T

Toptal

Marketplace connecting businesses to top freelancers

General Manager - Small & Medium Business

Full-TimePosted on 10/17/2026
No salary listed
Expert
Bachelor's, Master's, MBA
Remote in Canada
Remote
Business & Strategy

About the job

Requirements
  • A bachelor's degree is required.
  • At least 12 years of B2B commercial experience, including SaaS or services sales, with a sustained record of scaling high-volume sales to small and medium-sized businesses and demonstrable personal contribution to growth and improved commercial performance.
  • At least 5 years leading sales and account management teams, including managing managers, building teams, setting performance standards, improving results through coaching, addressing underperformance, and developing future leaders.
  • Experience leading both new-client acquisition and account management, with evidence of improving conversion, retention, and expansion.
  • Demonstrated accountability for commercial results and resource decisions, including explaining how choices about pricing, staffing, investment, and client coverage affected revenue and profitability.
  • Experience building outbound sales and working with Marketing and Sales Development on targeted campaigns that produce measurable revenue.
  • Experience activating commercial partnerships and turning partner relationships into qualified opportunities and revenue.
  • Strong analytical judgment, including tracing performance problems through the sales process, testing competing explanations, and determining whether changes produced meaningful improvement.
  • Ability to improve a high-volume sales operation while introducing new offerings or ways of selling without losing control of daily execution.
  • Sufficient fluency in technology, artificial intelligence, and services delivery to discuss client priorities, evaluate commercial opportunities, and recognize when specialist expertise is needed.
  • Clear, persuasive written and verbal communication, including explaining the business, making investment cases, and giving teams specific direction.
  • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including proposals and presentations.
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced, rapidly growing company and handle varied challenges, deadlines, and a diverse range of contacts.
  • Regular or periodic travel to meet and engage with Toptal clients and customers inside and outside the candidate's geographic location.
  • A world-class individual contributor mindset is required to thrive at Toptal; the person should contribute directly rather than only directing others.
Responsibilities
  • Set and execute the SMB strategy by identifying client needs, offerings, and sales approaches with the strongest growth potential; build a business plan with clear financial objectives, priorities, and investment choices; strengthen the existing talent business while developing additional growth sources.
  • Own the P&L and budget; be accountable for revenue, profitability, and spending; understand how conversion, retention, pricing, offering mix, and client acquisition and service costs affect results; allocate resources, evaluate returns, and act when performance diverges from plan.
  • Improve conversion from first contact to first engagement by setting standards for response speed, discovery, qualification, and closing; ensure sellers retain ownership while specialists resolve technical questions and clients progress through the buying process; identify and address causes of lost momentum.
  • Grow and retain the client base by creating an account management approach matched to client needs and potential; expect proactive conversations about upcoming work, engagement outcomes, and opportunities to expand work with Toptal; address reasons clients leave and develop ways to earn repeat business.
  • Grow outbound sales into a repeatable revenue source; work with Marketing, Sales Development, and Enterprise industry teams to select target clients, develop propositions, and run coordinated campaigns; use industry insight and client experience to sharpen targeting and assess conversion, revenue, and acquisition economics.
  • Build partnerships that generate qualified demand and new SMB revenue; identify and recruit partners, equip them to sell with Toptal, develop joint plans with clear opportunity ownership, turn relationships into referral, co-selling, or resale motions, and invest in partnerships that produce profitable growth.
  • Expand adoption of services and AI-based solutions by helping sellers identify needs beyond individual talent requests; work with Services leaders and specialists to develop propositions, bring expertise into client conversations, close business, and build the team's ability to sell broader solutions while advancing the immediate client need.
  • Build a high-performing sales organization by recruiting managers and sellers, setting expectations, establishing daily and weekly performance-management rhythms, holding managers accountable for call quality, conversion, productivity, and results, reviewing and demonstrating coaching approaches, recognizing strong performance, and addressing underperformance promptly.
  • Plan staffing and coverage around demand, response expectations, active opportunities, and account needs; assign clear ownership and workable client portfolios; coordinate with Operations, Matching, and Delivery to preserve context during transitions and keep clients moving forward.
  • Establish reliable reporting on acquisition, engagement starts, retention, expansion, seller productivity, and financial performance; build forecasts suited to SMB sales speed and volume; test changes against baselines, distinguish temporary movement from sustained improvement, and use technology and AI to improve execution.
  • During the first week, learn Toptal's business model, capabilities, SMB sales process, and client value proposition; meet the leadership team and supporting functions; listen to client calls and begin reviewing the funnel, client portfolio, P&L, budget, and team performance.
  • During the first month, assess where SMB wins and loses momentum and what limits growth; assess leaders and teams, coaching, performance, capacity, and hiring priorities; establish commercial review, forecasting, financial management, and coaching rhythms; present a proposed SMB business plan with campaigns, partnership opportunities, financial assumptions, and investment choices.
  • During the first three months, execute an agreed business plan with clear objectives, resource allocations, and ownership; implement initial conversion and retention improvements with baselines; run targeted outbound campaigns and activate initial partner opportunities; make initial talent and leadership decisions.
  • During the first six months, demonstrate measurable progress in revenue, profitability, conversion, and retention; show that coaching and performance management improve seller and manager effectiveness; demonstrate early commercial results from outbound campaigns and partners; manage the P&L against budget and address material variances.
  • During the first year, deliver agreed SMB revenue, profitability, and budget objectives; build a stronger leadership team with accountability, coaching, and consistent execution; sustain improvement in client acquisition, retention, and growth, including broader use of Toptal's capabilities; establish outbound sales and partnerships as measurable growth contributors with a scaling plan.
Desired Qualifications
  • An MBA or a master's degree in engineering, computer science, physics, or mathematics.

About the company

Toptal is a global freelance marketplace that connects businesses with vetted professionals in software engineering, design, finance, project management, and product management. It works by screening applicants and accepting a small fraction (about the top 3%), then matching clients with freelancers through flexible engagement models such as managed delivery, consulting, or full-team placements. Clients pay a premium on top of freelancers’ rates, and Toptal earns revenue from this markup. The company emphasizes remote, distributed talent sourcing, allowing it to fill client needs from anywhere in the world. Its goal is to provide reliable, high-quality on-demand expertise to startups and enterprises alike, enabling teams to scale quickly without geographic constraints.

Company Size

5,001-10,000

Company Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$1.4M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2010

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Toptal announced QO Collective on June 18, 2026, adding management consulting clients and consultants.
  • Toptal announced Adeva on May 26, 2026, deepening enterprise software-engineering supply.
  • Revelio Labs shows 857 active job postings in 2026, signaling continued operating demand.

What critics are saying

  • Toptal sued former COO Breanden Beneschott in September 2026, signaling internal dispute escalation.
  • The Andela trade-secret case and Bloomberg litigation keep distracting management and exposing methods.
  • Revelio Labs shows headcount fell to 3,541 in March 2026, while AI talent brokers commoditize hiring.

What makes Toptal unique

  • Toptal's 2026 acquisitions of Adeva, Graphite, NSI, and QO Collective broaden consulting depth.
  • Its screening-and-match model still sells vetted senior freelancers faster than open marketplaces.
  • The 2026 remote-first operating model supports global sourcing across time zones and specialties.

Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?

Benefits

  • Remote Work Options
  • Flexible Work Hours
  • Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

-3%
Newswire
Oct 13th, 2026
Toptal launches ExpertCrowd to train AI with vetted domain experts, releases frontier SWE benchmark.

Toptal launches ExpertCrowd to train AI with vetted domain experts, releases frontier SWE benchmark. Oct 13, 2026, 12:00 ET SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 13, 2026 /CNW/ - Toptal, the world's largest talent network of highly skilled domain experts, today announced the launch of ExpertCrowd, a platform for training and improving AI models and systems through RLHF, RL data generation, data labeling, and model evaluation. ExpertCrowd combines its advanced platform for AI model development and testing with Toptal's global network of specialized talent to help frontier AI labs, innovative enterprises, and fast-growing startups build more accurate and capable AI models and systems. The platform enables organizations to move beyond generalized crowdsourcing and data annotation and apply highly specialized human judgment to develop and improve AI applications and models across industries including financial services, healthcare, legal, biotechnology, cybersecurity, and more. ExpertCrowd is powered by Toptal's global talent network, with more than 30,000 specialized domain experts across 140+ countries, including more than 2,000 AI and big data specialists, 12,000 professionals with advanced degrees, and 1,000 PhD-level AI specialists, available on demand. ExpertCrowd matches thousands of specialized experts to AI alignment and training projects instantaneously, enabling organizations to rapidly scale such projects with confidence. Its AI-driven sourcing engine was developed in-house by Toptal's AI research team, composed of more than a dozen PhDs and researchers from leading institutions such as Harvard, EPFL, and the University of Liège, using 15 years of Toptal's proprietary data in sourcing, screening, and matching highly skilled domain experts. Offering multimodal annotation with customizable workflows and live project tracking, ExpertCrowd provides real-time progress updates as domain experts do the actual work. AI researchers applying GRPO, PPO, and other RL techniques have leveraged ExpertCrowd's platform to further the development of their AI models and systems. Prior to today's official launch, ExpertCrowd generated over $5 million in recurring revenue from work with frontier and neo labs, as well as companies including Scale AI, Sterling Labs, Vetto, and other innovative startups that service frontier labs. As part of the launch, ExpertCrowd has developed and published the ExpertCrowd-SWE benchmark, which evaluates SOTA AI coding agents on previously unseen issues. The ExpertCrowd-SWE benchmark exposes the most significant deficiencies in model capability relative to any other currently published SWE benchmark. ExpertCrowd-SWE spans 87 codebases in 11 programming languages. Engineers from Toptal's talent network led the development of this benchmark and authored every task as well as each grading rubric. Researchers, including several PhDs in various areas of artificial intelligence from Toptal's AI team, reviewed and assessed the benchmark's methodology and results. "The fact that our SWE benchmark results expose the most deficiencies relative to any other published benchmark on leading models such as Opus 5.5 and Fable 5.1 demonstrates our ability to push frontier AI forward," said Taso Du Val, founder and CEO of Toptal. "Developing frontier AI models requires more than just powerful compute. It requires specialized human expertise to train, evaluate, and continuously improve these models. ExpertCrowd brings together the technology and domain expertise required to build and train AI models and systems for executing complex, real-world tasks with precision." About Toptal Toptal is the world's largest talent network of highly skilled domain experts, connecting businesses with the top 3% of freelance talent on demand. Toptal was ranked the #1 Most Reliable Professional Services Company in America by Newsweek and Statista, based on an independent survey of more than 2,400 decision-makers at Fortune 500s. Founded in 2010, Toptal has served more than 35,000 clients across more than 140 countries. For more information, please visit Toptal.com. SOURCE Toptal

PR Newswire
Oct 13th, 2026
Toptal launches ExpertCrowd to train AI with 30,000 experts, posting $5M recurring revenue

Toptal, a network of freelance domain experts, has launched ExpertCrowd, a platform that trains and improves AI models using vetted specialists. It supports reinforcement learning from human feedback, data labelling, and model evaluation for AI labs, enterprises, and startups. ExpertCrowd draws on more than 30,000 experts in over 140 countries, including 1,000 PhD-level AI specialists. Before launch, it generated over $5 million in recurring revenue from clients including Scale AI, Sterling Labs, and Vetto. The company also published the ExpertCrowd-SWE benchmark, which tests AI coding agents on unseen issues across 87 codebases and 11 programming languages. Toptal says it exposes more model deficiencies than any other published software engineering benchmark. "Developing frontier AI models requires more than just powerful compute," said chief executive officer Taso Du Val.

Today in New York
Sep 18th, 2026
Developers marketplace Lemon.io starts offering end-to-end services.

Developers marketplace Lemon.io starts offering end-to-end services. Lemon.io expands beyond developer matching into fully managed software delivery, helping companies access senior tech talent and end-to-end project support. NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ - Lemon.io, a curated tech talent marketplace that has connected startups and SMB companies with vetted engineers since 2015, has expanded its offering beyond developer matching into one-stop tech project delivery. The extended offering now covers everything from individual developer hiring and staff augmentation to fully managed software, MVP, and AI development projects. Leading the launch are three flagship services for founders and product teams that need more end-to-end support: software development, building MVPs, and AI development. Rather than simply matching clients with individual developers, these services bring together a dedicated team tailored to each product, with a dedicated product manager serving as the main point of contact and coordinating the developers and additional specialists the project requires. Software Development: A PM-Led Team in 24-48 Hours Through its new software development service, Lemon.io pairs clients with a delivery lead/project manager and a team of vetted senior developers - sourced specifically for the project within 24 to 48 business hours. The model is built for teams at capacity, companies with frozen headcount, and founders without a CTO who need to keep critical work moving. The custom software development service also supports cross-functional initiatives - from payments to AI and mobile - without the fixed overhead of building an in-house team. Lemon.io reports a 30% improvement in delivery speed across recent engagements and currently holds a 4.8-star rating on G2 across 291 reviews. MVP Development: From Idea to Launch in Under Three Months For early-stage founders, Lemon.io's MVP software development service helps turn an idea into a testable product in around two to three months. Each project starts with a dedicated product manager who scopes the MVP, identifies the core user journey, and prioritizes the features needed to validate the idea. Where there are technical or product uncertainties, the team can prototype and test them before development begins, helping prevent unnecessary scope from slowing the launch. Lemon.io then assembles a senior team around the product's specific needs, bringing in developers and additional specialists as required. The typical scoping phase takes one to two weeks, with MVP development taking around two to three months from kickoff to release. Costs typically range from $16,000-$25,000 for a basic MVP, while more complex products in areas such as fintech, health tech, or AI can reach $40,000-$60,000+ depending on their technical and security requirements. AI Development: Senior AI Engineers Fully Managed End-to-End Lemon.io's AI development service gives companies access to its network of more than 1,500 senior AI engineers - specialists in machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, generative AI, and AI agents - all coordinated by a single delivery manager with an AI engineering background. Clients share their goal and data, receive a scope and budget within roughly 24 hours, and are matched with a working proof of concept in two to six weeks, or a production-ready system in two to four months. Engineers on the AI team bill at $40 to $90 per hour, well below typical U.S. market rates of $150 to $250 per hour for comparable seniority, and every engagement includes documentation so clients can continue development in-house. "We've always focused on giving companies access to exceptional technical talent. But great developers are only one part of successfully building a product. With managed delivery, we're adding the product and leadership needed to bring that talent together around a clear goal, keep the project on track, and take it through to launch," said Aleksandr Volodarsky, CEO of Lemon.io. The move addresses a need Lemon.io has seen among its customers: companies without a CTO or technical co-founder often need more than access to talent - they need clear scope, accountability, and someone to lead delivery. Clients explain what they need, and the dedicated product manager from Lemon.io defines the scope, budget, and team required to deliver it. Once the scope is agreed, Lemon.io takes full ownership of delivery. The expansion comes as the developer marketplace category continues to consolidate. Arc.dev, which operates alongside Codementor, is now owned by Toptal, according to Arc's published privacy policy. Lemon.io is taking a different approach, expanding beyond talent matching to provide product and delivery leadership alongside its existing developer network. Denys Velykozhon Lemon.io [email protected] Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. Today in New York do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.

AppSumo
Jul 15th, 2026
Payoneer review: the ultimate guide to global payments and cross-border transfers.

Payoneer review: the ultimate guide to global payments and cross-border transfers. Struggling with high wire fees and slow international transfers? Discover how Payoneer simplifies cross-border payments, provides multi-currency accounts, and helps freelancers and businesses scale globally. The modern digital economy has completely erased geographical barriers. Today, a developer in Vietnam can write code for a startup in San Francisco, an e-commerce seller in London can source products from manufacturers in Shenzhen, and a freelancer in Buenos Aires can provide design assets to a marketing agency in Sydney. However, while talent and markets have gone global, traditional banking infrastructure has largely remained local and sluggish. For decades, international money transfers have been defined by extortionate currency exchange markups, hidden intermediary bank fees, and processing times that stretch across multiple business days. Payoneer was built to solve this exact structural failure. By establishing a localized global banking network in the cloud, Payoneer bridges the gap between international clients and local beneficiaries. In this review, AppsuMore examine how Payoneer's ecosystem operates, how it addresses the primary friction points of cross-border trade, and whether it is the right financial partner for your business or freelance career. The friction of traditional cross-border banking. If you have ever attempted to receive a wire transfer from a foreign client using a traditional brick-and-mortar bank, you are likely familiar with the frustration: * The Intermediary Fee Maze: A standard international wire often passes through two or three intermediary banks before reaching your account. Each bank takes a cut, meaning the amount that arrives is mysteriously lower than what your client sent. * Unfavorable Exchange Rates: Traditional banks routinely slap a 3% to 5% markup on mid-market exchange rates, quietly draining a significant percentage of your earnings. * Slow Settlement Times: International wire transfers can take anywhere from 3 to 7 business days to clear, creating cash flow bottlenecks for freelancers and growing businesses. How Payoneer streamlines global payments. Payoneer bypasses the traditional SWIFT wire network by operating its own closed-loop financial infrastructure. Instead of sending money across international borders every time a transaction occurs, Payoneer maintains local receiving accounts in major financial hubs (such as the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia, and Singapore). 1. The Power of "Virtual Receiving Accounts" When you open a Payoneer account, you are issued local receiving accounts in major currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, JPY, etc.). * How it works for a freelancer: If you have a client in the United States, they can pay you via a local ACH transfer or US bank wire directly into your US Payoneer receiving account. To your client, it looks like paying a domestic contractor. To you, the funds land in your account quickly and without international wire fees. 2. Tailored Solutions for Freelancers and Marketplaces Payoneer has deep native integrations with the world's largest freelance marketplaces and remote work platforms, including Upwork, Fiverr, and Toptal. Instead of waiting days for platform payouts, you can route your earnings instantly into Payoneer, where you can then withdraw them to your local bank account in your local currency. 3. Business-to-Business (B2B) Billing Service For digital agencies, consultants, and productized service providers, Payoneer allows you to issue professional digital invoices directly to international clients. Clients can pay these invoices securely via credit card, local bank transfer, or direct debit, making the payment experience as frictionless for them as paying a local vendor. Security and compliance: can you trust Payoneer? When dealing with cross-border finance, security is paramount. Payoneer is a regulated financial services company that adheres to strict international compliance standards. * Regulatory Compliance: Payoneer is a Licensed Money Transmitter in the United States and is regulated under relevant electronic money regulations in the European Union and the UK. * Data Protection: The platform utilizes advanced encryption protocols, two-factor authentication (2FA), and rigorous fraud-monitoring algorithms to ensure that your funds and personal information remain secure against unauthorized access. Evaluating the cost structure. Transparency in pricing is one of Payoneer's primary selling points, though users must understand how the fees apply to their specific workflow: * Receiving Funds: Receiving funds from another Payoneer user is typically free. Receiving funds via local bank transfers (like US ACH) is often free or very low cost. * Withdrawing to Local Banks: When you transfer funds from your Payoneer balance to your local bank account, Payoneer applies a competitive currency conversion fee (which is generally much lower than traditional bank markups). * Card Fees: If you order and use the Payoneer physical or virtual Mastercard for business expenses, standard maintenance or ATM withdrawal fees may apply. Frequently asked questions (faqs). What is a Payoneer receiving account? A Payoneer receiving account is a virtual bank account issued in major global currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.) in your name. It allows you to receive local payments from clients or marketplaces abroad as if you had a physical bank account in that country. How long do withdrawals take with Payoneer? Withdrawing funds from your Payoneer balance to your local bank account typically takes anywhere from a few hours to 2 business days, depending on your local banking infrastructure and the currency involved. Can I use Payoneer to pay my own international contractors or suppliers? Yes. Payoneer features a "Make a Payment" service that allows you to send funds directly from your Payoneer balance to another Payoneer user anywhere in the world for free, or to a global bank account for a low fee. Does Payoneer provide a debit card? Yes, eligible users can order a Payoneer Mastercard, which allows you to spend your multi-currency balance online, in stores, or at ATMs worldwide wherever Mastercard is accepted. Are there any sign-up bonuses available? Payoneer frequently runs referral and sign-up promotions for new users who hit specific receiving thresholds. Checking their official sign-up channels or partner links is the best way to see active promotional offers. Conclusion: take command of your cross-border finance. The global economy offers endless opportunities for remote workers, freelancers, and businesses, but those opportunities should not be choked out by antiquated, expensive banking systems. Payoneer replaces the friction of international wires with a streamlined, multi-currency ecosystem designed for the modern borderless professional. By minimizing conversion markups, accelerating transfer times, and providing secure local receiving accounts, Payoneer empowers you to treat the entire world as your local market. Ready to streamline your cross-border finances? Sign up for Payoneer today and take control of your global revenue.

AIM Group
Jun 26th, 2026
Toptal acquires management consulting network QO Collective

Toptal acquires management consulting network QO Collective June 26, 2026 by Bill Boorman