Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.
Job Title: Associate Vice President, Renewals Sales - Data Security & Application Security (EMEA)
Base Location: Based in the UK is ideal, but we’re flexible across EMEA for the perfect fit.
Candidates must be willing to travel across the EMEA region and regularly attend leadership meetings, customer engagements, and company events as required.
Position Summary:
The Associate Vice President (AVP), Renewals Sales - Data Security & Application Security (EMEA) is responsible for the leadership, strategy, and execution of the regional renewals business across the Data Security and Application Security portfolio. This leadership role owns customer retention, recurring revenue performance, renewal forecasting, and commercial execution.
The AVP leads a team of Renewal Sales Managers and Renewal Specialists, driving a culture of accountability, customer centricity, operational excellence, and commercial rigor. Working closely with Sales, Customer Success, Professional Services, Support, Product Management, Finance, and Executive Leadership, the AVP ensures customers realise ongoing value from their investment while maximizing retention, mitigating churn risk, and identifying expansion opportunities.
In this position, the AVP contributes directly to regional business planning, forecasting, organizational development, strategic initiatives, and executive decision-making while maintaining ownership of significant recurring revenue targets across the EMEA region.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and deliver regional renewal revenue, retention, and customer renewal performance objectives across Data Security and Application Security portfolios.
- Developing EMEA renewal strategies, leading and coaching Renewal Sales Managers, ensuring accurate forecasting, and collaborating with various teams to enhance customer outcomes.
- Executive-level engagement in contract negotiations for strategic accounts and establishing renewal governance processes are also emphasized.
- The role requires monitoring retention trends, implementing mitigation strategies, and involving Finance in pricing and revenue planning.
- Continuous improvement in retention, sales productivity, and operational excellence is crucial, alongside delivering regular executive reports and fostering talent development.
Minimum Requirements:
- Minimum qualifications include a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, with over 5 years in enterprise software, technology, cybersecurity, or SaaS.
- Candidates should have led customer success, renewals, sales or revenue-focused teams, managed significant recurring revenue portfolios, and conducted executive negotiations.
- Strong leadership and people management experience across geographically dispersed teams.
- Expertise in forecasting, pipeline management, subscription licensing, and CRM tools like Salesforce is essential, along with strong leadership and communication skills, and the ability to navigate a fast-paced global environment.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Extensive experience in the cybersecurity sector, focusing on Application Security, Data Security, Cloud Security, and Digital Transformation.
- Enhancing customer retention and reducing churn, alongside managing multi-level sales organizations and working with global enterprise clients in regulated industries.
- The individual has successfully led organizational transformations and strategic initiatives, collaborating with Finance, Legal, Customer Success, Product Management, and Executive Leadership.
- Additionally, there is a robust understanding of customer retention best practices, value realization methodologies, and recurring revenue management.
Leadership Competencies:
- Strategic Leadership
- Revenue & Retention Management
- Executive Customer Engagement
- Commercial Negotiation
- Talent Development & Coaching
- Customer Success Alignment
- Forecasting & Business Planning
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Operational Excellence
- Change Management
- Executive Communication
- Growth & Transformation Leadership
#LI-VJ1
At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.
We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.
If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities. Join the Talent Community here.
Join Thales in the UK – Innovate with us and shape the future!
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
- More than 5 years of experience in enterprise software, technology, cybersecurity, or SaaS
- Experience leading customer success, renewals, sales, or revenue-focused teams
- Experience managing significant recurring revenue portfolios
- Experience conducting executive-level negotiations
- Strong leadership and people management experience across geographically dispersed teams
- Expertise in forecasting and pipeline management
- Experience with subscription licensing
- Experience using CRM tools such as Salesforce
- Strong communication skills and ability to operate in a fast-paced global environment
- Extensive cybersecurity experience, particularly in Application Security, Data Security, Cloud Security, or Digital Transformation
- Experience improving customer retention and reducing churn
- Experience managing multilevel sales organizations and global enterprise clients in regulated industries
- Experience leading organizational transformations and strategic initiatives
- Understanding of customer retention best practices, value realization methodologies, and recurring revenue management
Thales Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Thales and has not been reviewed or approved by Thales.
-
Retirement Support — Retirement plans with employer contributions and matches, profit sharing, and share purchase opportunities are emphasized across multiple regions. These elements are positioned as competitive components of total rewards.
-
Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO that increases with tenure, paid holidays, and paid military, maternity, and paternity leave are described. This breadth supports work–life balance across locations.
-
Flexible Benefits — Hybrid work options, flexible schedules, and parental supports such as childcare benefits and leave for sick children are available in several markets. Flexibility is presented as a core part of the employee experience.
Thales Insights
What We Do
Thales is a global high technology leader investing in digital and “deep tech” innovations – connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum technology – to build a future we can all trust, which is vital to the development of our societies. The company provides solutions, services and products that help its customers – businesses, organisations and states – in the defence, aeronautics, space, transportation and digital identity and security markets to fulfil their critical missions, by placing humans at the heart of the decision-making process.
