Director of Sales, Europe (National Security, Defense & Government)

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history, delivering an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. Customers and users globally use Planet’s data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve the world’s toughest challenges.

The Director of Sales, Europe will lead our regional sales organization, driving Planet’s Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and accelerating revenue growth across national security, defense, and government sectors.

Impact You’ll Own:

• Drive Strategic Revenue Growth: Own and execute a result-oriented GTM strategy to build, negotiate, and close high-value, complex deals across sovereign defense and government sectors, consistently hitting or exceeding regional quota targets.
• Forecast Governance & Predictability: Maintain rigorous pipeline hygiene (Salesforce.com) and deliver accurate, data-driven revenue forecasts to executive leadership through disciplined deal inspection and pipeline management.
• Capture Strategy & Value Messaging: Engineer tailored capture strategies and high-impact executive narratives that align with agency-level priorities, resonate with key decision-makers, and win competitive procurements.
• Manage, Coach & Empower: Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing sales team, establishing a culture of accountability, operational excellence, and continuous professional development.
• Methodology Alignment: Train and inspect direct reports on core sales methodologies and capture frameworks (e.g., MEDDPICC, Shipley), coaching them on deal qualification, stakeholder mapping, and win strategies.
• Talent Bench & Scaling: Proactively recruit, onboard, and retain elite commercial and defense-domain talent to build a solid talent bench as the regional footprint expands.
• Cross-Functional Matrix Alignment: Orchestrate seamless collaboration across internal matrix teams including Government Affairs, Product, Engineering, and Field Marketing to align corporate capabilities with regional market opportunities.
• Technical & Post-Sales Win Alignment: Partner closely with Pre-Sales/Solutions Engineering to secure technical wins, and collaborate with Post-Sales teams to ensure flawless customer onboarding, retention, and long-term expansion.
• Deal Cadence & Executive Escalation: Communicate deal velocity transparently across internal business units, mobilizing executive sponsorship and cross-functional support when needed to de-risk complex pursuits.

What You Bring:

• 8+ years of relevant work experience and 6+ years supervisory/leadership experience, with a track record of driving revenue growth, building high-performing teams, and consistently exceeding multi-million-dollar individual and team quotas.
• Ability to recruit, mentor, and retain top-tier talent, instilling a high-accountability culture and coaching direct reports through complex, multi-year deal cycles.
• Deep experience establishing pipeline discipline, accurate revenue forecasting, and thorough deal inspection using Salesforce.com and modern sales methodologies (e.g., MEDDPICC).
• Extensive background navigating complex government, NATO, and defense procurement frameworks across Northern Europe and Allied Command structures, with a focus on key Nordic nations (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark).
• An established, C-level network across Defense Ministries, Intelligence Agencies, Allied Commands, and European Defense Primes/System Integrators.
• Deep understanding of how commercial technology and advanced data feeds support Allied posture, sovereign defense, intelligence, and ISR missions.
• Success collaborating across internal matrixed teams (Government Affairs, Product, Engineering, Legal) to align corporate capabilities with regional opportunities.
• A strategic, self-directed leader with commercial judgment, adept at leading teams through dynamic, high-growth, or startup-like market environments.
• Professional working proficiency in English.

What Makes You Stand Out:

• 5+ years of progressive sales leadership and enterprise business development experience within the defense, national security, or government technology sectors, with a track record of building high-performing teams and consistently exceeding revenue targets.
• Operational understanding of NATO defense priorities, Nordic security dynamics, joint acquisition processes, and agency decision-making across Allied Ministries of Defense and Tier-1 Defense Primes.
• Experience managing complex, multi-year deal cycles, with the ability to lead sales teams through disciplined capture frameworks, pipeline governance, and accurate revenue forecasting.
• Professional proficiency in a Nordic language (Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish) is a plus for engaging senior government ministers, military command leadership, and internal executives.