Director, Strategic Sales - South Central
1Kosmos · Remote
Are you ready to shape the future of authentication? Join 1Kosmos and help lead the next wave in identity assurance and passwordless innovation.
1Kosmos is driving the future of identity security, empowering organizations to eliminate passwords and establish trust at every step of the identity lifecycle. As a vibrant team of innovators, we develop advanced authentication solutions trusted by some of the world’s leading brands. Join us as we create a passwordless world and set new standards for digital identity assurance.
Your Title: Director, Strategic Sales – South Central
Your Location: Remote - Anywhere within the USA with travel expectations in your designated geography
You Report to: Senior Vice President, Sales
Your Compensation: Competitive Base + Commission + Equity $325K–$350K OTE
1Kosmos is seeking a Strategic Sales Director – South Central to lead and accelerate commercial growth across a defined set of target verticals and the broader South Central United States. This is a senior individual contributor and market development role for someone who can carry a complex, six- and seven-figure enterprise sales cycle from first conversation to signed contract, and who can operate credibly with CISO, CIO, and procurement stakeholders across industries where identity fraud and credential-based breaches carry direct financial and operational risk.
What you will own:
Territory and Market Development
- Own a combination territory: 1-2 assigned target verticals (drawn from Manufacturing, Financial Services, Retail, BPO, Distribution & Supply Chain, and Travel & Entertainment) plus the South Central United States geography for opportunities outside the company-wide target vertical set.
- Build and execute a territory plan that prioritizes account targeting, whitespace mapping, and partner coverage across the assigned verticals and geography.
- Generate pipeline through direct outreach, partner co-sell motions, industry events, and referral networks across CISO, CIO, VP of Identity, and IT leadership audiences.
- Develop and maintain a qualified pipeline sufficient to support consistent quarterly and annual revenue targets.
- Identify and pursue whitespace opportunities across the full 1Kosmos use case portfolio, including identity verification (onboarding, account recovery, step-up authentication) and passwordless authentication (enterprise and shared/frontline workstation).
Sales Execution and Deal Management
- Own the full sales cycle from discovery through contract execution on net-new and expansion opportunities.
- Lead executive-level engagement with CISO, CIO, VP of Identity, Security, and Procurement stakeholders.
- Articulate 1Kosmos' differentiated value across identity verification and passwordless authentication, connecting both to the specific fraud, compliance, and operational risks relevant to each account's industry.
- Navigate complex, multi-stakeholder deal cycles including security reviews, legal, procurement, and compliance approvals common to enterprise purchasing environments.
- Work with channel partners including Optiv, VARs, and GSIs on partner-assisted and partner-sourced deals.
Customer and Stakeholder Engagement
- Act as the primary executive sponsor and relationship owner for strategic accounts throughout the sales cycle.
- Translate identity security requirements into business outcomes, including reduced help desk volume, fraud loss prevention, and reduced risk of credential-based breaches.
- Partner with Solutions Engineering on proof-of-concept design and execution, ensuring technical validation aligns with customer requirements.
- Coordinate with Customer Success post-sale to support smooth onboarding and expansion planning.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with the SVP of Americas Sales on territory planning, forecast accuracy, and executive account strategy.
- Partner with Marketing on vertical-specific campaigns, event strategy, and collateral including case studies, use case briefs, and competitive positioning.
- Provide structured feedback to Product on vertical-specific requirements, integration depth, and use case gaps.
- Collaborate with the Partnerships team to activate and co-sell with systems integrators and technology alliance partners active in the assigned verticals and territory.
Reporting and Forecast Management
- Maintain accurate pipeline, opportunity, and forecast data in CRM.
- Provide regular updates to the SVP of Americas Sales on progress, risks, blockers, and competitive intelligence.
- Track and report on key performance metrics including pipeline coverage, win rates, average contract value, and time to close.
What you bring:
- 10+ years of enterprise software sales experience, with a demonstrated track record of closing six- and seven-figure SaaS or software deals.
- Experience owning a combination territory (named verticals plus a broader geography) and prioritizing effectively across both.
- Deep familiarity with enterprise purchasing environments including CISO, CIO, Procurement, and Legal stakeholders, and typical 6- to 18-month enterprise deal cycles.
- Prior experience selling into one or more of the following verticals strongly preferred: Manufacturing, Financial Services, Retail, BPO, Distribution & Supply Chain, or Travel & Entertainment.
- Comfort operating in a high-growth, fast-moving environment with evolving processes and significant individual ownership.
- Excellent communication and executive presence; able to operate credibly at the C-suite level.
- Based in or able to travel regularly across the South Central United States.
Nice to Have:
- Experience with identity, access management, digital identity, or cybersecurity platforms.
- Prior sales experience at or against vendors such as Okta, Ping Identity, Microsoft, SailPoint, Saviynt, or CyberArk.
- Existing relationships with CISO, CIO, or VP of Identity leaders within the assigned target verticals.
- Background in channel or partner-assisted selling through resellers, systems integrators, or GSIs.
What Success Looks Like:
- A qualified pipeline of opportunities across the assigned target verticals and South Central U.S. territory is built and maintained with strong coverage ratios.
- Net-new enterprise logos are closed on a consistent quarterly cadence.
- 1Kosmos is recognized as a credible, differentiated vendor for identity verification and passwordless authentication within the assigned verticals.
- Relationships with key CISO, CIO, and VP of Identity stakeholders are established and active across the territory.
- Vertical-specific use case narratives, case studies, and reference customers are developed in partnership with Marketing.
The 1Kosmos Opportunity
Identity fraud and credential-based attacks are accelerating across every industry, from synthetic identities and deepfakes used to defeat onboarding, to social engineering used to compromise help desks and account recovery flows. Manufacturing, financial services, retail, BPO, distribution and supply chain, and travel and entertainment organizations each face a version of this problem: high-volume identity events, distributed or frontline workforces, and growing regulatory and fraud-loss pressure.
1Kosmos is the only platform that combines certified identity verification with enterprise-grade passwordless authentication in a single architecture that sits on top of a customer's existing identity infrastructure. The platform integrates natively with Microsoft Entra Verified ID for verifiable credential issuance, Okta and Ping for enterprise SSO environments, ServiceNow for ITSM-integrated identity events, Workday for workforce onboarding, and identity governance platforms including SailPoint and Saviynt. Additional integrations span CyberArk, Broadcom, and multiple applicant tracking systems (ATS) for pre-hire identity verification.
Certifications relevant to enterprise buyers include:
- NIST 800-63-3 certification at AAL2 and IAL2, with an IAL3 step-up option, supporting identity assurance requirements across onboarding, recovery, and step-up use cases
- FedRAMP High authorization, relevant for customers serving or adjacent to federal and public sector programs
- Department of Defense Impact Level 4 (IL4), establishing the platform's suitability for sensitive data environments
- Kantara full Credential Service Provider (CSP) certification, one of a small number globally, supporting highest-assurance identity proofing workflows
- iBeta Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) Level 2 for liveness and deepfake detection
- SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliance
1Kosmos has also been recognized by industry analysts: named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Identity Verification with the highest product score for workforce use cases, and recognized as a leader in passwordless authentication for the enterprise by KuppingerCole.
Why 1Kosmos
1Kosmos is the trust platform for identity, operating at the intersection of identity verification, passwordless authentication, and verified credential reuse. Processing more than 2 billion authentications per year at five-nines availability, and named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Identity Verification with the highest score for workforce use cases, 1Kosmos is at an inflection point of scale and market category definition.
The combination of rising identity fraud, credential-based breach risk, and high-friction identity workflows across manufacturing, financial services, retail, BPO, distribution and supply chain, and travel and entertainment creates a compelling, high-urgency buying environment. This role joins a company with proven deployments, differentiated certifications, and the platform integrations required to win across these verticals and the broader Western U.S. market.
What we offer
- Opportunity to build and lead a critical function at a high-growth Series B startup
- Competitive salary and equity package
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- Unlimited PTO Policy
- Collaborative, fast-paced culture where your impact is immediate and visible