Senior Associate, Sales Strategy & Operations - Latin America

Overview

You'll be the analytical backbone for Verkada's Latin America sales expansion, working from San Mateo HQ with regional sales leaders. Your job is to build territory plans, analyze pipeline health, identify growth opportunities, and help sales leadership make data-driven decisions. You're not selling - you're the person making sure the sales team has the right targets, accurate forecasts, and strategic clarity.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage private, pre-IPO (just crossed $1B in annual bookings)

Size: 2,646 employees

Growth: Record year of accelerated growth, aggressively expanding internationally

Market Position: Category leader in cloud-based physical security - competing against legacy providers like Axis, Hanwha, and Avigilon, plus newer players like Rhombus

GTM Reality

Your Focus: Latin America is a growth region for Verkada. You're supporting the expansion into markets where they likely have:

• Small existing presence with reps selling remotely from US or limited in-region teams
• Mix of direct sales and partner/channel motion (common in LATAM for hardware)
• Deals that require navigating import duties, local regulations, and longer payment terms

What Sales Looks Like for LATAM:

• Verkada sells physical security hardware (cameras, access control, sensors) with a cloud software platform
• Deals involve site surveys, hardware deployment planning, and IT/security buyer alignment
• Competition from entrenched local players and cheaper alternatives
• You'll be helping sales leaders figure out which verticals/countries to prioritize and how to scale

Your Stakeholders:

• Regional sales directors (Carlos Rocha and Ryan Young are named)
• Rodrigo Torres-Calderon (Harvard MBA, your hiring manager)
• HQ finance, sales ops, and executive team

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Legacy hardware: Axis Communications, Hanwha Techwin, Avigilon
• Cloud platforms: Rhombus, Cloudastructure
• Local/regional players in LATAM markets

How Verkada Differentiates: Cloud-managed, no NVRs, software-first approach with AI search and easy deployment

Common Objections in LATAM:

• Higher upfront cost vs legacy systems
• Internet bandwidth requirements for cloud video
• Data sovereignty concerns (footage stored in US cloud)
• Currency fluctuations affecting TCO

Your Job: Help sales navigate these by building business cases, ROI models, and competitive positioning

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Data Analysis (35%) | Strategic Projects (30%) | Sales Support (20%) | Meetings (15%)

Key Activities

• Territory Planning: Build account segmentation, quota assignment, and coverage models for LATAM countries. You're deciding which reps focus on which accounts and industries.
• Pipeline Analysis: Weekly/monthly deep-dives into Salesforce data - conversion rates by country, stage velocity, win/loss patterns. You're the person spotting when Brazil pipeline is weak or Mexico deals are stalling.
• Forecasting: Consolidate rep forecasts, apply your own analytics, and present refined numbers to leadership. You're held accountable when actuals miss forecast.
• Deal Support: Jump into strategic deals to build business cases, ROI models, or competitive analysis when reps need ammunition for procurement or C-suite.
• GTM Initiatives: Lead projects like partner program design, pricing localization, or sales comp plan updates. These are multi-month cross-functional efforts with you as the PM.
• Reporting: Build dashboards and decks for exec reviews. You're translating raw data into insights that drive decisions.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Data Quality Issues: Salesforce hygiene in new regions is always messy. You'll spend time cleaning data and chasing reps to update fields before you can analyze anything.
• Ambiguity: LATAM expansion means you're building the playbook, not following one. Leadership will ask you to "figure it out" on strategy questions where there's no clear answer.
• Language Barrier: You need Spanish/Portuguese to actually talk to regional sales teams and understand market nuances. If you're only English-speaking, you're limited.
• Cross-Functional Dependencies: Getting answers from product, finance, or legal takes weeks. Half your projects will be blocked waiting on other teams.
• Strategy vs Execution: You'll want to do strategic work, but 30% of your time will be urgent fire drills - "We need this analysis by EOD for the exec meeting tomorrow."

What Success Looks Like

• LATAM region hits its bookings target - your forecasts were accurate within 10%
• Sales leadership uses your territory plan and it drives 20%+ productivity improvement
• You deliver 2-3 major projects (like partner program or comp redesign) that actually get implemented
• Reps tell you your analysis helped them close a deal

Who You're Supporting

Primary Stakeholders:

• Regional Sales Directors (your main partners - Carlos Rocha, Ryan Young)
• Head of Sales Strategy & Ops (Rodrigo, your manager)
• LATAM sales reps (10-30 people depending on scale)

What They Need From You:

• Accurate pipeline visibility so they know where to spend time
• Territory assignments that are fair and high-potential
• Business cases and ROI tools that help them close deals
• Strategic recommendations on where to invest (hire more reps in Mexico vs expand into Chile?)

Requirements

• 3-4 years in consulting, investment banking, private equity, or corporate strategy
• Native or fluent Spanish and/or Portuguese (this is a hard requirement - you're supporting LATAM)
• Strong Excel/analytical skills - you'll build financial models and slice Salesforce data constantly
• Comfort with ambiguity and building from scratch
• Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM systems (ideal but not stated)
• Self-starter mentality - you won't have clear instructions on every project
• Based in San Mateo, CA (onsite role at HQ)