Vice President of Sales, EMEA in Manchester

Cornelis Networks delivers the world’s highest performance scale-out networking solutions for AI and HPC datacenters. Our differentiated architecture seamlessly integrates hardware, software and system level technologies to maximize the efficiency of GPU, CPU and accelerator-based compute clusters at any scale. Our solutions drive breakthroughs in AI & HPC workloads, empowering our customers to push the boundaries of innovation.

Cornelis Networks is seeking a Vice President of Sales, EMEA to build and scale our presence across one of the most important AI infrastructure markets in the world. This is not a traditional regional sales leadership role. It is a market-building opportunity at the center of the AI and HPC transformation.

We are looking for a highly driven commercial leader who thrives on creating opportunities, winning strategic accounts, and building executive relationships that unlock long-term platform adoption. The ideal candidate is energized by hunting for new business, shaping emerging markets, and competing aggressively in fast-moving AI and HPC infrastructure environments.

You will activate ecosystems, influence strategic partners, and drive complex, multi-million-dollar engagements from initial customer vision through deployment and long-term expansion. Success will require urgency, creativity, resilience, and the ability to operate effectively against incumbents in the industry.

The successful candidate will:

• Build new strategic customer relationships across enterprise, sovereign AI, cloud, and HPC markets.
• Aggressively create and expand pipeline across targeted accounts, ecosystem partners, OEMs, and strategic channels.
• Deliver against quarterly and annual revenue targets while scaling long-term strategic customer relationships.
• Drive new customer acquisition and expand Cornelis Networks’ business across existing and emerging AI infrastructure markets.
• Create market momentum and establish Cornelis Networks as a credible strategic alternative within the EMEA AI and HPC ecosystem.
• Drive urgency, competitive intensity, and execution discipline throughout the region.
• Thrive in an environment where market creation, strategic influence, and customer trust matter more than incremental account management.

This role is best suited for a leader who enjoys building, hunting, and creating new opportunities, not simply maintaining existing business. The ideal candidate has experience helping scale emerging businesses, new technology platforms, or disruptive infrastructure solutions from early market adoption toward broader commercial scale.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the overall EMEA sales strategy and execution across AI, HPC, sovereign AI, cloud, enterprise, and AI factory infrastructure opportunities.
• Own quarterly and annual regional revenue targets, ensuring strong operational rigor around forecasting, pipeline management, deal execution, and business growth.
• Drive aggressive new logo acquisition and expansion strategies across strategic accounts and emerging AI infrastructure customers.
• Build repeatable go-to-market motions that help scale Cornelis Networks’ presence from early market adoption toward broader regional growth and commercial momentum.
• Build high-impact executive relationships with strategic customers, OEMs, hyperscalers, cloud providers, system integrators, resellers, and ecosystem partners that drive large-scale platform adoption.
• Drive complex multi-million-dollar infrastructure engagements from early-stage business development through deployment and long-term expansion.
• Align customer technology roadmaps with Cornelis Networks’ differentiated networking architecture and future AI infrastructure capabilities.
• Build, mentor, and scale a high-performance regional sales organization focused on accountability, customer success, strategic thinking, and execution excellence.
• Partner closely with product management, engineering, marketing, and executive leadership teams to serve as the internal voice of the customer, communicating market requirements, competitive dynamics, and feedback in influence product roadmaps.
• Represent Cornelis Networks at executive forums, industry conferences, trade shows, customer events, and strategic partner engagements.

Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in enterprise technology sales, business development, or strategic account leadership within datacenter infrastructure, semiconductors, networking hardware, AI, HPC, storage, or accelerated computing markets.
• Minimum of 7+ years leading high-performing enterprise sales organizations or regional teams within complex infrastructure technology environments.
• Direct experience selling networking hardware, systems, or scale-out interconnect solutions (such as InfiniBand, Ethernet, Omni-Path) into AI and HPC environments.
• Established relationships and experience working across the EMEA HPC, AI, research, enterprise, cloud, OEM, channel partner, system integrator, and public sector ecosystems strongly preferred.
• Proven track record of delivering against quarterly and annual revenue targets within complex enterprise infrastructure markets and driving multi-million-dollar infrastructure wins.
• Demonstrated experience helping scale emerging technologies, new business units, or disruptive infrastructure platforms from early-stage market penetration to broader commercial adoption.
• Demonstrated hunter mentality with a track record of creating new markets, opening strategic accounts, building pipeline, and operating with urgency.
• Deep understanding of AI and HPC infrastructure ecosystems, including networking, accelerators, GPU clusters, cloud architectures, storage, and large-scale datacenter environments.
• Strong executive presence with excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills to engage with C-Suite executives, CTOs, and research leaders.
• Fluent in spoken and written English.
• Ability to travel extensively across EMEA.

Desired Qualifications:

• Entrepreneurial mindset with a high comfort level in fast-paced environments where speed, initiative, and adaptability are critical to success.
• Collaborative leadership style with strong customer advocacy orientation and the ability to build trust across internal and external stakeholders.
• Motivated by competition and energized by helping customers adopt differentiated technologies that challenge conventional infrastructure approaches.

Location: This is a remote role with a preference for candidates based in the United Kingdom. Exceptional candidates located elsewhere in Europe may also be considered. The role requires approximately 50% travel across customer sites, partner engagements, industry events, and strategic meetings throughout the EMEA region.

We offer a competitive compensation package that includes base salary, performance incentives and equity participation. At Cornelis Networks, your compensation is only one component of your comprehensive total rewards package. Compensation will be determined by factors such as experience, qualifications, skills, and location relative to the hiring range for the position.

Cornelis Networks does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies, or fee-based recruitment services. Cornelis Networks is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.