Full-Time

Sales Representative

Top Hat

Top Hat

201-500 employees

Campus-wide courseware enabling personalized learning

No salary listed

Lincoln, NE, USA + 1 more

More locations: Omaha, NE, USA

Hybrid

Remote within the Lincoln or Omaha areas; 40–50% campus travel required, rising to up to 75% during sales seasons.

Category
Sales & Account Management (1)
Required Skills
LLM
Sales
Cold Calling
CRM

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Requirements
  • At least 2 years of experience in a sales role.
  • A valid driver's license is required.
  • Ability to identify, drive, and close large or complex deals, prospect effectively, and run the full sales cycle, including cold calling, demonstrations, discovery, solution presentation, negotiation, and closing.
  • Experience working in a metrics-driven environment and remaining positive when facing common objections.
  • Ability to interpret and apply feedback and coaching quickly.
  • Ability to travel to campuses for in-person sales for 40–50% of the time, and up to 75% during sales seasons.
Responsibilities
  • Find, create, facilitate, and close new business opportunities in assigned accounts.
  • Represent and sell the full suite of Top Hat and approved partner products and services, including Top Hat's digital textbook content and software-as-a-service platform.
  • Position and communicate Top Hat's value proposition to professors or department leaders using inside and outside sales techniques.
  • Work closely with Customer Success Managers and internal product and marketing partners to ensure a strong customer experience for professors and maximize revenue growth.
  • Travel to campuses within the assigned territory to prospect professors.
Desired Qualifications
  • At least 2 years of sales experience, with experience selling to professors in person on campus highly preferred.

Top Hat provides a campus-wide education technology platform with courseware and classroom tools to help educators personalize learning and improve equity. Its offerings include Top Hat Pages for content personalization, interactive response tools for in-class engagement, and hundreds of fully editable textbooks. Educators customize materials, deploy activities in class, and scale across entire campuses, while students interact with digital content and questions. The platform stands out with a large editable library, ease of use, and a focus on scalable, equitable learning across courses and institutions.

Company Size

201-500

Company Stage

Series E

Total Funding

$234.9M

Headquarters

Toronto, Canada

Founded

2009

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • UW–Madison saved students over $1 million in 2026 while expanding active learning.
  • Indiana University reported an 11.5% withdrawal-rate decrease using Top Hat in 2024.
  • Title II deadlines in April 2026 drive demand for Ace's accessibility workflow.

What critics are saying

  • Top Hat lost CEO Joe Rohrlich and CRO Matt Schurk in January 2024, destabilizing execution.
  • August 2023 layoffs and 2024 headcount cuts signal pressure to self-fund growth.
  • Canvas, Kahoot!, and LMS incumbents squeeze Top Hat's classroom workflow ownership.

What makes Top Hat unique

  • Top Hat's January 2026 Wiley partnership embeds trusted textbooks inside interactive courseware.
  • Ace Content Enhancer targets April 2026 Title II compliance with accessibility automation.
  • OpenClass IP acquisition on July 24, 2025 deepens authentic assessment for CS courses.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Remote Work Options

Flexible Work Hours

Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

1%

2 year growth

0%
Top Hat
Jul 22nd, 2026
Top Hat earns spot on TIME's World's Top EdTech Companies 2026 list.

Top Hat earns spot on TIME's World's Top EdTech Companies 2026 list. July 22, 2026. Top Hat has been named one of TIME's World's Top EdTech Companies 2026, recognizing its leadership in helping educators create more engaging, evidence-based learning experiences through AI-powered innovation. TORONTO - July 22, 2026 - Top Hat, the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, today announced it has been named one of the World's Top EdTech Companies by TIME Magazine. The annual ranking, presented by TIME and Statista, recognizes the world's leading education technology companies based on both financial strength and industry impact. This year's evaluation assessed approximately 6,500 companies worldwide, with the top 500 earning recognition. This is the second time Top Hat has been recognized on TIME's annual World's Top EdTech Companies list, reflecting its continued commitment to innovation and educator success. "This recognition reflects something much bigger than Top Hat - it reflects the growing importance of technology in helping educators spark curiosity and critical thinking," said Maggie Leen, Chief Executive Officer at Top Hat. "We're committed to building tools that help students engage with ideas, develop their thinking and demonstrate the skills they'll carry with them long after graduation." Since 2009, Top Hat has empowered educators to create classrooms where learning is active, visible and engaging. Top Hat helps educators bring every class to life with interactive questions, discussions and activities that encourage participation while giving instructors real-time insight into student understanding. Together, these tools help institutions create richer learning experiences that improve engagement, strengthen outcomes and prepare students with the critical thinking skills they'll need to be successful in their careers. This approach closely aligns with the industry impact areas recognized by TIME and Statista, including learner-centered teaching, educational content, learning analytics, assessment, tutoring and testing and STEM education. Today, Top Hat is building on that legacy with Top Hat Ace, an AI-powered teaching assistant that saves educators time while reducing barriers to learning. Ace Content Enhancer instantly transforms static course materials into interactive, accessible learning experiences. Ace's chat-based study assistant and on-demand practice sessions give students course-specific support whenever they need it - all within the context of the materials their instructor has assigned. "The most powerful use of AI in education isn't generating answers. It's helping educators create learning experiences that are more personalized and more engaging for every student," said Hong Bui, Chief Product Officer at Top Hat. "With Top Hat Ace, educators spend less time creating and updating course materials and more time teaching. At the same time, every learner receives personalized support that encourages deeper thinking, consistent practice and lasting understanding." About Top Hat As the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, Top Hat enables educators to employ evidence-based teaching practices through interactive content, tools, and activities in in-person, online, and hybrid classroom environments. Thousands of faculty at 750 leading North American colleges and universities use Top Hat to create meaningful, engaging and accessible learning experiences for students before, during, and after class. To learn more, please visit tophat.com.

Leaders Fund
Dec 11th, 2025
Top Hat raises funding to transform university learning with modern platform and textbook marketplace

Leaders Fund has announced an investment in Top Hat, a platform modernising university education for professors and students. The company serves over 19 million students in the USA passing through higher education institutions annually. Top Hat is launching Top Hat Marketplace, an alternative to traditional textbook publishers where professors can publish, share and collaborate on course materials. The platform aims to reduce students' financial burden whilst transforming how educators author and adopt textbooks. Leaders Fund cited Top Hat's leadership team, led by CEO and founder Mike Silagadze, as a key factor in the investment decision. The firm believes Top Hat addresses younger students' expectations for modern technology in their learning experiences, similar to how consumerisation of IT transformed enterprise software.

Top Hat
Oct 28th, 2025
Top Hat Unveils AI-Powered Content Enhancer to Accelerate Title II Accessibility Compliance in Higher Ed

Top Hat unveils ai-powered Content Enhancer to accelerate Title II accessibility compliance in higher ed. New capabilities in Top Hat Ace enable educators to quickly and easily transform static course materials into accessible, interactive content. TORONTO - october 28, 2025 - Top Hat, the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, today announced the launch of a powerful new accessibility tool in its AI-powered assistant, Ace. Ace Content Enhancer gives faculty the ability to upload existing course materials into Top Hat and receive actionable guidance to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards with minimal effort. Following the U.S. Department of Justice's 2024 Title II ruling, public colleges and universities must ensure all digital content meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards as early as April 2026, depending on institution size. But for most professors, the path to compliance is anything but clear. The rules are highly technical, and without dedicated time or training, it can be challenging to ensure materials are fully compliant. Ace Content Enhancer removes this burden by scanning materials in Top Hat in seconds, identifying issues, and providing recommendations to help content meet the standards for accessibility outlined under Title II. "We're helping educators meet this moment by simplifying compliance and making it easier to create learning experiences that serve all students," said Maggie Leen, CEO of Top Hat. "More than meeting a mandate, this is an opportunity to create content that's more engaging, and ultimately more effective in supporting student success." A faster, simpler path to compliant courseware. With Ace's AI-powered Content Enhancer, faculty can: * Scan materials for accessibility issues instantly. Uploaded or existing content in Top Hat is analyzed in seconds, with specific accessibility concerns in text and images flagged for quick review. * Remediate with ease. Recommendations and features like auto-generated alt-text remove guesswork and save time. * Improve clarity for all learners. Suggested tone helps make content easier to understand and more effective. * Make content more relevant. Use Ace to generate real-world examples tailored to students' interests, academic goals, or backgrounds to boost engagement. * Reinforce learning through practice. Ace will suggest interactive, low-stakes questions to deepen understanding and support active learning. "Educators retain full control of their content, while Ace eliminates the guesswork, making accessibility improvements fast, intuitive, and aligned with instructional goals," said Hong Bui, Chief Product Officer at Top Hat. "We're providing a guided path forward so that accessibility doesn't come at the expense of interactivity, creativity, or sound pedagogy." The launch of Ace Content Enhancer reflects Top Hat's broader commitment to accessibility. It builds on existing capabilities - like automatic transcription of slide content - and reinforces the company's focus on ensuring all student-facing tools and experiences, across web and mobile, meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards, including readings, assessments, and interactive content. As the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, Top Hat enables educators to employ evidence-based teaching practices through interactive content, tools, and activities in in-person, online and hybrid classroom environments. Thousands of faculty at more than 1,500 North American colleges and universities use Top Hat to create personalized, engaging and accessible learning experiences for students before, during, and after class. To learn more, please visit tophat.com.

Top Hat
Oct 22nd, 2024
Indiana University Faculty Who Focus on Student Engagement Using Top Hat See 11.5% Decrease in Student Withdrawal Rate

TORONTO - October 22, 2024 - Top Hat, a leading provider of student engagement solutions for higher education, has released the first significant finding in an ongoing research initiative with Indiana University exploring the impact of student engagement leveraging Top Hat on retention and academic outcomes.

Top Hat
May 1st, 2024
Time Magazine Names Top Hat One of the World's Top EdTech Companies

TORONTO - May 1, 2024 - Top Hat, the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, has been recognized as one of the World's Top EdTech Companies by Time Magazine.