Sales Director, EMEA

About Tailscale Tailscale is building the new Internet by delivering software that makes it easy to securely interconnect people and their devices, no matter where they are. From hobbyists to multinational corporations, teams of every size use Tailscale each day to protect their networks, share access to internal tools, and more. We're building a future for the Internet that's easy, sensible, and safe, like it used to be. Founded in 2019 and fully distributed, we're backed by Accel, CRV, Insight, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital. Tailscale is redefining secure networking by making it simple for organizations to securely connect people, devices, and workloads anywhere in the world. At Tailscale, we're solving one of the most fundamental challenges in modern infrastructure: secure connectivity. Our product is loved by developers, trusted by IT and security teams, and rapidly expanding within organizations of every size. As adoption accelerates, we are investing in a regional sales motion that matches the scale of our ambition across EMEA. We are looking for a founding Sales Director, EMEA to build and lead one of Tailscale's most important growth initiatives. This is a rare opportunity to shape how a category-leading company enters and scales a major region, develops strategic customer and partner relationships, recruits an exceptional team, and creates the operating model for long-term growth. About the Role You will be a regional leader, seller, coach, and builder. You will own the EMEA sales strategy and lead teams across multiple customer segments, while personally helping advance the region's most important opportunities and executive relationships. You will define regional priorities, territory and segment strategy, hiring plans, outbound and expansion motions, and the operating cadence for the business. You will also help spearhead partnerships across the region, including channel, cloud, technology, and strategic alliance relationships that can accelerate customer acquisition and expansion. Initially, you will lead a focused team of Account Executives across multiple segments and work closely with Customer Engineering, RevOps, Marketing, GTM Engineering, and Executive Leadership. As the business grows, you will play a central role in scaling the team, developing frontline leaders, and building the regional organization. This UK-based role reports directly to the President and offers the opportunity to build Tailscale’s EMEA sales organization from the ground up. Key Responsibilities Build the EMEA Business Lead the current team and build the EMEA sales organization and go-to-market motion. Develop the regional strategy, operating model, territory design, account segmentation, and coverage plan across multiple sales segments. Set clear regional priorities and translate company goals into executable plans for new business, expansion, and partnerships. Establish repeatable playbooks that reflect the needs of customers and markets across the UK and broader EMEA region. Provide regional market insight that helps shape company strategy, product priorities, and investment decisions. Lead From the Front Personally support and, when appropriate, lead Tailscale's highest-value and most strategic EMEA opportunities. Develop trusted executive relationships with CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, infrastructure leaders, security leaders, and business executives. Serve as the regional executive sponsor and quarterback for complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles. Coach teams on discovery, qualification, account strategy, executive engagement, negotiation, and deal execution. Navigate technical, commercial, legal, procurement, and executive stakeholders to drive successful customer outcomes. Lead and Scale Multiple Segments Lead Account Executives serving multiple customer segments, from commercial and mid-market organizations through enterprise and accounts. Create differentiated motions, coverage models, and performance expectations appropriate to each…