Sales Director, Defence and National Security

Company Description It all started in sunny San Diego, California in 2004 when a visionary engineer, Fred Luddy, saw the potential to transform how we work. Fast forward to today — Service Now stands as a global market leader, bringing innovative AI-enhanced technology to over 8,100 customers, including 85% of the Fortune 500. Our intelligent cloud-based platform seamlessly connects people, systems, and processes to empower organizations to find smarter, faster, and better ways to work.

But this is just the beginning of our journey. Join us as we pursue our purpose to make the world work better for everyone.

Job Description What you get to do in this role:

Build and lead a team of Sales Executives focused on driving growth across the UK Defence and National Security sector, spanning MoD including Armed Forces, National Security and Defence Industry.

Define and execute a sector sales strategy in conjunction with Sales Operations, with a deep understanding of the Defence and National Security procurement landscape.

Actively engage in territory planning, relationship development, and opportunity progression — working alongside Field Sales teams to understand how we can uniquely address mission requirements.

Recruit, coach, and mentor team members, building sector expertise and sales excellence across the team; fostering an understanding of Defence mission and stakeholder dynamics unique to this community

Manage and report accurate forecast and pipeline to the business, accounting for the extended timelines and approval chains common in Defence and national security procurement

Deliver against annual sales targets on a quarterly and annual basis, with an understanding of how in-year budget management and CDEL/RDEL dynamics affect deal timing

Engage confidently at senior levels to understand strategic requirements and position Service Now as the platform for mission-critical workflow transformation

Retain and grow existing customer relationships through regular non-sales engagement, ensuring customers are realising value and are positioned to expand their use of the platform

Qualifications

To be successful in this role you have:

Experience leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into Defence or national security contexts — including AI-driven workflow automation, decision support, and an understanding of the sovereign AI and data governance considerations unique to classified and sensitive environments.

Extensive track record of new business sales success within UK Defence, National Security, or adjacent regulated sectors, with strong presentation and negotiation skills at a Senior Leadership level across Defence and Defence Ecosystem.

Demonstrated success in recruiting, coaching, and managing high-performing sales teams operating in complex, relationship-driven, and security-conscious environments

Strategic thinker with strong analytical and financial planning capability — including the ability to navigate CDEL/RDEL budget structures, SR cycles, and programme-led spending patterns to build accurate plans and exceed quota

Ownership of rigorous CRM discipline — maintaining accurate pipeline, current and forward-quarter forecasts, and opportunity inspection across long and often unpredictable defence procurement timelines

Experienced in driving structured sales process and building effective working relationships with Sales Operations in environments where deal cycles regularly extend beyond a single financial year

Deep understanding of how IT and digital transformation underpin Defence capability — from legacy modernisation and secure cloud adoption to the integration of AI into operational and enterprise workflows

Proven ability to build long-term, senior-level relationships across the MoD enterprise, intelligence community, and national security agencies, with an appreciation of the trust and discretion these relationships require

Comfortable operating in a rapidly evolving environment where policy, technology, and threat landscape all shift — and able to bring a team with you through that ambiguity

Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to connect Service Now's platform value…