Vice President - Sales - Telecom/IT

Vice President - Sales, the solution

Global mandate - APAC, LATAM, CIS, MENA

Why this role exists:

The company has 160+ telco relationships across 80 countries. Voice Solution is live and proven - a reference telecom operator delivered $18M/year within 12 months, a 166% increase in digital revenue, 18% loan uptake, and a complaint rate below 0.001%. The product works. The proof exists. What is missing is a single owner who converts relationships into signed, live deployments across four regions at the pace the asset deserves.

This role is that owner. It is a hunting role with a warm book, not an account-management role. The person we hire will spend most of their year in front of operator CXOs.

Master credential. 80 Countries - 160+ Telcos - $2Bn+ Revenue Delivered. This is the line the VP Sales opens with - verbatim, never paraphrased.

What the VP Sales is selling:

- Voice Solution - network-level interception of zero-balance calls. IVR offers a micro-loan or top-up, the subscriber presses one key, the call completes. The operator earns on a call that previously died.

- Data Solution - zero-balance data session interception. Flash SMS - ReConnect page - loan or mobilemoney payment - data restored in 3 - 8 seconds. Roughly 4 - 4.75% conversion.

- The commercial posture - zero CAPEX and OPEX to the operator, capacity-shared, revenue-share upside. The VP Sales must be able to defend this model to a CFO without ever calling it free.

The scorecard:

A scorecard is not a wish list. It has three parts: the Mission (why the role exists, in one sentence), the Outcomes (what must be true, measured, by when), and the Competencies (how it must be done, and the culture fit). Hire only against this. Review against this at 90 days and at 12 months.

Mission. Take the solution to the maximum number of telcos across APAC, LATAM, CIS and MENA - converting the company's existing operator relationships into signed, live, revenue-sharing deployments.

Six outcomes. Each one is measured, dated, and owned by the VP Sales. Nothing here is an activity - every line is a result. Note on O1. Ten CXO meetings per region in 90 days is deliberately aggressive. It is the single clearest early signal of whether the person actually has the access they claimed in interview - or was relying on a team to get them in the room.

Outcome measure by when:

- O1 Regional coverage: First meetings held with a minimum of 10 CXO-level decision makers in each region - 40 CXO meetings in total. CXO means CEO, CMO, COO, CTIO, CFO, Head of VAS / Digital, or Head of UNR / Call Completion. Written meeting notes and named contacts logged in CRM. Month 3.

- O2 Qualified pipeline: A minimum of 12 operators - at least 3 per region. Advanced past first meeting into technical discovery or POC scoping, with an identified champion, a named economic buyer, and a mapped procurement path. Month 6.

- O3 Signed projects: 4 the solution projects closed and contracted (Voice, Data, or both) in the first 12 months. Target distribution: one per region. A signed MSA plus SOW counts; a verbal, an MoU, or an unsigned POC does not. Month 12.

- O4 Traffic on network: At least 2 of the 4 signed projects live and carrying commercial traffic, not sitting in integration queue. Measured by first revenue-bearing month. Month 12.

- O5 Group leverage: At least 2 group-level relationships opened at group HQ and converted into multi-OpCo pipeline, using the group cross-reference rule. Month 12.

- O6 Revenue trajectory: Signed projects carry a credible Year-1 annualised operator revenue case, benchmarked against a telecom group Ghana ($18M/year at scale). Specific ARR target to be set by the Co-founder at offer stage and written into the variable plan. Month 12.

Competencies:

- CXO access and credibility: Has sat across from telco CEOs, CMOs, COOs and UNR / VAS heads directly - not through a partner, not behind a country manager. Sells peer to peer. Can name named operator CXOs. Reference calls with two operators where a CXO would take an unannounced call today. Ask for the last four contracts signed, with signatory names.

- Proven closing, not proven operator: Can produce a list of deals personally closed - region, product, contract value, date signed, date live. Distinguishes what they closed from what their org closed. Deal ledger exercise in Round 2. Vagueness here is disqualifying.

- Revenue-share commercial fluency: Has structured and defended outcome-based or revenue-share contracts, not just licence or CAPEX sales. Can walk a CFO through the split, the floor, the true-up, and the exit clause. Never uses the word free. Live case: defend a 12-month revenue-share model to a sceptical CFO.

- Technical self-sufficiency: Holds a CTIO conversation without an engineer in the room - IN / SCP, OCS, PCRF, SMSC / SMPP, DNS override and IP whitelist, data residency. Knows when to stop talking and bring the engineer in. Technical screen with the solution delivery lead.

- Numbers-first communication: Leads with exact figures and cites the source. Says $18M in 12 months, a reference telecom operator, 2025 actual - not significant uplift. No adjective survives without a number behind it. Written exercise: a one-page operator business case, marked on specificity.

- Four-region discipline: Runs APAC, LATAM, CIS and MENA to the same plan. Does not let the easiest region absorb the calendar. Plans travel in blocks, protects follow-up, region by region. Closes loops within 24 hours. Ask for their actual travel cadence for the first 90 days.

- Cultural range: Operates credibly across Arabic, Francophone, Hispanophone, Russophone and Asian markets. Adapts register without becoming casual. Understands operator procurement and regulator dynamics differ by market. Probe two markets they have never worked in. Listen for humility plus method.

- Bootstrapped operator's mindset: The company is 18 years old and has taken no outside funding. There is no SDR pod, no pre-sales army, no marketing engine generating leads. Builds their own contact list, writes their own deck, books their own meetings - and treats that as normal. Ask what they personally did in the last deal, hour by hour, from first contact to signature.

- Intellectual honesty under pressure: Reports pipeline as it is, not as it should be. Kills dead deals early. Says I lost this and here is what I missed without prompting. Ask for a deal lost at procurement stage and what they would do differently.

The first 90 days:

- Days 1-30: Product immersion on Voice Solution and Data - architecture, integration prerequisites, a reference telecom operator numbers, ReConnect flow, the commercial model. Full audit of the company's existing relationships across the four regions: which operators, which contacts, which are warm, which are dormant. Builds the target list of 40 operators, 10 per region, with named CXO contacts. Target list of 40 operators with named contacts, signed off by the Co-founder. Can deliver the the solution pitch unaided.

- Days 31-60: Outreach at volume and first-meeting execution. Two regional travel blocks completed. Group-level approaches opened at two operator groups. Early qualification using the six-point framework - champion, economic buyer, procurement path, technical fit, timeline, competitive position. Minimum 20 CXO first meetings held. First technical discovery scheduled.

- Days 61-90: Remaining two regional blocks completed. Converts meetings into scoped POC conversations. Presents a 12-month regional plan to the Co-founder with named accounts, expected close dates, and the revenue case for each. O1 met - 40 CXO meetings across four regions. At least 4 operators in POC scoping. 12-month plan approved.

Responsibilities:

- Own the the solution revenue number for APAC, LATAM, CIS and MENA - pipeline generation through signature through go-live.

- Open and hold CXO-level relationships at telecom operators: CEO, CMO, COO, CTIO, CFO, Head of VAS / Digital, Head of UNR / Call Completion.

- Run group-level account strategy - land one OpCo, use the internal reference to compound across the group.

- Structure and negotiate zero-CAPEX, revenue-share commercial agreements through operator procurement and legal.

- Scope POCs with the delivery team: success metrics, exit criteria, reversibility, and the commercial terms that apply from go-live. The company does not run unpaid trials.

- Carry the technical conversation to the point where the engineering team takes over - integration prerequisites, network element compatibility, data residency, regulatory sign-off.

- Maintain an accurate, auditable pipeline. Forecast monthly to the Co-founder with named accounts, stage, value and date.

- Feed the market back into the product - what operators are asking for, what competitors are pricing, where the deal is being lost.

- Build the regional sales team once the first closes are on the board. Hiring authority follows performance, not tenure.

What we require:

- 12 - 18 years in telecom VAS, digital services, or telecom AI sales, of which at least 5 years carrying a regional or multi-country quota.

- Direct working relationships with CEO, CMO, COO or UNR / VAS leadership at telecom operators - in at least two of APAC, LATAM, CIS and MENA. Relationships the candidate built personally, not inherited.

- Proven closes. A verifiable record of operator contracts personally signed - named operator, contract value, date signed, date live. Proven in this JD means documented and reference-checkable, not asserted.

- Revenue-share or outcome-based selling. Has structured at least one commercial agreement where the vendor was paid from the outcome rather than up front.

- Technical credibility with operator network and IT teams - IN / SCP, OCS, PCRF, SMSC / SMPP, or equivalent corenetwork integration exposure.

- Travel. 50 - 60% international, sustained. Valid passport and a visa history that supports it.

- English fluency. Professional working proficiency, written and spoken.