Luna Innovations Opportunities

Regional Sales Director - Middle East

Full time, UAE with travel

Role Purpose

Luna Innovations is the global leader in distributed fibre-optic sensing: no one else matches the breadth and depth of our portfolio. Our market position, combined with the timing and direction of the market, means we are currently facing a significant growth opportunity.

The Regional Sales Director reports directly to the VP Sales & Marketing, Sensing Business Unit, and holds full commercial responsibility for Luna's sensing business across their region. This is a role for a builder. Beyond running the regional sales effort, the Director will bring the teams closer together into one, define the regional go-to-market plan, and put in place the team, territory and channel structure needed to win and grow efficiently. The core responsibility of the role is to grow revenue across the region, and build the regional organisation able to consistently deliver results.

Key Responsibilities

1. Grow revenue

• Lead the team to win new business and grow existing accounts, personally leading from the front on key accounts and opportunities.
• Build key-account capability across high-priority accounts, cross-selling the full portfolio to maximise revenue potential.
• Partner with the Regional Operations Director to ensure proposals and customer commitments are deliverable.

2. Build, integrate and develop the team

• Rapidly build a regional sales organisation, integrating previously siloed teams into one team with shared objectives.
• Assess capability and potential objectively, and make sure the right people are in the right roles.
• Coach and develop a high-performing team, leading by example and setting a standard of customer obsession and accountability.

3. Lead the region commercially

• Carry full responsibility for sales performance across the region: revenue, margin, pipeline and forecast accuracy.
• Own a clear, prioritised view of the region and translate Business Unit strategy into a regional plan with measurable targets.
• Run a disciplined operating rhythm covering pipeline, forecasting, deal qualification and review, so that what we commit, we deliver.

4. Own the regional go-to-market plan

• Own the regional go-to-market plan against which sales coverage is designed and deployed, and against which regional investment and divestment decisions are made.
• Design territories by geography and end-user market to deploy sales-manager resource aligned to where the opportunity sits.
• Build a regional partner ecosystem to scale an indirect channel and extend reach efficiently where direct coverage is not justified.

5. Contribute as a member of the Sales Leadership team

• Help shape Business Unit commercial strategy as a member of the Sales Leadership team.
• Feed regional customer, competitor and market intelligence back into product, marketing and Business Unit leadership, where it directly informs investment and roadmap priorities.
• Resolve issues at the level they arise, and help build a culture of direct, accountable problem-solving.
• Represent Luna credibly at customer, partner and industry level, including at conferences, exhibitions and customer events.

Candidate Profile

Qualifications

• A technical degree in a relevant field, or equivalent industry experience.
• Business-fluent English is essential. Additional languages relevant to the assigned region are an advantage.
• Digitally fluent with strong CRM and sales-tooling skills; quick to adopt new technologies and to apply AI in innovative ways to improve productivity.

Key Competencies

• Technical aptitude. Able to learn fast and engage credibly with deep-tech solutions and technical customers.
• High IQ and EQ. Strong analytical and strategic horsepower, matched by genuine emotional intelligence and the ability to read and lead people.
• Strategic thinker and exceptional operator. Can set direction and then make it happen in the detail.
• Outstanding leader of people. A track record of building, integrating and developing high-performing commercial teams.
• High integrity. Does the right thing, especially when it is hard or unseen.
• Self-starter. High agency and high ownership; does not wait to be told.
• Willing to “get their hands dirty”. Leads by example and gets into the trenches alongside their people. This is a build role, not a purely strategic one.

Experience and background

• Commercial leadership. Demonstrable success leading sales in a technical or industrial B2B environment, including building and integrating teams.
• Selling complex solutions. Experience selling complex technical solutions to enterprise and infrastructure customers, including framework and strategic account agreements.
• Channel and partner development. Experience building and managing indirect channels (agents, resellers, service partners) to extend coverage.
• Go-to-market and territory design. Has owned go-to-market planning, territory design and sales-coverage decisions, ideally tied to investment cases.
• Regional knowledge. Knowledge of the assigned region and its key end-user markets, with an existing network a strong advantage.

Domain knowledge (preferred, not essential)

• Fibre-optic / distributed sensing experience is preferable but not essential.
• Experience in any of our served markets is an advantage but not essential: oil and gas, energy, power and utilities, telecoms and data centres, transport and infrastructure, mining, security, or defence.
• Familiarity with one or more of our application areas (subsurface imaging, production monitoring, pipeline integrity and security, power-cable monitoring) is helpful but not essential.

Travel

Approximately 50% travel within the assigned region.

Luna Innovations is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. Luna provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, genetic information, or veteran status. Equal employment opportunity applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leave of absence, compensation, and training. Luna expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment or discrimination.