Director of Sales, Europe

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world’s toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:

Based in London, the Director NATO & Nordics will be responsible for leading our regional sales organization, driving Planet’s Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy, and accelerating revenue growth across national security, defense, and government sectors.

As a people manager and business leader, you will own the regional revenue target, drive executive alignment, and establish disciplined pipeline governance to ensure forecast predictability. You will be responsible for building, mentoring, and coaching a team of direct reports—fostering a culture of accountability, operational excellence, and continuous professional development. In addition to team development, you will architect large-scale strategic programs, lead high-stakes commercial negotiations, and scale partner ecosystems to penetrate priority markets. Above all, you will leverage your leadership experience to elevate Planet’s market presence across NATO and the Nordics in alignment with our mission to see change and change the world.

The ideal candidate is an accomplished sales leader with deep defense domain expertise and a track record of managing high-performing teams across Alliance structures and Northern European markets. You will bring an established executive network spanning NATO HQ, allied Defense Ministries, Armed Forces Commands, Intelligence Agencies, and key European Prime Contractors/System Integrators. Combining strategic commercial acumen with an understanding of collective defense and national security priorities, you will position Planet as a trusted capability provider for mission-critical operations.

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our London office 3 days per week.

Impact You’ll Own:

• Drive Strategic Revenue Growth: Own and execute a result-oriented Go-To-Market (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+ …