Job Description

Melbourne

Full time

Salary + 20% Bonus

About the Business

Urban Rest is a high-growth flexible living operator and technology platform disrupting the serviced apartment and corporate housing space across APAC and Europe. The business focus is on owning the distribution layer for the contracted travel market into living assets, while delivering a consistent brand and guest journey through technology. Urban Rest also offers physical asset operation services that enable branded accommodation assets such as hotels to be managed with greater efficiency and distributed to contracted clients such as enterprise, government, insurance and SME clients. We provide the digital infrastructure and services that connect institutional living-sector assets and the contracted travel market at scale. Our mission is to make flexible living seamless.

Benefits and Perks

• Employee, friends and family discounts at at Urban Rest properties
• One flexible work from home day per week when business allows
• Mental Health Leave days and Volunteer days available
• Regular team socials and events
• As the company grows, this role will provide plenty of room for career growth and progression
• We’re a social bunch and we strive to have a fun, friendly, and collaborative work environment
• Pet friendly (for house-trained and well-behaved pets) office in Office Suburb, close to public transport

About the Role

The Director of Sales - APAC is a senior commercial leadership role with one core mandate: build and grow Urban Rest's new client pipeline across the APAC region. This is an acquisition role - focused on bringing in new corporate accounts, expanding into new industry verticals, and ensuring that Urban Rest is positioned and won on every meaningful RFP and tender in the market. You will own the APAC sales function end-to-end: setting strategy, building a high-performing team, and driving new revenue with the urgency and precision a growth-stage business demands. You will carry both direct team leadership (Business Development Managers / Executives and Representatives across markets) and matrix influence across regional General Managers and the broader commercial leadership team, requiring the commercial credibility to win internally and externally.

This role sits on the Senior Leadership Team with bilateral reporting into to the Head of Sales & Marketing and Regional General Manager - APAC. You are the engine of new revenue - translating market opportunity into signed agreements, building a pipeline that gives the business visibility and confidence, and ensuring Urban Rest punches above its weight against larger, more established competitors. You will work in close partnership with the Director, Account Management - APAC. Where the AM Director's mandate is to protect and grow what we have, your mandate is to bring in what we don't yet have. The two roles are designed to work in lockstep: a clean handover from new acquisition to account ownership is critical, and the quality of that handover is a shared accountability.

Responsibilities

APAC Sales Strategy & New Revenue Growth (35%):

• Own and drive the APAC sales strategy - including target market identification, vertical prioritisation, RFP pipeline management, and new revenue targets by market.
• Define and enforce a consistent APAC sales operating model while empowering regional Business Development Managers with the latitude to adapt to local market conditions.
• Build and manage a structured, stage-gated pipeline that gives leadership genuine visibility into new revenue forecasts - moving beyond activity metrics to conversion and yield.
• Lead Urban Rest's response to major corporate RFPs, tenders, and procurement processes - owning the commercial position, partnering with revenue management on pricing logic, and final submission quality.
• Develop market entry and penetration strategies for verticals where Urban Rest is under-represented: professional services, resources, government, tech, and financial services.
• Partner with Finance, Revenue Management, and Regional GM to build and report on sales-specific metrics: new logos won, pipeline conversion, average deal size, time-to-close, and revenue velocity.
• Chair the APAC Sales Review - a regular cross-market forum to align on pipeline health, share market intelligence, and hold team members to account on activity and conversion targets.

Market Positioning & Business Development (25%):

• Establish and maintain senior-level relationships with corporate travel managers, procurement leads, HR directors, and CFOs at target enterprise accounts.
• Lead or support the pursuit of Urban Rest's most strategically significant new accounts - bringing executive presence, commercial intelligence, and a genuine understanding of client needs.
• Build and maintain Urban Rest's visibility and reputation in the APAC corporate travel market - through industry bodies, travel associations, events, and targeted thought leadership.
• Identify and pursue partnership opportunities that extend Urban Rest's reach: TMC relationships, preferred supplier agreements, and corporate travel ecosystem integrations.
• Represent Urban Rest at industry forums, conferences, and client events - positioning the brand as the premium alternative to traditional hotel and serviced apartment providers.
• Translate market intelligence - competitor moves, pricing shifts, new entrants, client sentiment - into actionable insight for the broader commercial team and leadership.

Team Leadership & Capability Building (20%):

• Lead, coach, and develop a mixed team of direct-report Business Development Managers / Executives and matrix-influenced regional sales practitioners across APAC and internationally.
• Set clear performance expectations, activity standards, pipeline ownership, and development goals for all APAC sales team members.
• Build a high-performance sales culture: one where Business Development Managers / Executives are commercially curious, client-focused, and accountable - not just activity-driven.
• Design and implement sales onboarding, skills frameworks, and coaching programmes that accelerate ramp time for new hires and raise the ceiling for experienced team members.
• Work closely with HR and Regional General Manager to attract and retain sales talent as the business scales into new markets and geographies.
• Identify and address skill gaps - particularly around enterprise sales methodology, RFP management, commercial negotiation, and pipeline discipline.
• Ensure a high-quality, structured handover process from new acquisition to the Account Management team - protecting the client experience from day one and reducing early churn risk..

Technology, Data & Reporting (10%):

• Champion CRM discipline across the APAC sales team - from pipeline stage accuracy and activity logging to deal quality and forecast reliability.
• Define the sales data and reporting infrastructure: what we track, how we measure pipeline health, and how we hold the team accountable to conversion outcomes - not just activity volume.
• Partner with internal tech and operations teams to ensure sales tools and systems support the team's workflow and reduce administrative friction.
• Leverage data to identify market-level opportunity: where Urban Rest is winning, where it is losing, and what the patterns in lost deals are telling us about positioning, pricing, or product

Cross-Functional Collaboration & SLT Contribution (10%):

• Work in close partnership with the Director, Account Management - APAC to ensure seamless transitions from new acquisition to account ownership - protecting client experience and revenue at the point of handover.
• Collaborate with Revenue Management on pricing strategy for new accounts - ensuring commercial terms are competitive without undermining the margin position.
• Partner with Marketing on go-to-market messaging, campaign alignment, and the sales enablement content needed to compete effectively in the APAC corporate travel and Leisure market.
• Support new property openings across APAC by leading the commercial ramp-up strategy: identifying target accounts, building launch pipeline, and ensuring each new asset reaches revenue targets.
• Contribute actively as a member of the Senior Leadership Team - bringing a market and pipeline perspective to company-wide strategy discussions.
• Support the CEO, Head of Sales & Marketing and Regional General Manager with commercial intelligence, market forecasting, and strategic input on competitive positioning, market entry, and pricing

What Success Looks Like

In your first 90 days:

• Completed a full audit of the APAC sales pipeline - by stage, quality, vertical, and market - with an honest assessment of conversion likelihood.
• Established senior relationships with the top 20 target accounts Urban Rest is not currently winning.
• Mapped the current state of the sales function: team capability, tooling, process maturity, RFP response quality, and pipeline gaps.
• Presented a 12-month APAC Sales Strategy to the ELT - with clear new revenue targets, vertical priorities, and team capability plans.

By end of Year 1:

• New logo revenue across APAC is at or above target, with a pipeline that gives the business 90-day forward visibility.
• A structured APAC sales operating model is in place - stage-gated, CRM-driven, and consistently executed across all markets.
• Urban Rest has entered at least one new corporate vertical or market segment where it previously had minimal presence.
• The sales team is performing to a higher standard - evidenced by pipeline quality, conversion rates, average deal size, and new logo ramp time.
• A clean, consistent handover process from sales to account management is in place, with measurable impact on early-stage client retention.

Key Attributes

• A seasoned sales leader with a demonstrable track record of building pipeline, winning enterprise accounts, and delivering new revenue growth - ideally in corporate travel, hospitality, or a related sector.
• Credible and compelling in front of senior client stakeholders - procurement, HR, finance, and C-suite. You open doors and you close deals.
• A strategic thinker who also executes. You can set an APAC sales framework and also get into the detail of a complex RFP when it matters.
• A natural leader of people in matrixed, fast-moving environments - you build followership through expertise, results, and clarity, not hierarchy.
• Commercially literate: deeply comfortable with pricing logic, margin trade-offs, contract structures, and revenue forecasting.
• Rigorous on pipeline discipline - you know the difference between a full CRM and a healthy pipeline, and you build the latter.
• Collaborative by instinct. You understand that great sales and great account management are two sides of the same coin, and you invest in the relationship between the two functions.
• Resilient and high-EQ. Enterprise sales cycles are long and rarely linear. You maintain momentum, manage your team's energy, and stay composed when deals slip.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Urban Rest, we extend our invitation to candidates from Indigenous, neurodiverse, disabled, international and diverse cultural backgrounds. Our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace ensures that all applicants receive the necessary support and accommodations throughout the recruitment and onboarding process. We encourage candidates from various backgrounds to apply, as we value diversity and believe in creating an environment where everyone can succeed. Please let us know if you require any additional adjustments or support to help you through this process so you can shine as the best version of yourself.