Guide · 5 minutes
Sales director salary: what sales director and head of sales postings pay, by industry and city
Written by Yuma Heymans, Founder & CEO of SalesJobs.Now.
Yuma runs SalesJobs.Now out of San Francisco. Recruiting is familiar ground: Yuma also co-founded HeroHunt.ai, a platform that uses AI to find and reach candidates.
A US sales director posting on this board typically pays $210,250 a year, with the middle half of postings between $165,200 and $300,000. The product moves the number most: sales directors at AI and data companies post a median of $335,000, at security companies $311,500, and at advertising and marketplace companies $152,500. This guide breaks sales director and head of sales pay down by industry, city and company, and explains why the spread is so wide.
On 1 November 2026 this board had 940 open roles titled sales director, director of sales or head of sales, 559 of them open to US candidates, and 420 of those (75%) stated their pay. Every figure below is the midpoint of each posting's own range on a full year's scale (base or on-target earnings, as the posting states it), and the median across the postings in each group. The sales director jobs page lists every open seat with today's figures.
Contents
- The short answer
- Pay by what the company sells
- Pay by city
- The companies hiring, and what they post
- Why sales director pay spreads so widely
- How to judge an offer
- How these figures were counted
- Quick answers
1. The short answer
| Measure, US sales director roles, 1 Nov 2026 | Posted pay per year |
|---|---|
| Median | $210,250 |
| Middle half of postings | $165,200 to $300,000 |
| Bottom tenth below | $137,500 |
| Top tenth above | $372,250 |
| Enterprise and strategic titles (median) | $242,900 |
| Remote postings (median) | $199,000 |
2. Pay by what the company sells
| What the company sells | US roles posting pay | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI and data | 39 | $335,000 | $300,000 to $372,250 |
| Cybersecurity | 27 | $311,500 | $240,000 to $352,500 |
| Cloud and developer tools | 21 | $300,000 | $200,000 to $362,500 |
| Fintech | 40 | $236,500 | $180,000 to $350,000 |
| Business software | 69 | $215,000 | $145,000 to $315,000 |
| Pharmaceuticals and biotech | 46 | $204,000 | $197,500 to $239,000 |
| Industry software | 52 | $203,775 | $160,875 to $287,500 |
| Business and information services | 22 | $186,300 | $150,000 to $205,000 |
| Medical devices | 22 | $185,700 | $170,000 to $189,050 |
| Industrial and distribution | 20 | $170,000 | $150,000 to $202,500 |
| Advertising, media and marketplaces | 41 | $152,500 | $140,000 to $290,875 |
The guide Tech sales salary compares the software markets across every kind of seat.
3. Pay by city
| Metro | US roles posting pay | Median |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Bay Area | 62 | $300,000 |
| Boston | 14 | $246,622 |
| Los Angeles | 13 | $242,525 |
| New York | 84 | $227,216 |
| Chicago | 21 | $214,500 |
By state, California's sales director postings posted a median of $248,500 (90 roles), Massachusetts $217,500, Illinois $215,000 and Texas $198,650. Remote roles were 174 of the 559 US seats (31%) and posted a median of $199,000, against $216,250 for office and field roles.
4. The companies hiring, and what they post
The companies with the most open sales director roles in every country on 1 November 2026 were Accor (32), Sierra (22), Mineralys Therapeutics (21), Braze (20), Mastercard (19), Radisson Hotel Group (15), CarOnSale (14), CoStar Group and Abbott (13 each) and Five9 (11). Hotel groups such as Accor and Radisson title many seats director of sales (or of sales and marketing), usually a hotel's own sales lead.
Among companies with at least five US roles posting pay, the highest medians were Sierra ($320,000), Netskope ($311,500), Amylyx ($239,000), Mastercard ($236,500), Mineralys Therapeutics ($197,500) and Abbott ($185,700). Where a posting states both a base range and an on-target range (Braze's director postings, for one, state both), this board reads the base, so the whole package is larger than the posted figure: check which one a range is before comparing.
5. Why sales director pay spreads so widely
- The title means different seats. A director of sales at a hotel sells its rooms and events; a sales director at an AI company leads a team selling to large enterprises. Both are on this board.
- Base or on-target. Some postings state the base, others the on-target earnings with a large variable part, so two similar jobs can post very different figures.
- Equity. At private software companies, equity can be a large share of the package and is not in the posted range.
6. How to judge an offer
- Ask what the number is and how it was set, and how many directors reached it last year.
- Ask how much of the team you inherit and how many seats you hire.
- Ask for the split between base and variable, and whether the variable is paid on your team's results, the company's or both.
- Ask about equity: the grant, the vesting and the last valuation.
7. How these figures were counted
- The roles: every open role on this board on 1 November 2026 whose title says sales director, director of sales or head of sales (sales operations, enablement and sales engineering directors left out), read from each company's own careers system and checked every hour: 940 roles, 559 of them open to US candidates and 420 of those stating pay.
- The pay: the midpoint of each posting's own range on a full year's scale, and the median across the US roles in each group. What the company sells comes from the company; the city and state from the posted location.
These figures describe one day; the sales director jobs page always shows the current roles and pay.
8. Quick answers
How much does a sales director make? On this board, US sales director postings state a median of $210,250 a year, with the middle half between $165,200 and $300,000 (1 November 2026).
Which sales director jobs pay the most? Those at AI and data companies ($335,000 median), security companies ($311,500) and cloud companies ($300,000).
How much does a head of sales make at a startup? It varies with the company's stage and funding; on this board, heads of sales are counted with sales directors, and equity usually sits on top of the posted range.
Do sales directors earn commission? Most earn a base plus a variable part paid on the team's results; how large the variable is depends on the company.
Where can I see sales director jobs? The sales director jobs page lists every open seat with the pay it posts.