Sales Development Representative Lead

Our mission is to reinvent the way people learn, starting with language.

Learning a language can change a life by opening doors to new cultures, careers, and communities. Two billion people around the world are actively trying to learn a language, but the best way to learn (one-on-one tutoring) is hard to access at scale and hasn’t been meaningfully improved in decades. Speak is building a human-level, AI-powered tutor in your pocket: a conversation-first experience that lets learners actually speak, get instant feedback, and progress through carefully designed lessons. The result is a complete path from beginner to confident speaker across multiple languages.

Speak first launched in South Korea in 2019, where Speak has now become the number one language learning app, and we now serve learners across many markets and 15+ languages. Speak is one of the world’s leading AI companies, with over $150m raised in venture investment from OpenAI, Accel, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and more, with a distributed team across San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, and Ljubljana.

We are looking for a dynamic and experienced Sales Development Representative (SDR) Leader to build, manage and develop our Sales Development organization across Korea, Japan and Taiwan. This leader will oversee a team of SDRs responsible for inbound qualification, outbound lead generation and closing small-business transactions.

The ideal candidate is a strong coach, an operational thinker and a proven builder of scalable sales and opportunity qualification programs across multilingual, multicultural markets. You will ensure your team consistently generates high-quality pipeline, delivers an excellent prospect experience and supports the growth of our revenue in the APAC region.

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of SDRs across Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

• Provide day-to-day coaching on prospecting, qualification, objection handling, and closing small-business deals.

• Conduct regular 1:1s, pipeline reviews, and performance assessments.

• Foster a high-performance, data-driven culture with clear expectations and accountability.

• Own pipeline targets for the KR/JP/TW region, ensuring the team consistently meets or exceeds goals.

• Drive both inbound and outbound pipeline creation through strong execution and strategic planning.

• Partner closely with Sales, Marketing and RevOps to ensure alignment on pipeline needs and territory strategy.

• Optimize MQL and SQL conversion rates by identifying gaps, implementing improvements, and coaching best practices.

• Build scalable, repeatable processes for inbound lead management, outbound prospecting, and SMB closing motions.

• Standardize workflows, messaging, and tool usage across the team to ensure efficiency and consistency.

• Analyze team performance metrics to identify trends, diagnose issues, and prioritize operational improvements.

• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to refine automation, lead routing, and reporting.

• Work with Marketing to provide feedback on lead quality, campaign performance, and regional messaging.

• Partner with Sales to ensure seamless handoff of qualified opportunities and alignment on ICP, qualification criteria, and outreach strategies.

• Represent the SDR team in regional planning, forecasting, and strategy discussions.

• 3-5+ years of experience in leading Sales Development or Inside Sales teams.

• Proven success leading high-performance teams across multiple countries or languages.

• Experience in inbound lead qualification, outbound prospecting and SMB closing cycles.

• Strong understanding of sales tools (CRM, sequencing platforms, analytics tools).

• Ability to analyze data, identify insights, and implement improvements.

• Excellent communication and coaching skills; ability to motivate and inspire.

• English language fluency is required.

• Experience working in education technology or HR technologies a plus.

• A builder mindset — someone who enjoys creating processes, optimizing workflows, and operationalizing growth.

• A hands-on leader who can dive into calls, messaging, and deal support.

• A collaborative partner who thrives in a fast-moving, multicultural environment.

• Someone committed to developing people and elevating team performance.

1. Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing very quickly, we've most recently raised our Series C from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit in our initial markets. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company.

2. Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply.

3. Global in nature: We're live in over 40 countries and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, Seoul, and Tokyo, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel.

4. Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn, and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives.

Speak does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.