Sales & Client Engagement Director

About us

Constructor Labs is the research arm of Constructor Knowledge, based at Campus Ring 1 in Bremen, Germany. Our work is organized around three units: Knowledge Labs, Cyber Labs and Science Labs. We apply computing, software and robotics research to make scientists, teachers and students more effective, working with institutional partners that include CERN, NUS, Carnegie Mellon and Fraunhofer.

Our EdTech practice produces research that runs in production. AI-supported remote proctoring is in use at the Irish Aviation Authority, Princess Nourah University and Saudi Electronic University, and our course delivery platform is used by CERN, EPFL, MariaDB and Acronis. For industry clients, we build tailored BSc, MSc and PhD pipelines, L&D operating models, AI upskilling programmes and customer training systems.

Constructor Labs Solutions (CLS) is our client-facing systems integrator for the education and research sector, launching in September 2026. It brings audit and consultancy, content, platform, talent and R&D services together under a single contract, an offer few providers make to education buyers today. Delivery is orchestrated across several Constructor organizations: CUB, Nexford, Nexademy, EBAC, Constructor Labs and Constructor Tech. Our aim is to become the go-to systems integrator for education in EMEA by 2029.

The role

You will open EMEA markets for Constructor Labs Solutions as a quota-carrying individual contributor. The role rests on an established network among universities, online education providers, EdTech vendors and corporate L&D and research buyers, and on your ability to convert that network into signed engagements.

You will work with the marketing and delivery teams to build pipeline, establish the CLS brand and develop a case-study library. Supporting you are a credible research institution, named production references, an existing Constructor and Constructor Tech client base, and delivery capability across five service lines that can be combined into a single proposal.

The sales motion is consultative. Engagements typically open with a low-risk paid diagnostic (Technology Landscape Assessment, Curriculum Gap Analysis or Learning Strategy Advisory), which you then convert into a multi-line implementation or managed-service mandate. Initial engagements start at around €150–250K in lifetime value and grow from there. Sales cycles in public higher education run six to twelve months, so you will manage a long-cycle institutional funnel alongside faster corporate L&D deals.

Reporting and scope

• Reports to: Director of Sales & Marketing, Constructor Labs Solutions (shared with the Constructor Labs GM during Phase 1).
• Level: Director, individual contributor. You will join an established sales team.
• Territory: EMEA, with initial focus on DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and the UK and Ireland. Named accounts agreed quarterly.
• Segments: traditional and online universities, EdTech providers and platform vendors, corporate L&D and corporate academies, research-intensive organizations, and publicly funded research programmes.
• Portfolio: all five CLS service lines, namely Audit & Consultancy, Content, Platform, Talent and R&D Services.

Day-to-day, you will work with the Audit & Consultancy Practice Head on scoping, with Nexademy on content propositions, with Constructor Tech on platform architecture, and with the Labs' principal investigators, who join client conversations to provide subject-matter credibility. Knowing which expert belongs in which conversation is central to the role.

What you will do

• Pipeline generation. Around 70% of your time is spent on outbound activity: your own network, conference presence, sector associations, procurement frameworks and targeted account campaigns, supported by marketing.
• Reference accounts. Sign the first reference clients in EMEA and develop each one into a published case study, an active sponsor and a source of introductions.
• Discovery and scoping. Map the client's learning or research operating model and quantify the problem in their own measures: cost per course, time to accreditation, completion rates, time-to-hire, research throughput. Shape a diagnostic that leads to a defined follow-on engagement.
• Conversion to implementation. Own the transition from paid diagnostic to multi-line mandate, with a target of converting half of all audit engagements.
• Proposals and bids. Assemble proposals across the five service lines with the practice heads, price them against the finance model and qualify them against margin floors. Lead RFP and framework responses, including public-sector tenders in Germany and the UK.
• Stakeholder coverage. Engage rectors, deans, CIOs, heads of digital learning, procurement, works councils, CLOs, HR directors and research directors. Maintain at least three engaged contacts on every opportunity above €200K.
• Partner channel. Recruit and manage regional partners, resellers, agencies and academic networks that extend reach beyond your direct coverage.
• Quota and forecasting. You carry an annual new-business quota, with quarterly KPIs covering pipeline coverage, audit conversion, average engagement value and blended margin. Maintain weekly pipeline hygiene in the CRM, submit a forecast you can defend, and flag slippage as soon as you see it.
• Market feedback. Report what EMEA buyers procure and what they decline, and how our pricing compares with Instructure, D2L, Cornerstone and the generalist integrators, so that the service catalogue can be adjusted.
• External representation. Speak at sector events and contribute to thought leadership alongside our principal investigators, building recognition for CLS among education buyers in your region.

Targets and KPIs

The role carries a quota set on net-new signed bookings (total contract value) in your territory, with a six-month ramp and a quarterly review:

• Net-new signed bookings (TCV)
• Reference clients signed
• Average engagement value
• Audit-to-implementation conversion
• Blended gross margin on signed work
• New qualified opportunities created
• Forecast accuracy

What you bring

• Network in the sector. Eight or more years selling into education, research or corporate learning in EMEA, preferably DACH and/or the UK, with decision-maker relationships you can open within the first 90 days. You should be prepared to discuss your top 15 target accounts and the route into each.
• A closing record in complex services. Consistent achievement against a quota of €1M or more in professional services, consulting, systems integration or enterprise EdTech, covering six-figure deals, multi-stakeholder buying groups and six- to twelve-month cycles.
• Consultative selling. Experience selling scoped engagements whose deliverables were defined jointly with the client, and fluency in a recognized methodology such as MEDDIC, Challenger or Command of the Message.
• Domain credibility. The ability to hold a substantive conversation with a pro-vice-chancellor about digitalization, a CLO about competency frameworks or a research director about co-funded projects, together with a working understanding of how universities and research organizations buy: budget cycles, committee approval, procurement frameworks and public tender rules.
• Comfort in an early-stage unit. Experience building a territory or a new offering from a standing start, and the ability to sell a service catalogue that is still being completed.
• Languages. Business-fluent German and English. Both are required, since public education buyers in DACH contract in German.
• Commercial discipline. Rigorous CRM and forecasting practice, and a readiness to qualify out early rather than carry unlikely deals.
• Professional integrity. You will represent a research institution to universities and public bodies, so commitments made during the sales process must be ones delivery can meet.

Nice to have

• Experience selling into publicly funded research programmes, or EU and national grant-co-funded projects (Horizon Europe, Innovate UK, BMBF).
• Working knowledge of the LMS/SIS landscape and its incumbents — Instructure, D2L, Cornerstone, Moodle, SAP SuccessFactors.
• Experience with UK public procurement frameworks (Crown Commercial Service, JISC) or German public tendering (VgV, e-Vergabe).
• Background in the education practice of a systems integrator, Big Four firm or consultancy.
• Prior success selling talent, recruitment or academic content services.
• French, Italian or Dutch as a third language.
• An existing speaking profile in the education or L&D community.

Location and travel

Candidates must be based in Europe and hold an existing, unrestricted right to work in their country of residence. Relocation is not offered for this position: the network the role depends on should already be in the market.

Preferred bases are Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria or the UK. The role is remote or hybrid, with regular time in Bremen and at the London commercial hub. Expect travel of up to 40% within EMEA for client meetings, tenders and sector events, plus occasional travel to other Constructor locations.

What we offer

• Base salary and commission, weighted approximately 60/40 at on-target earnings, with accelerators above 100% of quota. The band is competitive for a Director-level individual contributor in DACH or the UK and depends on location and experience.
• A guaranteed ramp across the first two quarters while the pipeline is built.
• Commission on margin as well as revenue, so that well-scoped work is rewarded ahead of discounted work.
• Access to our researchers, including principal investigators, CERN-level data scientists, and education methodologists who will join your client meetings.
• An existing reference base, including named proctoring and platform deployments.
• Influence over the offering. As the key commercial voice in these markets, you will shape a service catalogue that is not yet fixed.