Sales Director, Canada

About Commerce Decisions

Commerce Decisions (part of the Harris group) is a pioneer in SaaS and Consultancy, empowering procurement teams globally. Our flagship product, AWARD®, has enabled some of the most significant procurement projects in Canada and across the world; high-profile defence programmes, major rail and infrastructure projects, hospitals, and nationally important heritage sites. Supported by our exceptional team of experts, we simplify complexity and help ensure our customers achieve the best outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

New Business Development & Market Strategy

• Own all strategic and tactical new business development activity within Canada, with primary focus on delivering against agreed revenue targets for SaaS and Professional Services, across the defence sector and the wider Canadian public sector.
• Develop and execute a structured, proactive market development strategy, including stakeholder mapping, early-lifecycle opportunity identification, and pipeline development to drive sustainable revenue growth.
• Conduct hands-on primary research into target buying centres, programmes and stakeholders, building a well-organised, self-sourced pipeline rather than relying solely on inbound leads or existing relationships.
• Establish and deliver competitive sales campaigns with clear marketing briefs tailored to Canadian defence and public procurement audiences.
• Identify and shape requirements early in the procurement lifecycle, targeting complex, high-risk capital projects where AWARD® delivers its highest value.
• Generate new business with senior decision-makers across DND, PSPC, the Defence Investment Agency (DIA), prime contractors, industry partners, and Crown corporations.
• Produce and maintain a structured Canada sales/account plan, target markets, prioritised opportunities, and revenue phasing, for review with the VP of Sales and Marketing.

Senior Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and sustain trusted, senior-level relationships across complex government and industry stakeholder environments, including at ADM, Director General, and Chief Procurement Officer level.
• Attend and present at customer and partner meetings, defence industry events (e.g. CANSEC, NATO-related forums), and internal company functions to strengthen market presence.
• Demonstrate credibility, gravitas, and the ability to influence procurement strategy at executive level, including briefing and advising senior government officials on the value of structured evaluation and defensibility.
• Lead and contribute to RFI, Bid, and Framework engagements within Canadian government procurement vehicles including PSPC standing offers, TBIPS, and Canada Buys.
• Show genuine curiosity about customers’ missions, programmes and procurement challenges, and use that understanding over product features to shape messaging and value propositions.
• Engage confidently in discussions with customers and partners about the growing role of AI in procurement and evaluation, connecting it to Commerce Decisions’ own product and service portfolio.

Pipeline Management & Commercial Accountability

• Own, monitor, and develop the Canadian sales pipeline from opportunity qualification through to close, with personal accountability for hitting agreed revenue targets.
• Employ rigorous CRM discipline, accurate forecasting, and regular actionable reporting to senior leadership.
• Communicate progress, risks, and pipeline health transparently and proactively.
• Conduct competitor tracking and market intelligence specific to the Canadian defence and procurement landscape, sharing insight with the wider Commerce Decisions team. Produce this as concise, well‑organised written outputs.
• Personally prepare accurate, well‑organised quotes, pricing, and commercial proposals, including scoping input for SaaS and Professional Services components, without relying on dedicated bid or sales‑operations support.

Client & Partner Relationships

• Work closely with the Customer Success and Professional Services teams to ensure coherent, full‑lifecycle account management for both new and existing clients.
• Deliver strong, tailored demonstrations of AWARD® that articulate specific client value; audit defensibility, litigation risk reduction, evaluation rigour, and time‑to‑contract efficiency.
• Personally own and lead the writing of responses to formal Requests for Proposal and Invitations to Tender, in a lean team without dedicated bid‑writing support.
• Develop and manage partnership arrangements with defence primes, integrators, and government consultancies to extend AWARD®’s reach and facilitate indirect sales.
• Attend conferences, exhibitions, and sector events; organise trade presence and deliver speaking engagements to build profile and generate leads.

Candidate Requirements

Essential

• A proven track record of personally originating, developing, and closing complex, consultative sales, with individual quota accountability and demonstrable revenue achievement in a SaaS, software, and/or professional services environment.
• The commercial gravitas and executive presence to engage credibly with ADM, Director General, and senior procurement leadership within DND, PSPC, or equivalent bodies, combined with the drive and energy to open new relationships.
• Demonstrable experience selling into or operating within the Canadian public sector, with a clear understanding of federal procurement structures, buying cycles, and compliance frameworks.
• Working knowledge of Canadian government procurement frameworks and competitive tendering processes, e.g. PSPC standing offers, TBIPS, ProServices, and the broader federal supply arrangement landscape, sufficient to be productive from day one.
• A disciplined approach to pipeline and forecast management, CRM usage, and commercial reporting; able to qualify rigorously and communicate pipeline health with confidence.
• Strong consultative selling skills: able to understand complex customer environments, map stakeholder ecosystems, and position AWARD® as a strategic solution, not a transactional product purchase.
• Aptitude and willingness to build genuine fluency in AWARD® and our evaluation methodology, enough to run credible demonstrations and technical conversations personally, without always relying on pre‑sales support.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentational skills, including the ability to deliver a compelling, concise value proposition at any level; from a 30‑second elevator pitch to a boardroom presentation.
• A genuine enthusiasm for harnessing AI to accelerate sales processes, improve planning, and sharpen engagement strategies in ways that drive commercial results, with practical, current personal use of AI tools, for research, account planning, or proposal drafting, that can be discussed and demonstrated at interview, not enthusiasm alone.
• A naturally curious, questioning approach to understanding customers, genuinely interested in their mission and procurement challenge, not just their budget.
• Highly organised and numerate, comfortable personally building pricing, quotes, and commercially literate business cases without dedicated bid or pricing support.
• Self‑motivated, tenacious, and resilient: comfortable operating as the senior commercial presence in a lean, high‑trust team without the structural support of a large enterprise sales organisation.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to work calmly under pressure across complex, long‑cycle sales environments.

Desirable

• Direct experience selling into the Canadian defence sector, with working knowledge of DND structures, ADM(Mat) procurement processes, and the Defence Investment Agency (DIA).
• Experience selling software, decision‑support tools, or procurement evaluation solutions into government or regulated industries.
• Experience selling into or partnering with defence primes, systems integrators, or government consultancy ecosystems (e.g. KPMG, Deloitte, PA Consulting).
• Familiarity with Protected B cloud compliance requirements and Canadian data sovereignty obligations relevant to government SaaS deployments.
• Experience working with and managing partnership arrangements to structure and facilitate indirect sales channels.
• A track record of personally producing market research, competitive analysis, or sales/account plans as individual deliverables, not just contributing to team‑built collateral.

Location & Travel

Office: 1 Antares Dr, Suite 400, Ottawa, Ontario. Hybrid/remote working available; regular office attendance is important to our collaborative culture. Regular, proactive in‑person travel is required to customer sites, partner locations, conferences, and corporate events, including internationally. Face‑to‑face relationship‑building is a core, ongoing part of how this role is to be performed.

Salary

Competitive base salary (TBC) + OTE, structured to reflect the seniority of the role and the revenue responsibility carried.