Director Of Europe

Director of Europe

Key and Asset Management

"Be part of an innovative forward–thinking company"

About us

Traka is the original manufacturer of one of the world's first electronic key management systems established 1994 – we are now the global leader in innovative technology for sophisticated, intelligent key management systems and locker solutions. We operate in a wide variety of channel markets such as Government, Transport, Fleet, Healthcare, Distribution Centres, and Data Centres.

Traka became part of ASSA ABLOY in April 2012, who are a more than 9 billion Euro organisation and the global leader in access solutions. Every day we help people feel safe, secure and experience a more open world. ASSA ABLOY products can be seen and used everywhere you go in your daily life from brands such as Yale, Chubb and HID.

With its continued rapid growth, in January 2019 Traka became part of the Global Solutions division, where it is the leading brand within the Key and Asset Management business area. ASSA ABLOY allows us to grow further globally, and leverage group developments such as RFID and Cloud technologies.

We are always looking for diverse, talented, energetic people with integrity and the desire to succeed. We are an equal opportunity employer offering competitive salaries and benefits in a team environment where you can freely speak across teams and departments to seek help and guidance.

The role

The Director of Europe's primary objective of this role is to take responsibility for Key and Asset Management business in Europe, providing overall leadership and strategic direction and delivering operational excellence, P&L responsibility and driving sales, profits and increasing market penetration.

You will develop and implement the European strategy and oversee the development of the business plans for your operational units, to drive growth and profitability year on year, developing market presence in multiple sectors in the various European markets.

Ensure the technical and commercial support infrastructure is established, efficient and aligned to support the sales growth in these markets. Plan and direct the organisational activities to achieve agreed targets and standards for financial and trading performance, quality and legislative adherence.

The Director of Europe is responsible for managing and developing the regional subsidiaries and its channel partners. Additionally, he or she will drive and influence emerging business opportunities with end–users, specifiers, consultants, resellers and integration partners. The Director of Europe will be an active member of the Global Executive team.

This role will be Europe based, preferably in one of our key locations (Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain). This role involves frequent international travel. This role will be reporting to the SVP and Head of Key and Asset Management. The ideal candidate must possess a good level of English language, both spoken and written. Possessing a second key European language such as French, German or Spanish will be advantageous.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Achieve sales growth in line with the annual Europe strategic and financial plan
• Develop and implement annual strategy, objectives and KPI's
• Manage the P&L for the Europe region to ensure profitable growth year on year
• Manage accurate regional sales budgets and forecasts
• Recruit, manage and develop regional talent (including annual performance reviews)
• Manage both regional subsidiaries and channel partners
• Drive the regional sales pricing policy for hardware, software and professional services
• Build and maintain key customer and strategic partner relationships
• Manage the sales process and regional sales teams to develop an accurate quotation pipeline in line with the strategic growth targets using CRM (SalesForce / CPQ)
• Manage and develop the Europe Exec team to define and implement the strategic plan
• Collaborate closely with the Finance Controller Europe to maintain the financial growth and health of the regional businesses
• Co–operate with the European Marketing Manager to identify and develop key market sectors
• Co–operate with the European Technical Director to identify training needs, manage projects and develop regional technical support
• Oversee the smooth running of the day–to–day business operations
• Ensure that all local staff are familiar and compliant with the ASSA ABLOY Code of Conduct, Antitrust, Health & Safety and Anti–Bribery policies
• Strongly collaborate with other inter–company business areas to create networks and maximise commercial opportunities (regional and global)
• Represent the Europe business at the Executive meetings, Board meetings with ASSA ABLOY divisional management and in wider management forums
• Lead by example, motivate and develop an exceptional management team, managed to the highest health & safety and environmental standards
• Any other duties required to achieve the regional strategic objectives

Qualifications and Competencies

You will be self–motivated and trustworthy with strong organisational skills and the ability to be able to prioritise different tasks. You must be confident and can work on an individual basis and as part of a team and with little supervision. It is important that you have the ability to provide a clear vision for future direction.

You will possess excellent commercial acumen, with the proven ability at negotiating solutions, along with the ability to develop and implement a winning business strategy. You must be customer focused and able to tackle complex tasks in changing and disruptive environments.

The ideal candidate must possess a Bachelor degree, Master degree or demonstrate equivalent work experience (commercial B2B environment). The candidate must be able to demonstrate how he/she has successfully developed sales and managed teams previously. He or she will have working knowledge of the regional market and competition.

Core competencies

• Ability lead by example with a European mindset, managing the regional business end–to–end to achieve its business targets
• Track record of successful P&L business development, with good financial knowledge and experience of running successful project solution sales teams
• Strong business acumen, including sales experience and interest in technical hardware and software (as a service) environments
• Ability to provide accurate short– and long–term business plans and set realistic milestones
• Experience and the ability to initiate and drive continuous improvement
• Problem solving skills in complex business environments
• Demonstrate experience to successfully manage European teams, both face–to–face and remote
• Passion to develop talent and performance management
• Holistic and practical mindset for strategy formulation and implementation
• Collaborative skills, both inter–company and external
• Excellent presentation and negotiation skills at Exec level
• Interest in technology and IT–literate skills