We are Heron Data, a Series A stage company based in New York and London.

• At Heron, we use the latest advances in AI and LLMs to automate document processing. Our software handles emails, analyzes attachments, and takes actions like updating CRMs or requesting more info to execute workflows end-to-end for our customers. We serve a range of businesses including some of the world's largest fintechs, banks and other specialty finance companies, commercial insurers, and more.
• Our largest product automates underwriting for small business lenders and other specialty finance companies. We eliminate cumbersome manual processes and enable our customers to provide their services with much greater speed, precision, and fairness.
• We are a rapidly growing company with over 150 customers in financial services and beyond who trust us to be embedded in critical processes - without us, their businesses stop. We analyze tens of thousands of documents a day, including over 20 million individual bank transactions daily for our customers. We continue to grow into more segments and workflows: further into lending, banking, insurance. And we think there's much more we can do!
• We are a lean, scrappy and committed team with a flat structure and collaborative culture. Our team brings together a wealth of experience from great tech companies including Facebook, Spotify, Revolut and many other startups from around the world.
• With team members from five different continents, we embrace multiculturalism and diversity. From company events to everyday interactions, we make sure everyone feels welcome and accommodate all cultural and dietary requirements.
• Since our launch in September 2020, at the end of the S20 batch, we've experienced a lot of growth! Today, we serve over 150 customers and have over $7M in ARR. Read more about our mission here

We’re looking for our first Head of Sales to build, lead, and scale revenue at Heron. This is a rare opportunity to own sales end-to-end at a fast-growing AI company. You’ll work closely with the founders, sales, product, and engineering teams, to build and lead the sales org as we grow. If you’re excited about selling a technical product, shaping go-to-market strategy, and building something from 1-to-n, we’d love to talk!

What You’ll Do

This is a hands-on (“player-coach”) role focused on driving revenue and building the sales function, including specifically:

• Own the full sales cycle from first conversation through close, initially carrying a quota yourself
• Develop and refine Heron’s sales motion (ICP, messaging, pricing, deal structure, sales stages)
• Partner closely with founders, product, and engineering to translate customer pain into clear value propositions
• Build and manage pipeline, forecasts, and revenue targets with a strong bias toward accuracy and accountability
• Establish and refine our sales processes, tooling, and metrics (CRM, reporting, enablement materials)
• Hire, onboard, and coach future sales hires as the team scales
• Help shape broader go-to-market strategy across sales, partnerships, and potentially customer success

What We’re Looking For

Our ideal hire will:

Love selling and building at the same time

You’re energized by being in the deals — especially early, messy ones — and you’re excited to build structure after learning what actually works. You’re comfortable wearing many hats and know how to prioritize impact over polish in the early days.

Have strong early-stage sales instincts

You know how to sell ambiguous, technical products without relying on heavy brand recognition or mature processes. You’re thoughtful about deal qualification, pricing, and positioning, and you learn quickly from wins and losses.

Be scale-minded, but action-oriented

You don’t over-engineer sales processes too early, but you do think ahead. You care about building something that will scale — and you know when it’s time to formalize, document, and hire.

Have prior experience at high-growth startups

Ideally, you’ve been an early sales hire or sales leader at a Seed–Series B company and have seen what it takes to grow revenue through inflection points.

Be a clear, credible communicator

You can talk to technical and non-technical stakeholders alike, earn trust quickly, and clearly articulate value to customers, investors, and internal teams.

Above all else, we value people who want to make an impact in their work.

Here are some of the behaviors we expect of all Herons:

Scrappy and creative

When faced with a tough prospect, stalled deal, or unclear path forward, you find a way. You’re resourceful, adaptable, and willing to try unconventional approaches.

Persistent

You don’t give up when deals get hard or timelines slip. You follow up, dig deeper, and keep pushing until you get to a clear outcome. You’ll go the extra mile — including Flying to Gainesville — if that’s what it takes.

Pilot, not passenger

You proactively identify opportunities, test ideas, and drive them to completion. You don’t wait for perfect direction — you create momentum.

Excited to work in a fast-paced, high-growth, team-based environment

You thrive in environments with speed, ownership, and collaboration. You care deeply about the team’s success and are willing to roll up your sleeves wherever needed.

What You Can Expect as a Heron

• Competitive compensation, including equity
• Based full-time in NYC, where most of the team is in-person every day
• Your choice of top-of-the-line equipment to fit out your desk in the office
• Occasional travel to London to work with the team there and across the country to visit customers and prospects
• Competitive benefits: health insurance; pension; uncapped annual leave; parental leave
• Free mental health support via Spill - on-demand access to therapy
• Weekly company lunches (always inclusive and vegan-friendly - especially if you like Korean or Vietnamese food!)
• Applicants from any background and gender are welcome and we have a zero tolerance policy on discrimination

• For Frontend -- our customer dashboard is built with NextJS, using MUI, React, and TypeScript. We deploy our frontend apps on Vercel
• For Backend -- our backend applications are primarily written in Python using the Flask or FastAPI frameworks. We also use celery for async task processing. We have both a main monolith and also microservices. We containerize & deploy these applications on Kubernetes clusters or on managed compute (serverless)
• For ML — we have a variety of classification & prediction tasks that we deploy different models for, ranging from classic ML models / NLP techniques to fine-tuned LLMs
• For infrastructure — we use both GCP and AWS for different components. Some of our main components include Postgres database, Redis and RabbitMQ. All of our code repositories live in GitHub and we use GitHub actions extensively for CI/CD