Head of Sales

About Us:
Founded in 2018, headquartered in Johannesburg, and backed by leading investors including Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital, VALR is a global crypto exchange offering a comprehensive suite of products—including Spot Trading, Spot Margin, Perpetual Futures, Staking, Lending, Borrowing, OTC services, VALR Invest, Crypto Bundles, and VALR Pay. Licensed by South Africa’s FSCA, with regulatory approval in Europe, VALR serves over 1.7 million registered users and 2,000 corporate and institutional clients worldwide. The exchange is dedicated to advancing a just financial future that upholds human dignity and the unity of mankind. For more information, visit valr.com.

Our Vision:
To establish VALR as a global institution that advances the economic life of human civilisation through a borderless, inclusive, and empowering financial ecosystem.

Our Mission:
To contribute towards a global financial system that upholds justice, fosters human dignity, and reflects the oneness of humanity, by serving the financial needs of individuals, communities, and institutions through innovative financial technologies.

• Minimum of 6 years’ experience in sales, business development, enterprise sales, commercial strategy, or market expansion within fintech, financial services, payments, or the digital asset industry, with at least 2 years in a senior sales leadership role.
• Proven track record of leading high-performing sales teams and delivering revenue growth across multiple markets and customer segments.
• Demonstrated success in developing and executing global sales strategies that drive customer acquisition, revenue growth, retention, and market expansion.
• Proven experience negotiating and closing complex, high-value deals with institutional, enterprise, financial services, or strategic clients.
• Strong understanding of the global cryptocurrency, stablecoin, fintech and payments landscape, including institutional and enterprise customer needs.
• Experience leading international sales expansion, including market prioritisation, go-to-market strategy, pipeline development, and sales execution.
• Strong commercial acumen, with experience in pricing, deal structuring, contract negotiations, forecasting, and revenue planning.
• Demonstrated ability to identify new sales opportunities, develop scalable sales initiatives, and convert market opportunities into measurable revenue.
• Experience using customer and market insights to influence product positioning, sales strategy, and commercial opportunities.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, Compliance, Operations, and Finance teams.
• Exceptional leadership, negotiation, stakeholder management, communication, and executive influencing skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Commerce, Economics, Finance, or a related field required; an MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification is advantageous but not essential.

In addition, the following functional competencies are required:

• Global Sales Strategy & Execution: Ability to develop and execute a global sales strategy aligned to revenue, growth, and market expansion objectives.
• Sales Leadership & Performance: Proven ability to build, lead, coach, and develop high-performing sales teams, with clear accountability for targets and performance.
• Enterprise & Institutional Sales: Expertise in selling complex products and solutions to institutional, enterprise, financial services, and strategic clients.
• Pipeline & Revenue Management: Strong capability in pipeline development, sales forecasting, performance tracking, territory planning, and revenue optimisation.
• Commercial Negotiation & Deal Execution: Skilled in structuring, negotiating, and closing complex, high-value commercial agreements.
• Market Expansion & Go-to-Market: Experience identifying priority markets, developing go-to-market strategies, and establishing scalable sales channels across regions.
• Executive Relationship Management: Ability to build trusted relationships with C-suite executives, institutional clients, strategic partners, and key industry stakeholders.
• Market Intelligence & Sales Strategy: Ability to translate market trends, competitive intelligence, and customer insights into actionable sales strategies and opportunities.

• Report directly to the Chief Commercial Officer, owning the global sales function and contributing to VALR’s overall commercial strategy and growth objectives.
• Own and execute VALR’s global sales strategy, with accountability for revenue growth, enterprise sales and institutional client acquisition.
• Build, lead and scale a high-performing global sales team, setting targets, territories, KPIs, pipeline expectations and performance standards.
• Own and operationalise the sales CRM and supporting sales tools, ensuring accurate pipeline visibility, reporting and forecasting.
• Develop and execute go-to-market strategies for VALR’s institutional, enterprise, payments and B2B offerings across priority markets.
• Drive acquisition of enterprise customers, financial institutions, payment providers, fintechs and other strategic clients to grow transaction volumes and revenue.
• Own the end-to-end sales lifecycle, from prospecting and qualification through solution development, negotiation, contracting and account expansion.
• Develop strategic account plans for key customers, driving retention, cross-selling, upselling and long-term revenue growth.
• Lead the commercialisation of new products and services, including market positioning, value propositions, pricing and sales enablement.
• Identify and evaluate new market and revenue opportunities, working with relevant teams to develop scalable sales strategies.
• Partner closely with Partnerships, Product, Engineering, Marketing and Operations to ensure customer and market insights inform product development and go-to-market execution.
• Build and maintain senior relationships with enterprise customers, institutional clients, banks, payment providers, fintechs and key participants across the global digital asset ecosystem.
• Represent VALR in executive customer engagements, strategic negotiations, industry events and commercial forums.
• Collaborate with Legal, Compliance, Risk and Finance to ensure sales activities and commercial agreements are scalable, commercially viable and compliant.
• Monitor and optimise sales performance, pipeline health, revenue, conversion rates, customer acquisition and other commercial KPIs, using data-driven insights to improve sales execution and inform growth strategy.

• Innovative Work Environment
  • Engage with the latest blockchain technologies and tools in a rapidly evolving industry.
  • Work from anywhere with secure, stable internet connectivity, allowing you to create your ideal workspace.
• Career Development
  • Benefit from an annual professional development allowance alongside scheduled company training sessions to keep you at the forefront of the crypto industry.
• Competitive Compensation
  • Competitive salaries that align with industry standards.
  • When you contribute to our success, you’ll be rewarded with discretionary bonuses, recognising your impact on VALR’s growth.
  • Receive preferential Tier 5 trading fees on VALR, with no monthly trading volume required.
• Diversity and Inclusion
  • A commitment to fostering a diverse workforce with initiatives that promote equity and belonging.
• Wellness
  • Employees are encouraged to strive for coherent and wholesome lives, fulfilling their work, personal, social, physical and spiritual goals to the best of their abilities.
  • Compliance with statutory leave required by individual countries, in addition to flexible leave options.
  • Enjoy lunch on us when working from our Johannesburg Head Office, one of the ways we support wellbeing and connection in the workplace.
• Impact and Contribution
  • At VALR, we believe in a financial system that recognises the oneness of humanity. Our mission is to break down financial barriers and promote universal values of courage, ethical integrity, and the intrinsic worth of every individual.
  • Engage in initiatives that promote education and awareness about cryptocurrencies, ensuring that everyone has the tools and knowledge to participate in the evolving financial landscape.
• Dynamic Team Culture
  • Open communication and teamwork across departments, fostering innovation and creativity.
  • Enjoy social gatherings outside of work to strengthen team bonds and boost morale.
• Global Exposure
  • Work with colleagues from around the world.
  • Exposure to diverse perspectives and practices in the crypto space.
• Recognition and Rewards
  • Regular acknowledgement of employee accomplishments, fostering a culture of appreciation and motivation.
  • Join us for retreats that blend professional development with team bonding in inspiring locations.
• Tools for Success
  • Receive a Mac laptop and a discretionary allowance to purchase all the extras needed for a productive home office—yours to keep after three years (terms and conditions apply).