Design Partner Lead (Early Customer Acquisition)

Why this role exists

SoSafe is Europe's leading human risk management company, trusted by 6,000+ organisations to turn their people into a line of defence against cyberattacks. Adaptive Defence our next-generation product.

We're co-building it with a small set of Design Partners: co-creators, not beta testers validating a finished release, whose environment, risk model and workflows decide what we build next. Getting them in the door, live, and talking is a hustle that doesn't exist yet inside SoSafe.

We've got the distribution, the customer base, and 6,000+ logos of credibility. What we don't have, for this product, is one person who can turn "nobody's heard of Adaptive Defence" into "we have a couple dozens committed co-creators shaping the roadmap." That's this role.

Title and tenure don't decide this. Whether you can carry a cold prospect to a signed, engaged partner, alone, does. If that's you, let's talk. This role reports directly to our Senior Vice President of Product. Hybrid role.

What you'll own

Position it

• Own the story: Trust is the product, one that proves behavioural change.
• Know Next Gen competitors like the back of your hand, and lead with their gaps in every conversation.
• Write messaging that gets a stranger to take a call, not messaging that survives a committee.

Find them

• Your scope is net-new only, against a very tight ECP (Early Customer Profile) .
• Disqualify fast. A missing hard filter is a "no," not a "maybe".
• Existing customers and inbound prospects belong to CSM and AE, not you. You don't chase or work them; you build net-new pipeline that fits the profile exactly.

Land them

• Run the Agreement and Onboard stages yourself, collaborate closely with the Product trio.
• Hold the line on the Design Partnership: time-boxed, scoped, conditional on an agreed commercial path.

Keep them

• Structure the handoff to Product so feedback lands with context, not as a pile of Slack messages.
• Track partner health and stage progression like a pipeline.
• Walk away with logo, testimonial and case study commitments locked into the agreement, not chased after the fact.

What we're looking for

Non-negotiable

• You're AI-native. Agentic tools and LLMs are how you draft messaging, build lists, and personalise outbound at scale. You're fluent enough in what Adaptive Defence's own AI actually does that you can defend its autonomous decisions to a skeptical CISO .
• You've brought a new product to market before. Zero existing customers. You can talk through what we're building to get the first cohort in the door.
• You've done real outbound and can point to pipeline you built yourself, not campaigns you managed.
• You write direct copy that lands with strangers.
• There's no playbook here. You're building the first one.
• Based in London, comfortable being in office minimally 2 days/ week, plus asynchronous and autonomously while remote.

Strong signals

• You've built or configured the automation layer yourself, and it runs without a human touching every send.
• You've carried a deal or relationship solo, from first message to live and engaged, no handoffs.
• You've sold or partnered into security, compliance, or HR buyers before.
• Curious about cybersecurity and human risk on its own terms.
• You've worked inside a tight qualification framework ( ICP/ECP-style ) and know when to say no to a lead.
• Language proficiency in French (nice to have)

What we're not looking for

• People who need a campaign calendar before they'll pick up the phone.
• People who want positioning handed to them so they can just execute.
• People who expect a mature program, a finished agreement template, and a warm pipeline on day one. None of that exists yet.

What you get

• Full ownership of the Design Partner funnel for a brand-new product.
• A direct line to the SVP of Product. No layers between you and the person deciding what happens next.
• A front-row seat on a Tiger Team.
• The first-mover's problem: whatever you build here becomes the playbook for future Design Partner motion SoSafe runs after this one.

What we offer

• Work/Life balance: Flexible hours, 33 vacation days , and parental leave support
• Wellbeing and financial support: Access to Open Up, corporate discounts
• Connection & community: Virtual events, collaborative team activities, and opportunities for local meet-ups
• Tech equipment, referral bonuses, an individual development budget, dog-friendly HQ

At SoSafe, we’re on a mission to make the digital world safer by addressing the human factor in cybersecurity. As one of the fastest-growing security awareness scale-ups worldwide, we leverage behavioural science and data-driven learning to empower people against cyber threats. Our Human Risk Management approach helps organisations turn their employees into their strongest line of defence.

Backed by leading VCs like Highland Europe and Global Founders Capital, we’re rapidly expanding across the globe. We’re looking for team players who want to drive meaningful change in cybersecurity, take ownership of their work, and grow with us.

If you thrive in a vibrant, purpose-driven environment that values innovation, diversity, and collaboration, then this is the place for you!