Head of SMB Acquisition

We started a movement in which everyone can win – shoppers, retailers, society and every person on our team. To play fair, trust people and reward them for doing the right thing. We see and feel the impact of our work as more and more people gain financial freedom and retailers grow across the globe.

Founded in 2014 in Sydney, Australia, Afterpay has over 24 million active customers globally and more than 250,000 of the best retailers around the world including Anthropologie, Revolve, DSW, GOAT, Finish Line, Levi’s, Mac Cosmetics, Ray-Ban and many others.

Afterpay is helping people spend responsibly! We empower customers to access the things they want and need, while still allowing them to maintain financial wellness and control, by splitting payments in four, for both online and in-store purchases. Afterpay is deeply committed to delivering positive outcomes for customers. Now under the Block ecosystem, we are focused on supporting our community of shoppers.

We trust in the next generation and share a vision of a more accessible and sustainable world in which people are rewarded for doing the right thing.

The Role

The Australia and New Zealand SMB & Franchise Sales team at Afterpay is responsible for driving revenue to our core consumer payments business, giving our Merchant partners access to one of the largest and most engaged networks of next generation consumers.

We are looking for a strategic, analytical, high-energy, and experienced Head of SMB Acquisition Sales to lead and scale a high-velocity, playbook-driven sales engine across a broad and growing base of small and medium-sized businesses, while forging and expanding relationships with fast-growing and established Franchise partners. The SMB segment spans multiple motions, including a BDR function that sources and books meetings for Account Executives, an Inbound motion serving smaller, higher-volume businesses, and an Outbound-led motion focused on larger, higher-growth SMB and Premium SMB segments. The Franchise motion adds a higher-touch, more sophisticated sales environment focused on winning and expanding relationships with leading franchise groups and brands from SMB’s through to Mid and Enterprise size prospects. You will be responsible for orchestrating these motions into a cohesive system and for the discipline, tooling, processes, and deal strategies that help generate pipeline, convert opportunities, onboard merchants efficiently, and win business at scale.

A successful candidate exhibits a strong sense of ownership to win new business for Afterpay and a demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity; think strategically and operationally about business, marketing, product, and technical challenges; and lead cross-functional workstreams ultimately tied to pipeline creation, conversion, and revenue growth. This role requires a strategic problem solver who is a rigorous operator, relentless negotiator, and effective influencer, comfortable balancing data-driven rigor and scalable sales processes with high-touch relationship building, a strong bias for action, and hands-on execution.

Beyond ultimately being responsible for revenue outcomes across our SMB & Franchise merchant pipeline - spanning a broad range of industries across retail, fashion, beauty, travel, QSR, home and more across Australia and New Zealand - you will also be responsible for building and supporting a strong culture of performance. You will develop leaders and individual contributors, create clarity and accountability across the organization, and lead with empathy without ego.

The ideal candidate has demonstrated excellence in building and operating high-velocity sales motions at scale, navigating complex commercial negotiations, leading and managing high-performing teams, and continuously improving how teams sell, operate, and deliver results.

You Will

• Oversee the A/NZ SMB & Franchise Sales Team: Lead a multi-motion organization spanning BDR, Inbound and Outbound Account Executives, together with the Franchise sales motion. Build and continuously refine the playbooks, processes and tooling that let the team convert and grow merchants efficiently at high volume while also enabling sophisticated, high-touch Franchise deal execution. Craft a segment-wide strategy and hold the team accountable to delivering on OKRs and revenue targets across each motion, in concert with the broader Sales & Account Management function at Afterpay.
• Build an A-Team: Inherit and further develop a team of strong performers and leaders with relevant experience. Build their skills, knowledge, efficacy, and an overall culture focused on performance and continuous improvement, including coaching frontline managers to drive results through their own teams. Set an energetic and accountable tone for the A/NZ sales organization, rooted in a strong sense of ownership and led with empathy over ego.
• Develop Meaningful Cross-Functional Partnerships: Work closely with cross-functional teams to better support your team in generating revenue, including Marketing, Finance, Product, Engineering, Risk, Legal, Account Management, Partnerships and more. Influence without authority across teams and build the internal relationships required to navigate a distributed, global and matrixed set of stakeholders.
• Own Sales Process and Methodology: Build and refine repeatable sales approaches across the full deal lifecycle - from prospecting, discovery and qualification through articulating value, solutioning, negotiating, contracting, closing and onboarding. Balance standardized, scalable SMB motions with the flexibility and commercial judgment required for more complex Franchise opportunities.
• Craft Deal Strategy: Develop and pitch powerful sales narratives that educate prospective merchants on Afterpay's value proposition. Coach the team through sophisticated deal negotiations, support internal and external advocacy, clear blockers to revenue, and effectively communicate with senior decision makers at high-growth and established brands and franchise groups.
• Drive Forecasting Rigor and Pipeline Hygiene: Implement and maintain best practices in forecasting accuracy, pipeline coverage, pipeline health, opportunity progression, and conversion. Partner closely with Finance and Sales Strategy / Operations to ensure forecasts are rigorous, risks and upside are understood, and the organization is focused on the activities and opportunities that will drive outcomes.
• Define Ideal Customer Profile and Value Proposition: Shape and sharpen our ideal customer profiles, priority use cases, and value propositions across SMB and Franchise. Leverage insights, data and market intelligence to centralize and socialize the sales and growth narratives that resonate most with merchants and inform our broader B2B marketing, product and go-to-market strategy.
• Drive Portfolio and Segment Strategy: Leverage insights across the team's pipeline and merchant portfolio to identify priority industries, franchise networks, growth opportunities and emerging trends. Translate those insights into clear segment strategies, scalable acquisition motions and commercial priorities across Australia and New Zealand.
• Be the Voice of Afterpay: Represent the business to SMB and Franchise merchants as a thought leader in payments and Buy Now Pay Later, demonstrating Afterpay's value as a growth driver for small, growing and established businesses. Develop and grow Block's relationships with merchant partners, including senior leadership teams where appropriate.
• Be the Voice of the Merchant: Represent market feedback and sentiment internally, advocating for merchants while balancing the needs and constraints of our business. Aggregate and deliver key insights across the organization in a structured, consistent and proactive manner to influence product, marketing, risk and commercial priorities.

You Have

• An obsession with our products and a motivation fueled by feeling the impact of your work as more consumers build financial wellness with Afterpay.
• 12+ years of experience in high-growth environments leading SMB Sales, Franchise Sales, BDR, Mid-Market Sales, or Account Management organizations, preferably in a fast-moving technology, payments, or financial services company, with experience operating across both high-volume sales motions and complex commercial relationships.
• Excellent leadership skills with the ability to develop talent, motivate high-performing teams, and build strong cross-functional relationships, including a proven track record of coaching and managing frontline managers to results. You put your people in the best position to succeed, and your management style is tailored to each individual to maximize their performance and engagement at work.
• Experience standing up, scaling, or transforming sales organizations - hiring, onboarding and developing talent across BDRs, AEs, and frontline managers, and designing the structures and operating rhythms required to support growth.
• Demonstrated ability to build, operate, and continuously improve playbooks that scale across a large and growing team while preserving the judgment and flexibility required for sophisticated deals.
• A demonstrated track record of leading teams that consistently drive revenue growth and exceed their revenue targets, including experience with sophisticated commercial negotiations and established clients.
• Proven experience navigating and operating effectively within matrixed global organizations and aligning regional priorities with broader global strategies.
• Experience working closely with Product and Marketing to drive conversion, including improving merchant acquisition, sign-up, activation and onboarding journeys, and translating merchant needs into product and go-to-market opportunities.
• A high familiarity and comfort with how product development works, preferably in payments. You can hold your own with stakeholders across technical, marketing, product and commercial disciplines and have credibility with Product and Engineering partners.
• Strong executive presence, with demonstrated ability to influence and earn trust with senior internal leaders and external decision makers, ask the right questions, and use sound business judgment, including with C-suite stakeholders at larger merchant and franchise partners.
• An operational mindset as well as a strategic one - you can set a clear vision, implement robust processes, lead teams through complex relationships, and translate strategy into disciplined execution.
• Comfort working with analytics and tools that support business performance measurement and management, particularly forecasting, funnel, pipeline, conversion, productivity and revenue metrics at scale.
• Creative storytelling abilities, with the ability to seek out relevant, meaningful data and build compelling business cases and sales narratives that demonstrate Afterpay's value proposition.
• A scrappy and humble mindset, where toggling between team lead and in-the-weeds work is business as usual. You're equally comfortable writing an annual plan as you are jumping into a pipeline review, supporting a complex negotiation, or unblocking a team member. You get the job done and inspire others to do so as well.