Role Summary
Sophos is seeking an experienced Senior MSSP Partner Development Manager to drive growth across the EMEA region through recruitment, activation, and expansion of strategic Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) partnerships.
This quota-carrying individual contributor role is primarily focused on building the next generation of Sophos service-provider partnerships across EMEA. The successful candidate will identify, recruit, onboard, and activate new MSSP relationships while developing a select portfolio of existing strategic partners.
Success in this role will be measured through partner recruitment, partner-generated pipeline, revenue growth, and expansion of Sophos' market presence across key EMEA markets
This role is intended to accelerate MSSP ecosystem expansion across EMEA while increasing partner-sourced revenue and strengthening Sophos' position within the managed security services market.
Location preference is UK-based, though candidates located elsewhere in EMEA with the ability to travel extensively will be considered.
What You Will do
Identify, recruit, onboard, and activate net-new MSSP partners across EMEA. Having existing relationships with regional MSSPs is a huge plus.
Develop and execute territory recruitment plans focused on high-potential MSSPs, cybersecurity service providers, and strategic alliances.
Build executive-level relationships within prospective partner organisations, including C-level executives, VPs, and senior leadership.
Create and execute joint business plans designed to generate measurable pipeline and revenue growth.
Drive MSP-to-MSSP transformation initiatives by helping partners build and expand managed security services offerings powered by Sophos.
Establish new routes to market through strategic partner recruitment and ecosystem expansion.
Work closely with regional sales, channel, marketing, services, and technical teams to accelerate partner success and revenue generation.
Activate newly recruited partners and reduce time-to-revenue through focused enablement and business planning.
Manage and grow a targeted portfolio of strategic MSSP partners.
Conduct executive business reviews and strategic planning sessions with partner leadership teams.
Maintain accurate forecasting, pipeline management, and opportunity tracking.
Achieve recruitment, pipeline, and revenue objectives aligned to territory goals.
What You Will Bring
7+ years of experience in cybersecurity channel sales, partner development, alliances, MSSP or strategic partnership roles.
Demonstrated success recruiting and developing net-new strategic partners.
Proven experience carrying and exceeding revenue quotas.
Strong understanding of MSSP business models, managed security services, MDR, XDR, SIEM, SOC, SASE, Endpoint, and broader cybersecurity solutions.
Experience developing executive relationships and influencing senior decision-makers.
Demonstrated ability to create and execute strategic business plans.
Strong negotiation, communication, and presentation skills.
Ability to operate independently in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.
Experience working across multiple countries and cultures within EMEA.
Willingness to travel extensively throughout the region.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience recruiting MSSPs, systems integrators, or strategic service providers.
Experience helping partners launch or expand managed security service offerings.
Existing relationships within the EMEA MSSP, and cybersecurity services community.
Experience working within a cybersecurity vendor organisation.
Experience driving partner-led adoption of MDR, XDR, Managed SOC, cloud security, and security operations solutions.
Experience building indirect routes-to-market and partner ecosystems from the ground up.
How Success Will Be Measured
Net-new MSSP partner recruitment.
Partner-generated pipeline growth.
Revenue attainment against quota.
MSP-to-MSSP partner conversions.
Activation and productivity of newly recruited partners.
Expansion of strategic existing partner relationships.
Increased market coverage across priority EMEA regions
Skills Required
- 7+ years in cybersecurity channel sales, partner development, alliances, MSSP, or strategic partnership roles
- Proven success recruiting and developing net-new strategic partners
- Proven experience carrying and exceeding revenue quotas
- Strong understanding of MSSP business models and managed security services (MDR, XDR, SIEM, SOC, SASE, Endpoint, cloud security)
- Experience developing executive relationships and influencing senior decision-makers
- Demonstrated ability to create and execute strategic business plans
- Strong negotiation, communication, and presentation skills
- Ability to operate independently in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment
- Experience working across multiple countries and cultures within EMEA
- Willingness to travel extensively throughout the region
- Legal authorization to work in the jurisdiction without employer sponsorship
- Experience recruiting MSSPs, systems integrators, or strategic service providers
- Experience helping partners launch or expand managed security service offerings
- Existing relationships within the EMEA MSSP and cybersecurity services community
- Experience working within a cybersecurity vendor organisation
- Experience driving partner-led adoption of MDR, XDR, Managed SOC, cloud security, and security operations solutions
- Experience building indirect routes-to-market and partner ecosystems from the ground up
Sophos Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Sophos and has not been reviewed or approved by Sophos.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time away is positioned as broad, with company-wide wellness days plus dedicated learning days and paid volunteer time.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-related leave appears more comprehensive than baseline offerings, including paid parental leave, caregiver leave, and extended bereavement leave.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellbeing support is emphasized through always-available assistance resources and a Calm subscription, suggesting a lifestyle-oriented benefits approach.
Sophos Insights
What We Do
Cybersecurity Evolved. As a worldwide leader in next-generation cybersecurity, Sophos protects nearly 400,000 organizations of all sizes in more than 150 countries from today’s most advanced cyberthreats. Powered by SophosLabs – a global threat intelligence and data science team – Sophos’ cloud-native and AI-enhanced solutions secure endpoints (laptops, servers and mobile devices) and networks against evolving cybercriminal tactics and techniques, including automated and active-adversary breaches, ransomware, malware, exploits, data exfiltration, phishing, and more.
