Your New Role and Team
Sanctuary is hiring a hands-on, enterprise-focused Vice President of Business
Development to spearhead strategic client relationships and lead high-value
sales engagements. While current traction includes automotive, electronics
manufacturing, and logistics, this role is not confined to specific industries.
It demands a leader who can both close complex deals and creatively explore new
markets where our technology can have transformative impact.
This is not just a traditional team-building sales leadership role. It is also
about being the lead on high-stakes, enterprise accounts, guiding them from
first contact through pilots and into scalable rollouts. You will report to the
CEO and collaborate closely with Marketing, Product, and Customer Success to
shape and execute commercial strategies that align with both CapEx (equipment
sales) and OpEx (recurring revenue/service) models.
You will lead a lean, high-impact team including a Business Development
Director, Solutions/Sales Engineer, and Customer Success Manager, and act as the
driving force in navigating multi-phase buying journeys. The ideal candidate is
a strategic and persistent account builder with experience in strategic selling
into Fortune 500 or similarly scaled organizations, who is just as comfortable
in the boardroom as they are building trust on the plant floor. You know how to
uncover value, challenge assumptions, and move opportunities forward with
urgency and empathy, wherever the next opportunity may arise.
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Enterprise Sales Ownership
- Build and execute strategic account plans using structured stage-gate
frameworks and contingent commitment models.
- Own the entire sales process end-to-end: lead generation, stakeholder
mapping, relationship building, pilot negotiation, phased deployment, and
deal closure.
- Drive full-cycle enterprise sales engagements with Fortune 500/1000-level
clients, from initial outreach to pilot rollout and full-scale deployment.
- Develop trust and credibility with client stakeholders by demonstrating a
deep understanding of their business operations and challenges.
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Customer Engagement & Commercialization Strategy
- Actively pursue new accounts in high-potential industrial sectors such as
automotive, electronics, and logistics, while continuously exploring untapped
verticals where Sanctuary’s technology can unlock value.
- Collaborate with Marketing, Product, and Engineering teams to co-develop
customized proposals and proofs of concept.
- Tailor and adapt sales strategies to support both CapEx models (hardware and
support contracts) and OpEx models (robot-as-a-service or recurring revenue).
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Team Collaboration & Cross-Functional Leadership
- Act as the voice of the customer, ensuring client needs inform the product
roadmap and commercial strategy.
- Provide direction and mentorship to the BD team, Solutions Engineers, and
Customer Success stakeholders.
- Orchestrate internal resources to ensure technical, operational, and
strategic alignment.
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Business Intelligence & Relationship Development
- Build long-term, trust-based relationships focused on value creation, not
transactional selling.
- Speak the language of industrial buyers, even without a robotics background.
- Use creative, non-traditional approaches to reach decision-makers.
Your Experience
Qualifications
- 10+ years of experience in enterprise business development, solution sales,
or complex consultative selling into Fortune 500 accounts with dollar values
exceeding $50 million.
- Proven track record of selling into Fortune 500 or similarly scaled
enterprise organizations, with complex decision-making involving multiple
stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to close high-value, multi-year commercial agreements
and find ways to accelerate the sales cycle via innovative business and
payment models.
- Familiarity with structured enterprise sales methodologies such as SPIN,
MEDDIC, or Challenger, and complex sales methodologies like Strategic Selling
and Large Account Management Process (LAMP).
- Experience managing technical sales processes, working closely with engineers
or solution architects to support client evaluation and deal execution.
Nice to Have
- Familiarity with operational workflows in logistics and automotive industry.
- Background in automation, robotics, industrial tech, or AI/ML.
- Experience operating across both hardware sales and recurring-revenue (ARR)
models.
Traits
- Hunter mindset: You thrive on sourcing and closing new opportunities.
- Deep listener: You do not just pitch — you decode customer operations and
challenges.
- Business empath: You understand the customer’s world and help them imagine a
better one.
- Persistent and patient: You push the deal forward without being pushy.
- Scrappy and hands-on: You are ready to jump on a flight or rework a pitch
deck yourself if that is what it takes.
- Strategically adaptable: You are comfortable selling into an evolving product
and business model landscape.
- Team-centered: You lead by influence and work cross-functionally with ease
and respect.
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Working at Sanctuary AI
Sanctuary AI is an equal opportunity employer; employment with Sanctuary AI is
governed based on skills, competence, and qualifications and will not be
influenced in any way by race, color, religion, gender, national
origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation,
gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other
legally protected status. In 2023, Sanctuary AI moved into a state-of-the-art
office facility and has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Startup company.
Compensation and Benefits
Sanctuary offers a market-leading compensation package that includes competitive
salaries, equity stakes, and a full suite of benefits for permanent employees,
encompassing health coverage, paid time off, cutting-edge work facilities, and
worksite flexibility by role. Our commitment to fairness ensures that our total
compensation consistently surpasses market standards.
About Sanctuary AI
Founded in 2018, Sanctuary builds humanoid robots and a novel control system for
them that integrates symbolic logic and reasoning with data-driven robot
foundation models. We use our robots to collect vision, audio, touch, and
proprioception data from the perspective of the robot while they perform
real-world work tasks. We use that data to train multimodal robot foundation
models. Because our systems are vertically integrated, we can design, deploy,
and refine at scale. Our mission is to create the world's first human-like
intelligence in general-purpose robots.
Recruiting and Employment Agency Notice:
Recruitment and hiring is conducted internally by Sanctuary AI. We are not
seeking or soliciting any new agency partnerships or agreements at this
time. Any employment agency or professional recruiter (“Agency”) that provides
an unsolicited resume(s) or otherwise presents a prospective job candidate
through the Sanctuary AI career site or directly to any Sanctuary AI employee,
irrevocably grants to Sanctuary AI the unrestricted right to engage, hire, or
contract with that candidate at Sanctuary AI's sole discretion without any
compensation to the Agency. We appreciate your interest in working together, and
should the need arise our Talent Acquisition team will contact any external
firms directly.
