Sales Enablement Leader at Canonical - Remote EMEA — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
Canonical is one of the most nomad-friendly employers in tech, having operated a fully distributed model since 2004. This Sales Enablement leader role is EMEA-based remote, meaning you need to be available within EMEA time zones — roughly UTC-1 to UTC+4 — but there's no requirement to be in a specific city or country.
Timezone flexibility: EMEA hours are broadly compatible with popular nomad hubs. Cities like Lisbon (UTC+0/+1), Tbilisi (UTC+4), and Budapest (UTC+1) all fall comfortably within range. You could equally work from Cape Town (UTC+2) or Tallinn (UTC+3) without missing a beat.
Visa considerations: Portugal's Digital Nomad Visa, Georgia's Remotely from Georgia program, and Estonia's Digital Nomad Visa are all strong fits for this role. Most EU countries also offer freelancer or self-employment visas that suit long-term stays.
Travel perks worth noting:
- Priority Pass membership and travel upgrades for long-haul company events — a meaningful perk for frequent flyers
- Twice-yearly in-person "sprint" weeks in interesting global locations — travel is baked into the culture
- USD 2,000 annual learning budget can partially support conference travel
Without a published salary, cost-of-living comparisons are difficult to pin down precisely. However, Canonical's global compensation model adjusts for location — meaning your purchasing power could stretch significantly further in lower-cost EMEA cities like Kyiv, Sarajevo, or Lisbon compared to London or Zürich.
Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is very widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT. Our customers include the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders in many sectors. The company is a pioneer of global distributed collaboration, with 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office-based roles. Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.
The company is founder-led, profitable, and growing.
We are hiring a Sales Enablement leader to architect the growth journey for our global sales organization. At Canonical, sales enablement isn't just about onboarding; it's about ensuring our teams can articulate the complex value of Ubuntu, OpenStack, and AI infrastructure to the world's most sophisticated tech leaders. You will act as a trusted partner to identify, scope, and implement tooling and workflow improvements that drive efficiency and reduce friction in the sales process. You will sit at the intersection of Product, Marketing, and Sales, transforming high-level strategy into actionable field excellence.
If you are an experienced leader ready to lead global strategy, you will find a high-performance environment that challenges you. You will work with Sales Leadership to identify performance gaps, reduce ramp time, improve productivity and increase win rates. This is a high-visibility role where you will ensure our "distributed-first" workforce remains the sharpest in the industry.
Location: These are EMEA-based remote roles.
The role entails
- Lead enablement programs to drive continuous improvement in sales productivity and ramp time
- Lead the design and execution of global sales enablement strategies to drive revenue growth
- Provide coaching and mentoring that incorporates sales strategy, process and proven sales methodology
- Drive the creation of advanced sales plays and competitive intelligence resources for enterprise markets
- Collaborate and align cross-functionally with Sales, Revenue Operations, Product, Marketing, and all GTM teams to ensure enablement strategy supports broader organizational objectives
- Own the end-to-end sales onboarding experience, ensuring new hires reach peak productivity rapidly
- Identify and deliver training needs for Sales teams for continuous improvements
- Collaborate with Product Management and Marketing to translate technical roadmaps into value-based sales narratives
- Manage the sales enablement tech stack (CRM, LMS, etc.) to ensure tools are optimizing, not hindering, the sales process through right-time right-place delivery
- Provide a framework to relevant teams to develop and maintain high-quality sales assets, including discovery guides, pitch decks, and battlecards
- Facilitate live and virtual training sessions on advanced product features and sales techniques
- Coordinate the logistics for global sales training events and twice-yearly "sprint" weeks
- Monitor, report and act on the adoption and effectiveness of enablement initiatives using data-driven insights
- Support the senior team in preparing reports for leadership and auditing sales documentation for accuracy
What we are looking for in you
- Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
- Demonstrated experience coaching sales leaders and diagnosing business challenges to drive organizational improvement
- Proficiency in a modern sales methodology such as MEDDPICC – able to coach leaders and sellers using this methodology
- Ability to align and influence others, establish direction, achieve consensus, and execute
- Experience building enablement programs from the ground up in emerging or high-growth markets
- Track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
- Leadership and commitment to skills development and mentorship
- Passion for technology evidenced by personal projects and initiatives
- Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
- Appreciative of diversity and effective in a multi-cultural, multi-national organization
- Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments
- Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long
Nice-to-have skills
- Experience in sales enablement, technical training, or sales operations (level-dependent)
- Proficiency with Salesforce, modern LMS platforms and project management tools (e.g. Jira)
- Basic knowledge of cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
What we offer colleagues
We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide. We revisit compensation annually (and more often for graduates and associates) to ensure we recognize outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus or commission. We provide all team members with additional benefits which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.
- Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person
- Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
- Annual compensation review
- Recognition rewards
- Annual holiday leave
- Maternity and paternity leave
- Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform
- Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
- Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events
About Canonical
Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open-source projects and the platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, we are changing the world of software. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence; in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception in 2004. Working here is a step into the future and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.
Canonical is an equal opportunity employer
We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.