The Role
Drives B2B revenue growth across Italy, Spain, and Portugal by acquiring new customers, expanding existing accounts, managing Salesforce pipeline and forecasts, and selling cybersecurity training, certifications, cyber ranges, and security awareness solutions. Builds relationships from practitioners to CISOs, supports events, develops account plans, translates cybersecurity trends into customer solutions, and collaborates with sales, marketing, customer success, and operations teams.
Summary Generated by Built In
The Business Development Executive for Italy and Iberia drives revenue growth and strengthens SANS' market presence by managing and growing existing Tier 2, 3 and 4 accounts, developing new and existing customer relationships, and identifying and pursuing new opportunities from prospect to partner across both regions. The role blends disciplined day to day sales execution with account ownership, requiring the ability to convert qualified leads, maintain an accurate sales pipeline via Salesforce, and translate cybersecurity trends into customer driven solutions in line with SANS' brand, values and mission. Building strong relationships with customers sits at the core of the position, alongside, expanding territorial coverage and growing existing accounts across Italy and Iberia to reduce concentration risk and improve Italy's pipeline coverage ratio. In addition, the role is also expected to generate net-new pipeline and open net-new logos across both markets, leveraging marketing activities and campaigns to convert qualified leads into new customer relationships. The role also supports event success and delegate engagement in both markets, helps build the SANS brand within the wider cybersecurity community across Italy and Iberia, and collaborates internally to support broader team objectives.
Key Responsibilities
Business Development
· Identify, prospect and pursue new opportunities across Italy, Spain and Portugal, taking them from first contact through to closed business and long-term partnership.
· Generate net-new pipeline and open new logos, leveraging marketing activities, campaigns and events to convert qualified leads into new customer relationships.
· Qualify opportunities rigorously, building a clear understanding of customer needs, decision-makers, budgets and buying processes.
· Translate cybersecurity trends, regulatory drivers (e.g. NIS2, DORA) and customer challenges into relevant SANS training, certification and workforce development solutions.
· Prepare proposals, quotations and, where applicable, tender responses, working with internal teams to secure agreements.
· Maintain a comprehensive understanding of the SANS portfolio, including SANS Training, GIAC Certifications, Cyber Ranges and Security Awareness.
· Maintain a sound understanding of the Italian and Iberian markets, customer segments and competitive landscape.
Account Management and Growth
· Manage and grow a portfolio of existing Tier 2, 3 and 4 accounts across Italy and Iberia, identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
· Grow smaller and mid-sized accounts to broaden the revenue base and reduce concentration risk on top accounts.
· Develop account plans for priority customers, supporting continuity of training programmes, renewals and long-term growth.
· Build healthy pipeline coverage across both markets to support predictable revenue and accurate forecasting.
Client Relationship Management
· Build strong, trusted relationships with former, current and new customers, from security practitioners and team leads to CISOs and L&D/HR decision-makers.
· Conduct regular customer account reviews to demonstrate value, gather feedback and identify further opportunities.
· Coordinate effectively with Customer Success, Operations and other internal teams to deliver a consistent, world-class customer experience.
· Help build the SANS brand within the wider cybersecurity community across Italy and Iberia, including at industry events and community forums.
Events, Collaboration and Sales Operations
· Support event success and delegate engagement in both markets, including invite calls, pipeline checks and delegate follow-up, and help build commercial presence ahead of planned SANS events in Italy.
· Maintain an accurate, up-to-date sales pipeline in Salesforce and deliver monthly sales forecasts in line with SANS business processes.
· Take ownership of assigned revenue targets and KPIs, consistently working to meet or exceed agreed performance expectations.
· Collaborate with colleagues across Mainland Europe and EMEA, including sales, marketing and events teams, to align customer engagement and support broader team objectives.
· Uphold and promote the SANS brand, mission and values, and travel across Italy, Spain and Portugal, and internationally where required, to meet customers and support events.
· Undertake other reasonable responsibilities as requested by the Management Team.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
Essential
Experience
• Proven experience in B2B sales or business development, ideally within technology, software, cybersecurity or professional training.
• Track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets.
• Experience managing and growing a portfolio of existing accounts while also generating net-new pipeline and winning new logos.
• Experience converting marketing-generated and qualified leads into opportunities and closed business.
• Experience managing a sales pipeline and forecasting in Salesforce or a comparable CRM platform.
• Experience selling to organisations in Spain, Portugal and/or Italy.
Knowledge
• Understanding of the Italian and Iberian business environments, including commercial and public sector buying processes.
• Awareness of the cybersecurity landscape and the key drivers of demand for cyber skills (e.g. NIS2, DORA, the cyber skills gap).
• Understanding of consultative or solution-selling approaches and account planning.
Skills
· Excellent communication, presentation and relationship-building skills, able to engage stakeholders from practitioners to CISOs and L&D/HR leaders.
· Strong prospecting, qualification and negotiation skills.
· Ability to translate cybersecurity trends and customer challenges into relevant SANS solutions.
· Disciplined sales execution and CRM hygiene, with accurate pipeline management and forecasting.
· Effective collaboration with marketing, events, customer success and operations colleagues.
· Comfortable representing SANS at events and supporting delegate engagement, from invite calls to follow-up.
· Excellent organisational, analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage multiple accounts across two markets.
· Fluent written and spoken English and Spanish are essential.
Personal Attributes
• Genuine, personal alignment with SANS's mission to empower cybersecurity practitioners and organisations with practical, applicable skills that make the world safer, and a belief in the value of community and knowledge-sharing across the industry.
• Strong commercial acumen, a can-do mentality and a pro-active, entrepreneurial approach.
• Highly motivated, self-directed and results-oriented, able to work effectively in a remote role.
• High levels of integrity, accountability and professionalism.
• Willing and able to travel across Italy, Spain and Portugal, and internationally where required, to meet customers and support events.
• Italian and/or Portuguese language skills.
Education/Qualifications
· Educated to degree level or equivalent professional experience.
About
SANS Institute (SANS) launched in 1989 as a cooperative for information security thought leadership, it is SANS’ ongoing mission to empower cyber security professionals with the practical skills and knowledge they need to make our world a safer place. We fuel this effort with high quality training, certifications, scholarship academies, degree programs, cyber ranges, and resources to meet the needs of every cyber professional. Our data, research, and the top minds in cybersecurity collectively ensure that individuals and organizations have the actionable education and support they need.Join the SANS TeamAt SANS, our culture is defined by Mission, Brand, People. Our goal is to hire people who understand the importance of continuing to fight against the cyber security threats (Mission) while delivering the highest quality training (Brand) to our students. We want employees whose personal values align well with our culture of fairness, honesty, customer focus, and pragmatic approach (People).
Skills Required
- Proven experience in B2B sales or business development
- Experience in technology, software, cybersecurity, or professional training sales
- Track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets
- Experience managing and growing existing accounts while generating new pipeline and winning new logos
- Experience converting marketing-generated and qualified leads into opportunities and closed business
- Experience managing sales pipelines and forecasting in Salesforce or a comparable CRM
- Experience selling to organizations in Spain, Portugal, and/or Italy
- Understanding of Italian and Iberian business environments, including commercial and public-sector buying processes
- Awareness of cybersecurity trends and demand drivers, including NIS2, DORA, and the cyber skills gap
- Understanding of consultative or solution-selling approaches and account planning
- Excellent communication, presentation, and relationship-building skills
- Strong prospecting, qualification, and negotiation skills
- Ability to translate cybersecurity trends and customer challenges into relevant solutions
- Disciplined CRM management, pipeline accuracy, and sales forecasting
- Ability to collaborate effectively with marketing, events, customer success, and operations teams
- Fluent written and spoken English and Spanish
- Italian and/or Portuguese language skills
- Willingness and ability to travel across Italy, Spain, Portugal, and internationally
- Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience
Am I A Good Fit?
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.
Success! Refresh the page to see how your skills align with this role.
The Company
What We Do
SANS Institute is the largest and most trusted provider of cybersecurity training, certifications, and research in the world, empowering professionals with practical skills to make the digital world safer.
.png){kind=logo}
