Sales Director

Job Title: Sales Director

Location: Dubai

Salary: AED 30,000 - 40,000

Job Code: 097/001/528

Industry: Lighting / Building Technologies

Job Brief:

Our client is seeking an experienced Sales Director to lead the commercial organization across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and export markets. The role owns the complete commercial cycle from lead generation, inquiry management, customer engagement, solution coordination, estimation, and quotation governance through order conversion, backlog creation, commercial handover, revenue realization, and collection alignment.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead the overall Sales function, including geographic sales teams for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and export markets.
• Lead the Estimation function through the Estimation Manager and its market-aligned teams.
• Set clear commercial priorities, delegated authority, team objectives, and performance expectations across Sales and Estimation.
• Ensure effective collaboration between Sales, Estimation, Engineering & Product Design, Supply Chain & Pricing, Finance, and Customer Services Operations.
• Build succession capability for critical commercial positions and develop future sales leaders.
• Develop and execute the company's sales strategy in alignment with the Chief Executive Officer's business objectives.
• Translate annual revenue, margin, order-intake, and market-development objectives into actionable sales plans.
• Establish market priorities for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and export territories.
• Define customer-segment priorities across projects, annual maintenance contracts, spare parts, replacement opportunities, and other commercial solutions.
• Build and maintain a balanced opportunity pipeline that supports short-, medium-, and long-term revenue objectives.
• Review market performance regularly and implement corrective actions where pipeline, conversion, margin, or revenue performance is below plan.
• Ensure the Sales team actively creates, hosts, manages, and develops qualified leads within the company's Customer Relationship Management system.
• Establish disciplined processes for generating inquiries from existing and prospective customers.
• Ensure inquiries are acknowledged promptly and professionally and that all qualified opportunities are assigned, progressed, and closed appropriately.
• Own commercial discipline around the Customer Relationship Management platform as the authoritative source for leads, inquiries, opportunities, quotations, customer engagement, order conversion, follow-up, and closure.
• Conduct regular pipeline and opportunity reviews with Area Sales Managers and the Estimation Manager.
• Ensure sales forecasts are based on accurate system data rather than informal estimates.
• Lead collaboration between Sales and the Engineering & Products Design department during pre-sales activities.
• Ensure customer requirements are properly understood before quotation and that technical resources are engaged as appropriate.
• Coordinate commercial development of bespoke lighting solutions, standard lighting solutions, home automation, audio-visual, building management systems, and integrated technical solutions.
• Facilitate timely decision-making where technical complexity could affect commercial deadlines or customer commitments.
• Ensure commercially viable technical solutions are documented sufficiently for Estimation and pricing.
• Lead the Estimation function through the Estimation Manager.
• Ensure Estimation receives complete and commercially relevant inquiry information.
• Establish controls for the preparation and review of job sheets, budgeted cost, profitability, and quotations.
• Ensure quotations are prepared using the approved Master List Price maintained by Supply Chain & Pricing.
• Maintain and control pricing multipliers and pricing guidance used by the Estimation team.
• Ensure new solutions developed by Engineering & Products Design receive appropriate pricing and stock-keeping-unit information from Supply Chain & Pricing before quotation.
• Review and approve quotations within delegated authority and escalate exceptions appropriately.
• Protect target gross margin while maintaining market competitiveness.
• Ensure pricing decisions consider approved cost, Master List Price, commercial multipliers, customer classification, market conditions, strategic value, and project risk.
• Monitor discounting practices and prevent uncontrolled price erosion.
• Ensure special pricing requests are commercially justified and properly approved.
• Coordinate with Finance where unusual commercial conditions affect risk or payment exposure.
• Seek Chief Executive Officer approval only for exceptional pricing or payment conditions outside delegated authority.
• Ensure successful opportunities are converted into commercially valid customer orders.
• Lead alignment between Sales and Finance before an order is accepted into the confirmed backlog.
• Ensure payment terms and payment plans are reviewed and approved by Finance.
• Confirm that an order becomes part of the backlog only after required commercial and financial approvals are completed.
• Maintain accurate visibility of orders received, backlog value, expected delivery, expected invoicing, commercial risks, and outstanding actions.
• Ensure the Sales team provides complete and accurate order information to Supply Chain & Pricing and Customer Services Operations.
• Ensure customer commitments made during the sales process are properly documented and communicated.
• Participate in order-handover meetings for strategic or complex orders.
• Ensure changes in customer scope, commercial terms, delivery expectations, or project conditions are formally controlled.
• Maintain appropriate commercial ownership of customer communication throughout the order lifecycle.
• Work with Finance on payment-plan approval, credit and commercial risk, invoicing coordination, collections, and outstanding receivables.
• Work with Supply Chain & Pricing on Master List Price, product pricing, stock availability, supply constraints, and delivery commitments.
• Work with Engineering & Product Design on solution development, technical compliance, bespoke solutions, product selection, and technical clarification.
• Work with Customer Services Operations on order handover, delivery, installation, project execution, annual maintenance contracts, renovation/repurposing/repair activities, warranty, and closure.
• Maintain commercial involvement until customer obligations are completed.
• Coordinate with Finance regarding customer collections and overdue accounts.
• Ensure the Sales team supports timely collection of due payments.
• Review collection status before final commercial closure where applicable.
• Ensure completed opportunities and orders are accurately closed in the Customer Relationship Management system.
• Establish clear individual and team objectives for Area Sales Managers, Key Account Managers, Sales Consultants, and Estimation personnel.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and coaching.
• Develop key relationships with developers, consultants, architects, contractors, system integrators, distributors, facility-management organizations, and institutional customers.
• Identify new market, customer-segment, channel, and partnership opportunities.
• Maintain awareness of competitor activity, customer expectations, and emerging technologies.
• Ensure forecast assumptions are supported by documented customer activity.
• Present commercial performance and corrective-action plans to the Chief Executive Officer.
• Approve quotations within established delegated commercial limits.
• Provide pricing multipliers and commercial pricing guidance.
• Allocate accounts and territories and prioritize sales opportunities.
• Approve commercial negotiation strategies within delegated authority.

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Sales and Marketing, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Architectural Engineering, Building Services Engineering, Lighting Technology, Construction Management, or a closely related discipline.
• A technically oriented degree combined with strong commercial leadership experience is highly desirable.
• Master of Business Administration (MBA) or equivalent postgraduate management qualification is preferred.
• Professional training in strategic sales, key account management, negotiation, or commercial management is preferred.
• Approximately 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience.
• Significant experience in B2B, project-based, solution-based, or technical sales.
• Demonstrated experience leading sales teams and managing commercial targets.
• Proven capability in senior customer relationships and complex negotiations.
• Lighting-industry experience is strongly preferred and considered a significant advantage.
• Candidates from architectural lighting, electrical systems, building technologies, building automation, MEP systems, smart buildings, construction products, technical system integration, and project-based engineering solutions may qualify where their experience is directly relevant.
• Strong and disciplined use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
• Practical understanding of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, quotation/costing tools, and sales forecasting platforms.
• Ability to use data and management reporting for pipeline, margin, backlog, and performance decisions.
• Specific software brands are less important than consistent process discipline and system adoption.
• Strong competencies in strategic sales leadership, commercial judgement, technical-commercial understanding, negotiation, pricing and margin management, key account management, pipeline and forecast management, CRM discipline, cross-functional leadership, team development, financial awareness, executive communication, problem-solving, market development, decision-making, accountability, and ownership.