Sales Director
At a glance
Director-level Sales Leadership role at Thomson Reuters. United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Dubai · full-time.
Pay not stated Sales Director salary
growthroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Set the regional revenue approach, deliver sales targets and adjust plans when results fall short
- Hire, coach and develop Dubai-based Business Development Managers, with clear performance expectations
- Win customers beyond the existing base and build sales through regional resellers, distributors and other partners
- Lead complex negotiations with senior executives and government buyers, while guiding multi-party sales cycles
- Review pipeline, forecasts, market shifts and competitor activity, then update senior leaders on progress
What you bring
- At least fifteen years in sales, including five or more years managing and coaching sales teams
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience, plus a history of meeting and surpassing sales goals
- Deep sales experience in Saudi Arabia and GCC markets, backed by an established client and partner network
- Experience selling software, technology or data-led offerings and building channel sales across the region
Who this fits
This director-level role suits an experienced sales leader who has managed regional teams and complex deals. The position is hybrid in the United Arab Emirates and requires regular travel across the region, stated as thirty to forty percent. You’ll lead a team of Business Development Managers.
From the employer
Job Description
Thomson Reuters is seeking an experienced sales leader to own revenue growth across the Middle East and Africa, starting with our established base in the Middle East and North Africa. You will lead a team of Business Development Managers based in Dubai, UAE, and your mandate is to deepen relationships with existing customers, open new markets, and build a strong partner network. You will report to senior regional leadership and work closely with Partnerships and Alliances, Marketing, Sales Operations, Product, Customer Success, and Finance. This is a high-visibility role for a leader who wants to shape how a global brand expands in some of the world’s fastest-growing markets.
This role requires regular travel across the region (30–40%).
Key Responsibilities
- Own the regional revenue plan, setting strategy and delivering against sales targets and revenue objectives.
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of Business Development Managers, building a high-performance culture through hiring, mentoring, and clear accountability.
- Identify and win new business beyond the current client base, with a focus on underpenetrated markets across the Middle East and Africa.
- Build and grow channel sales by working with the Partnerships and Alliances team to recruit and manage resellers, distributors, advisory firms, and technology partners.
- Guide complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles with senior executives and government buyers, and personally lead key negotiations and closes.
- Maintain accurate pipeline visibility and reliable revenue forecasts, and take corrective action when performance falls short.
- Track market trends, competitor activity, and the growing role of AI-powered technology, and use these insights to sharpen sales strategy and report progress to senior management.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
- 15+ years of sales experience, including 5+ years leading and coaching sales teams
- Track record of meeting and exceeding sales targets
- Experience in performance management: identifying gaps, putting improvement plans in place, and driving accountability across a regional team
- Extensive experience selling in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with an established network of clients and partners
- Knowledge of the channel landscape in the Middle East and Africa, including how to build and manage sales through resellers, distributors, advisory firms, and technology partners
- Experience selling software, technology, or data-driven solutions
- Ability to travel across the region (30–40%)
- Experience selling AI-driven solutions
- Experience entering new markets or building territory plans in underpenetrated regions
- Experience selling to government and public-sector buyers
- Experience with co-sell and referral partner models
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience selling subscription-based, recurring-revenue products
- Experience with Middle East and Africa markets beyond the Gulf (for example, North Africa or Sub-Saharan Africa), which supports the expansion mandate
- An established network among government entities and public-sector decision-makers, which supports the expansion mandate
- Fluency in both Arabic and English
What’s in it For You?
- Hybrid Work Model: We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment for our office-based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.
- Flexibility & Work-Life Balance: Flex My Way is a set of supportive workplace policies designed to help manage personal and professional responsibilities, whether caring for family, giving back to the community, or finding time to refresh and reset. This builds upon our flexible work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.
- Career Development and Growth: By fostering a culture of continuous learning and skill development, we prepare our talent to tackle tomorrow’s challenges and deliver real-world solutions. Our Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.
- Industry Competitive Benefits: We offer comprehensive benefit plans to include flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days off, access to the Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.
- Culture: Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.
- Social Impact: Make an impact in your community with our Social Impact Institute. We offer employees two paid volunteer days off annually and opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.
- Making a Real-World Impact: We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.
About Us
Thomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.
We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.
As a global business, we rely on the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of all employees to deliver on our business goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer providing a drug-free workplace.
We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. More information on requesting an accommodation here.
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More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com.