Sales Director, Elastic

About Emerald

Emerald’s talented and experienced teams grow our customers’ businesses 365 days a year with products that create connections, deliver content, and drive commerce. We produce over 140 annual events, create and deliver content through print and digital channels, and power commerce through our seamlessly integrated in-person and digital platforms and channels. For more information, please visit http://www.emeraldx.com.

Elastic, powered by Forge, is seeking an EU Sales Director to build and lead our sales presence across Europe. This is a hands‑on leadership role: you will own all revenue, pipeline, and prospecting outcomes across the EU and associated regions, while directly managing and developing a team of Account Executives. You will set regional strategies, drive team performance against quota, and personally engage in developing strategy and cultivate executive relationships as Elastic scales its footprint in Europe.

The ideal candidate combines proven enterprise SaaS sales leadership with proven team management experience, executive-level presence, and the operational discipline to run a full‑funnel regional sales organization — from prospecting and pipeline generation through forecasting, expansion, and close.

Travel requirement: approximately 30–40%, primarily within Europe, with periodic travel to US/global offices.

Key Responsibilities

Regional Leadership & Team Management

• Own full P&L-level accountability for EU (and associated region) revenue, pipeline health, and quota attainment
• Manage, recruit, hire, onboard, and develop a team of Account Executives and Senior Account Executives across the region
• Set individual and team quotas, territories, and account assignments in partnership with sales leadership
• Coach reps on pipeline generation, deal strategy, negotiation, and forecasting discipline through regular 1:1s and deal reviews
• Build a repeatable regional prospecting motion — outbound, trade shows, partner-sourced, and channel-driven — to ensure consistent new-logo pipeline creation
• Represent the EU region in global sales leadership planning, QBRs, and forecast calls

Strategic Revenue Ownership & Growth

• Own and consistently exceed annual regional quota across net-new and existing enterprise accounts
• Drive net-new revenue, account expansion, and long-term customer value across Europe and associated regions
• Operate with a P&L mindset, demonstrating strong budget awareness and commercial prioritization
• Identify market trends, vertical opportunities, and regional whitespace for expansion across Europe
• Develop and execute multi-year regional go-to-market strategy aligned to company growth objectives

Executive Relationship Leadership

• Establish trusted‑advisor relationships with C‑suite and senior decision makers at strategic accounts
• Personally engage in the region's largest and most complex opportunities alongside the AE team
• Map complex stakeholder ecosystems, including influencers, champions, blockers, and buying committees
• Navigate enterprise procurement, security, finance, and executive approval processes across multiple European markets
• Resolve conflict and manage escalations while protecting long‑term partnership value
• Leverage an established professional network to accelerate regional pipeline and deal velocity

Operational Excellence & Forecasting

• Maintain disciplined pipeline management with full transparency and accuracy across the entire EU team
• Deliver reliable regional forecasts across quarterly and annual horizons to global sales leadership
• Instill structured sales methodology and process discipline across the team to progress deals efficiently
• Effectively leverage sales and marketing assets to drive conversion and deal quality regionally
• Shorten sales cycles while protecting deal size and strategic positioning

Product & Solution Leadership

• Develop deep expertise in product architecture, capabilities, and differentiation
• Translate technical functionality into compelling business value and ROI narratives, and coach the team to do the same
• Position solutions strategically within customer technology ecosystems across varied European verticals
• Provide market and customer feedback from the region to inform product roadmap and pricing

Required Experience & Qualifications

• 5–10+ years of Enterprise Sales, Strategic Accounts, or Sales Leadership experience in SaaS or enterprise software
• Prior experience managing, coaching, or leading a team of Account Executives, ideally within a European or multi-country territory
• Documented history of meeting or exceeding quotas as both an