How to Get a Sales Job in Ireland as a Foreigner

You are abroad, you want a sales job in Ireland, and you have no idea which employers hire people from outside the EU or how the paperwork actually works. The honest starting point: Ireland has plenty of sales hiring, but the visa side is specific, and you need to know which route fits you before you send applications.

What the sales market looks like right now#

On 14 October 2026, the JobRise live jobs feed showed 100 open sales listings in Ireland, collected in our sales jobs hub. Of those, 82 were posted in the last 30 days and 43 in the last 7 days, so the market is moving.

Dublin dominates, with 80 of the 100 listings. Cork has 4, Galway 3, Maynooth 2, and Kildare 1. Every listing in this slice is full-time. For wider context, our Hiring Report for Ireland counted 434 open listings across all categories, 344 of them posted in the last 30 days.

Two things stand out. First, the employers hiring most are large international companies: Stripe (22 listings), Intercom (12), CPM Ireland (12), Mongodb (11), Datadog (7), Klaviyo (7), Okta (4), AMAX (4), Pinterest (4), and Fivetran (4). Second, entry-level titles are rare: only 1 of 100 listings looked like a graduate or junior role, for example "Graduate Regulatory Reporting" at AQMetrics, which is not even a sales title. Most hiring here is for people with experience.

No listing in this slice shows a salary, so you cannot budget from the ads alone. Typical reported base ranges for SDR roles in Ireland often land somewhere around €30,000 to €40,000, with account executive roles ranging wider, but these vary a lot by employer and by language. Check current official sources and ask recruiters directly before you plan around a number.

Work permit routes that usually apply#

If you are from outside the EU, EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you need permission to work. The two routes that matter most for sales roles are the Critical Skills Employment Permit and the General Employment Permit.

The Critical Skills route is for roles on the Critical Skills Occupations List and generally requires a salary at or above a stated threshold. Sales roles are not typically on that list, so this route usually only works for higher-paying senior positions where the job meets the criteria. The General Employment Permit covers a wider set of occupations and has its own salary threshold and a labour market test requirement.

There is also the Employment Permit for intra-company transfers if you are moving within the same multinational, and the Third Level Graduate permission if you studied in Ireland. Thresholds change, and the occupations lists get updated. Always check the current rules on the official Irish government employment permits site before you apply anywhere.

Language expectations, stated plainly#

English is the working language for almost every sales job here. You need to be comfortable selling, handling objections, and writing follow-up emails in English without a script. Some roles want more: in the current snapshot, "Senior Account Executive - Dutch Speaking" at Newrelic and "Account Development Representative - Arabic Speaking" at Mongodb show that multilingual sellers are in demand for the European market.

If you speak another European language, say so clearly on your CV. It is often the reason a Dublin team hires you instead of someone local.

Local CV norms#

Irish sales CVs are short, factual, and numbers-first. Two pages maximum, one page if you have under five years of experience. Start with a short profile, then recent roles in reverse order with bullet points that show what you sold, to whom, and what happened because of it.

Here is a worked example of a rewritten bullet:

Before: "Responsible for sales in the DACH region and worked on new business."

After: "Closed €480,000 of new business in the DACH region in 2025, 22% above target, across 14 mid-market accounts."

The second version is what Irish hiring managers expect. Include your visa status or right to work in a single line near the top, such as "EU citizen" or "Stamp 1G, eligible to work without a permit." It saves everyone a round of emails. Leave out a photo, date of birth, and marital status. Those are not standard here.

Applying from abroad#

You can apply from outside Ireland, and many of the companies hiring here are used to it. The practical hurdles are the time difference for interviews and the fact that some employers want someone already in the country before they make an offer.

Be upfront. In your cover letter, say when you could start and what permission you need. Our cover letter tool helps you shape that paragraph without overselling yourself. Expect two to four interview rounds, usually a screen, a role play or case, and a final conversation with the sales manager.

On remote work: every listing in this snapshot is full-time and none advertised a fully remote arrangement, so plan for on-site or hybrid roles in Dublin. Remote sales jobs for Irish employers are rare in the current data.

Your 7-step plan#

• Check the official employment permits site and identify which permit route applies to your nationality and target role.
• Rewrite your CV in the Irish format: two pages, no photo, and at least three bullets with hard numbers.
• List the languages you speak and put them near the top, with a rough level for each.
• Target the employers with the most openings first, since Stripe, Intercom, CPM Ireland, and Mongodb account for a large share of current listings.
• Apply through the sales jobs hub and set up alerts so you see roles within days of posting.
• Write a cover letter that states your visa status, start date, and the one metric that proves you can sell.
• Practice a 10-minute cold call role play in English and, if relevant, in the second language you want to be hired for.

Free tools#

• Sales jobs in Ireland
• JobRise Hiring Report: Ireland
• free cover letter generator

FAQ#

Do I need a job offer before applying for a work permit?

Yes. Employment permits in Ireland are employer-sponsored, so you need a job offer first. The employer applies for the permit with you as the named beneficiary.

Which sales roles hire the most foreigners?

Roles requiring a second European language are the most common entry point. Multilingual SDR and account executive positions covering EMEA markets are the usual route for candidates from abroad.

Are there sales jobs outside Dublin?

There are some, but not many right now. The current snapshot shows 80 of 100 listings in Dublin, with small numbers in Cork, Galway, Maynooth, and Kildare.

Should I mention my visa status on my CV?

Yes, one clear line near the top. It removes doubt about your eligibility and gets you faster responses from both recruiters and hiring managers.

How long does the hiring process usually take?

Expect three to six weeks from first application to offer for most sales roles. Work permit processing adds time after that, so ask the employer for their typical timeline early on.