offers may vary based on experience and skill set.