Head, International Sales

Description

Kora is the marketplace for everything payments. We offer a robust payment API for payment collections, disbursements, and conversions for businesses anywhere in Africa. 

Our vision, which is at the core of what we do every day, is to create a world void of digital financial barriers. We are committed to delivering reliable, secure, and easy-to-use digital financial solutions to every single customer with a guarantee that it is improving their lives. To achieve this mission, we need people like you. 

We strongly believe in our ability to find Water in the Desert and pick the Sands in the Ocean.

We value positive energy and clear communication, and are committed to building an inclusive environment for people from every background.

About the Role

As the Head, International Sales, you will be a key driver of Kora's commercial expansion, focusing on scaling our payment and treasury infrastructure within the critical global market.

This role requires a high-impact, strategic seller who can identify, develop, and close high-value opportunities across banks, fintechs, and large enterprise merchants. You will be responsible for leading the entire commercial cycle, from prospecting and pitching to complex negotiation and closing with high-value customers in the financial services sector.

You will play a pivotal role in executing our market strategy, requiring you to build and nurture long-term strategic relationships with key ecosystem partners. This position requires a tenacious, self-motivated, and highly strategic salesperson with a deep understanding of payment and treasury flows across different international markets and an ability to translate market opportunities directly into enhanced revenue and profitability.

You will also work closely with senior leadership to execute our regional strategy and provide crucial market feedback to the Product team, ensuring Kora relentlessly delivers solutions that serve evolving customer needs.

Here are a couple of things you'll be doing:

Core Commercial Execution & Sales Leadership

• Pipeline and Deal Management: Own the end-to-end sales pipeline, aggressively pursuing high-value relationships and managing the entire cycle: prospecting, leading meetings, negotiating complex terms, and closing deals with stakeholders across various industries.
• Product Sales: Drive sales by pitching Kora’s full APIs to High Volume Merchants (HVMs), large enterprises, medium-level merchants, and financial institutions.
• Forecasting and Strategy: Present accurate sales and revenue forecasts to Senior Management, providing periodic updates on progress, successes, and challenges within your pipeline.
• B2B Strategy: Recommend and implement appropriate strategies and design tactics to continuously improve B2B sales execution and drive enhanced revenue generation.

Strategic Partnerships & Relationship Management

• Merchant and Partner Relations: Manage and maintain strong, long-term relationships with both new and existing high-value merchants and strategic partners.
• Infrastructure Building: Actively build a pipeline of prospective partners, including collecting APIs and features from banks, fintechs, and strategic partners to ensure a more robust and comprehensive Kora infrastructure.

Market Intelligence & Business Growth

• Strategic Growth Initiatives: Think strategically about the bigger picture, researching and identifying new business opportunities, including new markets, growth areas, and services.
• Business Creation: Develop and create new business offerings from scratch via various forms of partnerships and strategic investments, maintaining a laser focus on revenue, profitability, and market share growth.
• Market Feedback Loop: Gather real-time market feedback on solutions and competitor strategies. Work closely with the Product team to translate these insights into actionable development strategies that serve evolving customer needs.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams to translate relevant data and insights into actionable strategies that ensure relentless delivery of solutions and drive an exceptional customer service culture.

Requirements

Here's what we're looking for:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience as a Sales Manager in the fintech sector, and fast-paced B2B payment infrastructure.
• Strong network in the key industries (across international markets and verticals) with strong influence on your current merchants.
• In-depth knowledge and technical understanding of the organisation’s business, product, and service offerings.
• Tenacity and drive to seek new business and meet or exceed targets.
• A self-starter who understands how to build and manage their own pipeline of opportunities.
• Strong business sense and industry expertise in selling business services to large businesses.
• Interpersonal skills for building and developing relationships with clients and an ability to influence stakeholders.
• Great written and verbal communication skills - needed for communicating with a range of people, both internally and externally, and good presentation skills.
• Finally, someone with the ability to sell water to a drowning man!

Equal Opportunity Employer

Kora is an equal-opportunity employer dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, experience, and business needs. We strongly encourage applications from underrepresented communities and diverse ethnic groups to apply.

Please feel free to inform us if you need any accommodations to facilitate your participation in the recruitment process. Any details you share will be used solely to ensure we can support and accommodate your needs appropriately.

If you require more information on our HR Data Privacy, please visit here.

Benefits

• Sponsored and tailored training
• Paid parental leave
• Paid time-off
• Flexible work style
• Low-interest loans
• Group Life Insurance
• Day off on your birthday 🎂 🎁 🎉
• Employee interest groups that provide supportive communities within Kora
• Great company culture and the opportunity to work with a highly collaborative team building something great!

Note: We recognise imposter syndrome is real - any candidate who does not perfectly fit every characteristic of this role is still strongly encouraged to apply.