As we continue to grow the leadership team at Pave, we’re thrilled to announce the addition of Armando Villa as our new VP of Sales. Armando brings a wealth of experience to Pave’s sales organization, with most of his career spent at industry-leading B2B technology organizations including Salesforce and SmartRecruiters.
Armando will lead our growing field team, while implementing enterprise-grade processes, operationalizing workflows and enabling sellers to grow and thrive. Keep reading to learn more about his background, why he joined Pave, and his vision for the future.
On a Mission to Build Trust and Enter New Markets
Can you share your journey in Sales that led you to Pave?
I started my sales career at Salesforce when a friend who worked there told me about an open SDR position. I had always played sports and enjoyed healthy competition, so sales seemed like a natural fit. I took a leap of faith, got the Sales Representative role at Salesforce, learned a lot, and eventually worked my way up the ladder.
As I reached the end of my journey with Salesforce, I wanted to test my selling skills at an emerging brand. I had always worked for established and recognizable companies, so I was ready to learn the ropes at a newer but quickly growing organization.
With that in mind, I joined the SmartRecruiters team. Working there was a great introduction to the world of Human Resources. I spent years getting to know and deeply understand HR leaders and what’s important to them.
I also moved into management, eventually leading the midmarket, enterprise, and North American teams. I’m a coach by nature and take great pride in developing relationships, so these roles solidified my desire to continue building great teams. After these experiences, coming to a place like Pave made perfect sense.
What was the opportunity you saw in Pave?
I knew pretty quickly that Pave would be a great fit. Who I work with is incredibly important to me, and I had pre-existing relationships with some people at Pave. I’ve always believed that people work for the people they want to work for and that organizations can only fulfill a job with the right team. When I went through the interview process, I was impressed with the caliber of every person I spoke with.
Outside of the people, I saw a massive opportunity for Pave to disrupt the compensation market. Historically, compensation teams have relied on running programs in spreadsheets and getting benchmarks from surveys. However, survey data is always stale and spreadsheets are inefficient, making the entire process problematic.
Compensation is such an important and personal topic, so teams shouldn’t be relying on old data to build compensation strategies. Pave is changing the game by providing real-time, accurate, and comprehensive market data so teams can make more informed decisions. I love challenging the status quo, and it’s incredibly exciting to see how Pave is modernizing the compensation management space.
I want my team to be trusted advisors to prospects and customers, helping to educate them on the market.
What are you most excited about at Pave in the next year?
I’m excited to continue innovating with our customers. Our product team is great at listening to what customers want and need and prioritizing their input. We're trying to meet people where they are in their compensation journey, and while we know things can be done differently, we also don’t want to disrupt compensation teams in a way that makes them uneasy.
A key element is trust. I want prospects and customers to trust us, which hinges on an understanding of where they are today and how we can work together to get to a better future state. This is a journey we need to take together.
I’m also excited to expand our data set in the coming months to support additional industries and locations. We’re making huge strides in providing accurate and real-time data in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. There’s so much room for growth and potential upside.
Our team is always thinking about what we can do next. We have an incredible roster of industry experts with different strengths, all dedicated to making Pave bigger than it is today. We have a big vision to go after, and I’m excited to be a part of it.
What is your vision for Sales at Pave?
To support new product functionality, I’m leaning into building our enterprise engine. We have a lot of great processes in place, but I’m looking forward to operationalizing more workflows to support changing customer needs.
I also want my team to be trusted advisors to prospects and customers, helping to educate them on the market. It’s not about just selling Pave—it’s more important that we know how to find the right solution to help our buyers with their compensation challenges.
What excites you about the future of compensation?
The compensation landscape is changing rapidly. I’m looking forward to helping make change easier—and less scary—for customers.
There’s a huge opportunity to educate the compensation market, and I can’t wait to help more people understand the power and possibility of compensation management platforms, like Pave.
Compensation is such an important and personal topic, so teams shouldn’t be relying on stale data to build compensation strategies.
Pave is the leading compensation management platform, powered by real-time data, that helps companies benchmark, plan, and communicate compensation. To join our team, see our open roles.
Learn more about Pave’s end-to-end compensation platform
