Director, Sales Engineering - UK Strategic & Public Sector in Reading

Proofpoint is looking for an experienced Director, Sales Engineering to lead our UK Strategic & Public Sector Sales Engineering team. This is a high-impact leadership role for someone who loves building outstanding teams, partnering closely with sales leaders and staying close to customers and complex deals.

You will lead a team supporting some of our most important customers and prospects across the UK, including public sector organisations and other complex, high-value strategic accounts. You will help shape technical strategy, coach and develop a high-performing team and personally engage in priority opportunities where executive presence, technical depth and deal leadership matter.

This role will suit a leader who can move comfortably between people leadership, customer engagement and cross-functional execution—and who understands the stakeholder complexity, procurement scrutiny and long sales cycles often associated with strategic and public sector environments.

• Lead, coach and develop a team of Sales Engineers supporting strategic accounts and public sector customers across the UK.
• Build a high-performance, inclusive culture with clear expectations, strong operating rhythm and active mentoring.
• Partner with sales leadership on territory strategy, account planning, pipeline inspection and resource prioritisation.
• Support the team in complex customer engagements, executive presentations, workshops, proofs of value and technical strategy discussions.
• Act as an escalation point for critical opportunities, competitive situations and customer challenges.
• Help new team members ramp quickly on Proofpoint, the UK market, effective account-team partnership and the dynamics of complex customer buying processes.
• Work closely with Product, Product Marketing, Customer Success, Professional Services, Support, Channels and Alliances to improve win rates and customer outcomes.
• Bring an informed point of view on customer priorities in strategic and public sector segments, helping the business adapt messaging, enablement and field feedback loops.
• Contribute directly when needed as a hands‑on technical leader in priority accounts and major deals.
• Partner with Recruiting and HR to attract, hire and retain exceptional talent.

What you bring to the team

• Proven experience leading presales or sales engineering teams in enterprise cybersecurity or a closely related technology space.
• Previous success as a field Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer or similar presales leader supporting complex enterprise or public sector opportunities.
• Strong technical foundation across areas such as email security, cloud security, information protection, data security, insider risk, security awareness or governance and compliance.
• Experience operating in complex buying environments with multiple stakeholders, formal procurement processes and executive-level scrutiny.
• A track record of coaching senior technical talent, creating accountability and developing future leaders.
• Strong commercial acumen and confidence partnering with sales on qualification, competitive positioning, deal strategy and execution.
• Credibility with both technical audiences and senior business or security leaders, including C-suite conversations.
• A willingness to stay close to the work and be hands‑on when the situation requires it.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills in English.
• The ability to travel within the UK as required by customer and team needs.

Why this role

• You will lead a team at the centre of high-value, high-impact customer conversations.
• You will work on strategic opportunities where technical leadership materially shapes outcomes.
• You will help grow and develop a talented team while also stretching your own leadership scope.
• You will join a mission‑led cybersecurity company solving urgent problems for customers that face real risk every day.