VP, Sales Engineering – EMEA

Overview

In this AvP SE role, you will shape and scale DDN’s Sales Engineering function across Europe, driving a culture of accountability and high performance. You’ll partner with Sales, Product, Marketing and Engineering to align technical strategy with business outcomes and own region-wide execution. You’ll lead a transformational agenda, attract and develop top talent, and connect SE to revenue and customer success. This is a strategic, cross-functional leadership role at a growing, global AI data storage leader.

Pay / Benefits

• competitive compensation package including base salary, variable incentive, equity
• comprehensive benefits
• hybrid work model
• career development opportunities
• leadership exposure to executive teams

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the EMEA SE vision, strategy, and regional rollout across sub-regions and market segments
• Lead organizational transformation to set new SE operating standards and collaboration models
• Establish a culture of accountability with clear commitments and outcomes ownership
• Foster a team-oriented environment contributing to shared revenue and customer success
• Model high-performance culture to attract and retain talent
• Develop and implement a regional talent strategy to recruit, retain, and develop SE leaders
• Oversee onboarding and enablement to accelerate time-to-productivity
• Conduct regular performance discussions focused on development and growth
• Promote internal mobility and promotion from within
• Create and manage a KPI framework for SE performance and continuous improvement
• Institute regular operating cadences (weekly, monthly, quarterly) and align leadership
• Build dashboards for real-time visibility of SE metrics across the region
• Ensure end-to-end execution quality from discovery to technical close
• Serve as executive technical sponsor for strategic accounts and competitive scenarios
• Set architectural standards, messaging, and solution positioning across SE
• Articulate DDN differentiation in AI storage, EXAScaler, Infinia, and HPC environments
• Lead cross-functional alignment between SE, Sales, Product, Engineering, and Support
• Represent SE in executive briefings, partner events, and industry forums
• Drive proactive, value-led SE capabilities rather than reactive deal support
• Define roadmaps for SE evolution and gain executive alignment
• Establish CoE practices, reference architectures, and enablement assets

Key requirements

• 15+ years in Sales Engineering, Solutions Architecture, or Systems Engineering with at least 7 years in senior people leadership managing managers
• Proven ability to transform distributed, multi-layered technical organizations regionally or globally
• Track record designing and implementing KPI frameworks and metrics for SE performance
• Success attracting and retaining top talent through deliberate career development and culture-building
• Experience leading significant cultural or structural transformations with tangible results
• Strong cross-functional executive communication for board-level, product strategy, and coaching contexts
• Deep background in enterprise storage, data infrastructure, AI/ML infrastructure, HPC, or distributed systems
• Ability to drive accountability without micromanagement while maintaining clear expectations
• Experience building collaborative, team-oriented cultures
• Experience at VP level leading SE organizations in large, high-growth tech companies (preferred)
• Familiarity with modern AI data infrastructure ecosystems (GPU clusters, parallel file systems, object storage, MLOps) (preferred)
• Bachelor in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; MBA or advanced degree a plus (preferred)

• executive communication
• talent development
• cross-functional influence
• enterprise storage
• AI/ML infrastructure
• HPC

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