Commercial Sales Executive

Report To: COO

Employment Status: Full Time

Base salary: £45,000 – £60,000 dependent on experience

OTE: £80,000 – £100,000 at quota (uncapped above that)

Annual bookings quota: £500,000 – £600,000. Commission is structured to reward deal quality and pipeline discipline, not just activity volume. Accelerators apply above quota. A structured ramp applies in the first quarter. Full commission plan shared with shortlisted candidates.

ControlPlane is a London headquartered consultancy specialising in cloud-native, Kubernetes, and open source solutions. Our expertise lies in helping organisations adopt and secure complex cloud infrastructures by implementing security measures that are "secure-by-design" and "secure-by-default." This engineering excellence has driven ControlPlane deeper into cybersecurity providing services like threat modelling, penetration testing, and supply chain security to ensure robust protection against cyberattacks in containerised and cloud-native environments.

We are acclaimed for our contributions to securing highly regulated industries, such as finance, healthcare, and national infrastructure. We help businesses improve their security posture through services like DevSecOps consulting, zero-trust architectures, and platform engineering. ControlPlane also focuses on advancing best practices in the Kubernetes ecosystem, offering specialised training and community engagement.

Our clients range from multinational banks to tech giants and public clouds, where we assist with both security and operational needs. In addition to consulting, we are active in the open source community, supporting projects like Flux CD and providing security tools for Kubernetes environments.

Over the coming years you’ll see us retain our focus on solving difficult problems for clients with intense security controls using pragmatic, real world solutions. Taking our extensive R&D to help organisations consume next generation and open source projects safely and securely - that might be extending our work with FINOS AI Readiness or the overhaul of open source supply chain security.

This role sits at the commercial engine of ControlPlane’s growth. You will own the full journey from qualified lead to closed won on mid-market engagements, managing the pipeline that sits between marketing-generated or GTM Engineering-sourced signals and revenue.

You will work alongside the New Business Sales Executive and our GTM Engineering function, picking up nurtured leads, running your own outbound activity, and taking deals through qualification, proposal, and close. Deal sizes run from £50k to £250k. These are not transactional sales, buyers are technical, procurement is real, and the problem space requires you to show up informed and credible every time.

This is an early-career commercial role with genuine upside. If you are ambitious, intellectually curious about technology and security, and want to build a career selling complex solutions into regulated industries, this is a strong platform to do it from.

We are not looking for someone to manage a queue of inbound enquiries. We want someone who takes initiative with leads, does their homework before every conversation, follows through without being prompted, and treats their pipeline like a business, because it is.

ControlPlane’s core service lines span:

• Software supply chain security: helping organisations understand, govern, and harden every stage of how software is built, verified, and released into production
• SDLC assurance and DevSecOps: embedding security controls directly into engineering pipelines, from source to deployment
• Zero Trust architecture and implementation
• Hardened Kubernetes and container security
• AI security and governance frameworks
• Managed assurance and ongoing security advisory retainers

Average deal size is £250,000. Sales cycles run 3–9 months depending on organisational complexity and procurement maturity. There is significant expansion potential within accounts once the initial engagement lands.

• Nurture and qualify inbound and GTM Engineering-sourced leads through structured discovery, ensuring opportunities are properly scoped before investment of senior resource
• Run your own outbound prospecting into mid-market accounts across defined verticals, researching accounts, identifying the right contacts, and building pipeline from intent signals and network
• Manage the full sales cycle on mid-market opportunities from first meeting through to signed agreement (proposal, commercial discussion, procurement, and close)
• Work with technical leads and subject matter experts to produce accurate, credible proposals and statements of work
• Maintain rigorous CRM hygiene: every lead, every conversation, every next step logged and up to date
• Support the Senior Sales Executive on enterprise pursuits, coordinating stakeholder mapping, preparing materials, and managing follow-up
• Represent ControlPlane at industry and community events as the role develops
• Provide regular pipeline reporting and deal commentary to commercial leadership

Non-negotiable

• 1–3 years of experience in a commercial role (inside sales, account executive, SDR-to-close, or similar) where you have owned part or all of a sales cycle
• Genuine curiosity about technology and security - you do not need to be an engineer, but you need to want to understand what you are selling and why it matters; the SDLC, software supply chains, and cloud-native infrastructure are the problem space you will live in
• Diligence and follow-through: leads die through inaction; you are the kind of person who closes the loop, updates the CRM without being asked, and does not let deals drift
• Strong written and verbal communication: you can articulate a complex value proposition clearly to a technical buyer and adjust your register for a procurement conversation
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving, resource-lean environment. Scale-up energy, not corporate process dependence
• Commercial awareness: you understand margin, you can hold a price conversation, and you know when to escalate

Strongly preferred

• Experience selling professional services, consulting, or managed services (outcome-based selling rather than product pitching)
• Some familiarity with the software development lifecycle - CI/CD, pipelines, release processes, or DevOps concepts
• Exposure to regulated industries: financial services, fintech, insurance, or similar, even if not the primary vertical in your current role
• Familiarity with HubSpot or a comparable CRM and a track record of keeping it accurate
• An interest in open source software, cloud-native technology, or cybersecurity as a domain

• You will be selling into one of the fastest-moving corners of enterprise technology - software supply chain security, DevSecOps, and AI governance are all in the headlines and on CISO agendas
• Real earning potential early in your career: uncapped OTE and a commission structure that rewards performance, not tenure
• Direct exposure to senior commercial leadership: short management chain, genuine mentorship, and visibility into how a high-growth consultancy is built
• A technically credible team behind you: our engineers and consultants are contributors to the open source projects your prospects already depend on; you will not be selling vapour
• A clear progression path: this role is designed to develop into a senior enterprise sales position as ControlPlane scales
• The energy of a scale-up with the credibility of a firm operating at the highest levels of regulated industry security

If you are early in your commercial career and want to build real capability selling complex technology into demanding buyers rather than running a high-volume transactional desk, this is the role. The ceiling here is yours to set.

ControlPlane is a dynamic, cutting edge and passionate business for which to work. Our employees are the heart of our business, which means we care about our company culture and our employees’ wellbeing and progression. Alongside this, as our colleague you will have the following benefits:

• Generous and competitive salary + Uncapped Commission
• 33 days of paid holiday, including paid leave for the standard 8 UK Bank Holidays 
• Enhanced Parental Leave
• Private Medical insurance

NOTE FOR RECRUITMENT AGENCIES: Please do not call or email our team speculatively, we do not accept unsolicited CVs.