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Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history, delivering empirical Earth observation data via a cloud-based platform to commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. The company controls every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering.
The Director of Sales, Middle East will lead Planet's regional sales organization and drive Go-To-Market strategy across national security, defense, and government sectors in the MENA region. This is a strategic leadership role reporting to senior management, responsible for building and scaling a high-performing sales team, establishing executive relationships across defense ministries and key contractors, and positioning Planet's Earth observation platform as mission-critical capability.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning and executing 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
- Maintaining rigorous pipeline hygiene in Salesforce and delivering accurate, data-driven revenue forecasts to executive leadership
- Engineering tailored capture strategies and executive narratives aligned with agency-level priorities to win competitive procurements
- Building, mentoring, and scaling a high-performing sales team with accountability and operational excellence
- Training direct reports on core sales methodologies (MEDDPICC, Shipley) and deal qualification frameworks
- Proactively recruiting, onboarding, and retaining elite commercial and defense-domain talent
- Orchestrating seamless collaboration across Government Affairs, Product, Engineering, and Field Marketing teams
- Partnering with Pre-Sales/Solutions Engineering and Post-Sales teams to ensure technical wins and customer success
- Communicating deal velocity transparently and mobilizing executive sponsorship for complex pursuits
The role is based in the UAE with remote flexibility; if located near an office, 3 days per week in-office is expected. The position is eligible for commission.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 8+ years of experience driving revenue growth, building high-performing teams, and consistently exceeding multi-million-dollar individual and team quotas
- 6+ years of progressive leadership and management experience
- Ability to recruit, mentor, and retain top-tier talent with a high accountability culture
- Deep experience establishing pipeline discipline, accurate revenue forecasting, and deal inspection using Salesforce and modern sales methodologies (MEDDPICC)
- Extensive background navigating complex government and defense procurement frameworks across the Middle East, with focus on UAE, KSA, Oman, and Bahrain
- Established C-level network across Ministries of Defense, Intelligence Agencies, and Tier-1 Prime Contractors/System Integrators in MENA
- Deep understanding of how commercial technology and advanced data feeds support sovereign defense, intelligence, and national security missions
- Success collaborating across matrixed teams (Government Affairs, Product, Engineering, Legal)
- Strategic, self-directed leadership with sound commercial judgment in dynamic, high-growth environments
DESIRABLE:
- 5+ years of progressive sales leadership in defense, national security, or government technology sectors
- Deep operational understanding of defense domain priorities and agency decision-making across UK and EMEA regions
- Experience managing complex, multi-year deal cycles with disciplined capture frameworks
- Fluency in English and Arabic
