Regional Sales Director, Telco Cloud Software

Rakuten Symphony is reimagining telecom, changing supply chain norms and disrupting outmoded thinking that threatens the industry’s pursuit of rapid innovation and growth. Based on proven modern infrastructure practices, its open interface platforms make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security. Rakuten Symphony has operations in Japan, the United States, Singapore, India, South Korea, Europe, and the Middle East Africa region.

Building on the technology Rakuten used to launch Japan’s newest mobile network, we are taking our mobile offering global. To support our ambitions to provide an innovative cloud-native telco platform for our customers, Rakuten Symphony is looking to recruit and develop top talent from around the globe. We are looking for individuals to join our team across all functional areas of our business – from sales to engineering, support functions to product development.

JOB PURPOSE: Rakuten Symphony's best-of-breed Kubernetes-based Rakuten Cloud Native Platform combines 1-click application onboarding with declarative, context-aware workload placement, pinning your applications and services to automated policies. It provides a fully declarative GUI that requires no expertise to operate or self-serve. This means a low/no-code experience, no hunting or hardcoding, which drastically reduces your time to outcome across integration, training, application onboarding and lifecycle management.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Responsible for delivering OB and Revenue targets for the region for TSP Cloud Sales.
• To support our rapid growth, the Rakuten Symphony Telco cloud business is seeking motivated, knowledgeable, Telecom software and cloud sales and pre-sales professionals to join the team and bring the power of our products to the telecom industry and support our customers in a growing number of use-cases.
• Develop a grounds-up, specific sales plan for the region, with a clear path to achieving the OB and Revenue targets.
• Ensure appropriate demand generation, pipeline/funnel and conversion to yield targets.
• Collaborate with region dedicated pre-sales/solution-engineering to win new deals.
• Develop, maintain and leverage partner and GTM relationships to create a multiplier for GTM.
• Have a disciplined and transparent reporting ethos, with clear and timely reporting of the weekly sales activities and progress in the region.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• 15+ years of professional experience in leadership roles, consultative On-Premise Cloud software product Sales, Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) at scale (SAAS, PAAS).
• Experience in VMware, Redhat is a plus.
• Of this, at least last 5 years to be in-region experience specifically around sales for Cloud, Orchestration and Virtualisation/HCI sales in Telco/SP Market.
• Demonstrable senior stakeholder contacts in the region with potential Telecom and Service Provider customers.
• Technical background along with Engineering Degree.
• Experience managing and growing cross-disciplinary organizations, including Sales, Pre-Sales and collaborating with Engineering, and Customer Success.
• MBA or equivalent degree is preferred.
• Fluent in English, any other European language, especially Spanish is an advantage.
• Demonstrable and proven relevant Telecom/CSP CxO network with ability to initiate conversations at the Top levels of customer & partner decision making.
• Track record in the last 5 years of having closed multiple cloud software deals. Should be able to clearly articulate the specific role the candidate played in the deals.
• Strong oral and written communication and presentation skills. Candidate will be expected to represent the organization from time to time at Industry events and forums and must have the relevant skills to be a brand-ambassador.
• Clear understanding of business fundamentals and financials. Must have gravitas and ability to directly engage internal and external senior stakeholders in articulate, business relevant conversations. Be able to build a customer facing Business Case/TCO and marry it with internal commercial models.
• Ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial, cross-functional, diverse team of colleagues. Ability to navigate ambiguity and lead to positive outcomes for the business.
• Manage cross-functional matrix team.
• Ability to communicate clearly and persuasively, driving commitment across teams and peers. Confidence in an environment of cross-functional collaboration, partnership, and leadership.

KEY INTERFACES FOR ROLE:

• Executive Management (Global Sales Head, BU President/CEO, CRO).
• Pre-Sales.
• Marketing.
• Customer Success.
• Engineering.
• Finance, Legal, Governance.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS:

• Pipeline Generation and Progression.
• Order Book Target Achievement.
• Revenue Target Achievement.
• Reporting accuracy & discipline including SFDC and Pipeline management.
• Leadership KPI’s as defined by Rakuten Symphony.

RAKUTEN SHUGI PRINCIPLES:

• Always Improve, Always Advance. Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen.
• Be passionately professional. Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best.
• Hypothesize - Practice - Validate - Shikumika. Use the Rakuten Cycle to success in unknown territory.
• Maximise Customer Satisfaction. The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see their customers smile.
• Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.