Sales Director, EMEA

Responsibilities

Build the EMEA Business

• Lead the current team and build the EMEA sales organization and go-to-market motion.
• Develop regional strategy, operating model, territory design, account segmentation, and coverage plans across multiple sales segments.
• Translate company goals into executable plans for new business, expansion, and partnerships.
• Establish repeatable playbooks for customers and markets across the UK and broader EMEA region.
• Provide regional market insight to inform company strategy, product priorities, and investment decisions.

Lead From the Front

• Support and lead high-value, strategic EMEA opportunities.
• Develop executive relationships with CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, infrastructure leaders, security leaders, and business executives.
• Serve as regional executive sponsor for complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
• Coach teams on discovery, qualification, account strategy, executive engagement, negotiation, and deal execution.
• Navigate technical, commercial, legal, procurement, and executive stakeholders to drive customer outcomes.

Lead and Scale Multiple Segments

• Lead Account Executives serving commercial, mid-market, enterprise, and strategic customer segments.
• Create differentiated motions, coverage models, and performance expectations for each segment.
• Recruit, hire, onboard, and develop sales talent across the region.
• Build a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, collaboration, curiosity, customer value, and continuous learning.
• Develop future leaders and the management structure required as the organization scales.

Build Regional Partnerships

• Define and execute EMEA partnership strategy with the Partnerships organization and Executive Leadership.
• Identify markets and customer segments where partners can accelerate awareness, pipeline creation, implementation, and expansion.
• Create rules of engagement, joint account plans, and co-selling motions with priority partners.
• Represent Tailscale with senior partner executives and at relevant regional customer and industry events.

Create Pipeline and Regional Awareness

• Lead an outbound-first, account-based sales motion across the region.
• Build executive relationships within high-priority accounts and partner ecosystems.
• Partner with SDRs, Marketing, GTM Engineering, and Partnerships to create qualified pipeline.
• Build scalable account-planning, prospecting, event, community, and partner-sourced pipeline programs.
• Develop balanced pipeline across customer segments, products, countries, and sources.

Drive Operational Excellence

• Own regional forecasting, pipeline health, hiring plans, and performance management.
• Establish operating cadence across forecast reviews, pipeline creation, deal inspection, account planning, and talent development.
• Use data to identify trends, improve execution, allocate resources, and communicate regional performance.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to provide structured customer and market feedback.
• Build the metrics, processes, and cross-functional relationships needed to scale effectively.

Requirements

• Experience building or materially scaling a high-growth SaaS business in EMEA.
• Proven leadership of teams spanning multiple customer segments.
• Ability to operate with ambiguity, limited infrastructure, and significant ownership.
• Track record of winning complex new-business and expansion opportunities.
• Experience recruiting, developing, and retaining high-performing Account Executives and sales leaders.
• Success building outbound pipeline and repeatable regional go-to-market motions.
• Experience developing channel, technology, cloud, reseller, or strategic partnerships in EMEA.
• Executive presence with CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, and senior business leaders.
• Strong business acumen and experience navigating complex buying committees, procurement processes, and enterprise sales cycles.
• Deep familiarity with the UK and broader EMEA technology market.
• Based in the United Kingdom and able to travel throughout EMEA as needed.

Nice to Have

• Additional European language skills.
• Experience building a region from the ground up.
• Experience creating differentiated sales motions for commercial, mid-market, enterprise, and strategic customers.

Compensation and Benefits

• Compensation includes base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits.
• Salary range: £260,000–£300,000.