Sales Director — Southern Europe

Lead the commercial development in Rail sector across Southern Europe. The position combines technical selling, key-account leadership and tender strategy to grow equipment, service and lifecycle-support revenue in Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Key responsibilities

• Regional sales strategy: Define and execute the commercial plan for Portugal, Spain and Italy, aligned with group priorities and market opportunities.
• Business development: Identify new projects, clients, distributors and partnerships across the railway-infrastructure ecosystem.
• Key accounts: Build senior relationships with infrastructure managers, contractors, operators and strategic industrial customers.
• Technical selling: Translate operational needs into robust equipment, service and lifecycle-support proposals with internal technical teams.
• Tender management: Lead bid strategy, commercial positioning, negotiation and contract handover for complex public and private opportunities.
• Sales performance: Manage pipeline quality, forecasting, order intake, margin and regional sales reporting.
• After-sales growth: Develop service, spare-parts, training and fleet-support opportunities alongside new-equipment sales.
• Market intelligence: Monitor investment programmes, competitor activity, technical standards and customer priorities across the territory.
• Cross-functional leadership: Coordinate sales activity with engineering, product, service, operations, finance and legal teams.

Main interfaces

• Regional customers, infrastructure managers, railway contractors, operators and distribution partners.
• Group sales leadership, product management, engineering, service, tendering and finance teams.
• Local technical advisers, external partners and senior decision-makers across Southern Europe.
• A qualified regional pipeline and account-development plan for Portugal, Spain and Italy.
• Winning commercial strategies for priority tenders and strategic customer opportunities.
• Accurate forecasts, sales reporting and margin-protection actions.
• Key-account plans, customer visit reports and partnership-development initiatives.
• Growth in equipment, service, spare-parts and lifecycle-support revenue.

Candidate profile

• Typically 15+ years of commercial experience in railway infrastructure, industrial equipment or highly technical B2B solutions.
• Proven responsibility for multi-country sales, strategic accounts or regional business development.
• A technical foundation in mechanical, electrical, rail, industrial or infrastructure engineering is strongly valued.
• Demonstrated experience of complex tenders, long sales cycles and negotiations with technical and executive stakeholders.
• Established understanding of railway-infrastructure customers and procurement processes in Southern Europe.
• Professional English plus fluent Spanish or Italian; Portuguese is a strong advantage.
• Ability to travel regularly across Portugal, Spain and Italy and to work autonomously in an international organisation.

Critical selection criteria

• Direct experience selling technical equipment, services or engineered solutions to railway-infrastructure customers.
• Credible senior-level network and relationship-building ability across Iberia and/or Italy.
• Strong commercial judgement: pricing, margin, risk, contractual terms and tender positioning.
• Capacity to connect customer requirements with engineering, product and service teams.
• A hands-on, growth-oriented leadership style suited to a multi-country regional remit.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

Professional English and fluent Spanish or Italian are required. The successful candidate must be available for regular travel across Portugal, Spain and Italy.