Strategic Sales Director - K-12 Transportation & Passenger Services (PAX)

Strategic Sales Director – K-12 Transportation & Passenger Services (PAX)
Location: Remote – Must be based in the Northeast United States (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or surrounding markets)
Employment Type: Full-Time | Remote

About the Role
Zonar is seeking a high-performing Strategic Sales Director to drive new business growth within our Passenger Services (PAX) business, with a primary focus on K-12 school transportation organizations and public transit fleets. This is a true hunter role responsible for identifying, prospecting, and closing net-new enterprise customers. The ideal candidate brings deep industry knowledge of student transportation operations and a proven track record selling routing software, fleet management platforms, or transportation technology solutions directly to K-12 school districts.
We are specifically seeking candidates who have sold transportation software solutions to Transportation Directors, Fleet Directors, Maintenance Directors, and other key stakeholders within school districts. Experience with organizations within the transportation technology providers is highly preferred.
In this position, you will engage senior decision-makers, navigate public-sector procurement processes, and position Zonar's solutions as a trusted partner for safety, compliance, routing, fleet efficiency, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute territory and account-based sales strategies to achieve new business revenue targets across K-12 transportation organizations and public transit fleets.
• Identify, prospect, and close net-new enterprise opportunities within the passenger transportation market.
• Build and maintain a robust pipeline through outbound prospecting, industry networking, referrals, conferences, and government procurement channels.
• Lead discovery conversations with Transportation Directors, Fleet Directors, Maintenance Leaders, Operations Executives, Superintendents, and other key decision-makers.
• Own the full sales cycle from prospecting and qualification through negotiation, contracting, and closing.
• Leverage industry expertise to position routing, fleet management, telematics, safety, and compliance solutions to solve critical customer challenges.
• Collaborate with Product, Marketing, Engineering, and Customer Success teams to align customer needs with business solutions.
• Provide accurate forecasting, pipeline management, market intelligence, and competitive insights to leadership.
• Represent Zonar at industry associations, conferences, and customer events.
• Travel within the assigned territory as needed.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of quota-carrying SaaS, software, or technology sales experience, with a strong focus on enterprise new business acquisition.
• Required: Direct experience selling K-12 transportation routing software, student transportation technology, fleet management software, or related transportation operations platforms.
• Experience working for student transportation technology providers is strongly preferred.
• Established relationships with Transportation Directors, Fleet Directors, Maintenance Directors, and school transportation leadership teams are highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of student transportation operations, including routing, scheduling, fleet maintenance, safety, compliance, and operational performance.
• Proven track record of consistently achieving quota and closing complex enterprise deals in long sales-cycle environments.
• Experience navigating public-sector procurement processes, RFPs, and multi-stakeholder buying cycles.
• Strong executive presence with excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 75% as needed.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $95,000 – $120,000 annually + commission
• Comprehensive benefits package.

Join Zonar and help transform student transportation through innovative technology, safety solutions, and operational excellence.

Important: We are specifically looking for candidates with experience selling K-12 transportation routing, fleet, or student transportation software. Backgrounds focused solely on trucking telematics, logistics fleets, or general SMB GPS tracking solutions will not meet the requirements for this position.