Technical Director UK

Job description

TrendAI™, the global AI security leader and enterprise business unit of Trend Micro, empowers organizations with full AI visibility and consolidated security that inspires confidence, drives innovation, and eliminates risk. At TrendAI™, we’re always seeking exceptional talent; people who want to collaborate with the best and push boundaries together. Here, your work goes beyond building a career. You will help protect what matters and play a vital role in shaping a safer, more trustworthy AI-powered future. AI Fearlessly. The Role The Technical Director for UK & Ireland is the business-aligned technology leader for the market, accountable for turning platform strategy into measurable commercial impact and long-term customer value across UKI. The role is responsible for shaping strategy, driving commercial outcomes, and owning the business rationale behind technical decisions. In the UKI Business Unit, this role oversees the Solution Engineering function in-market through the Head of Solution Engineering who reports into the role. The Technical Director sets direction and, working through and alongside the SE team, is close enough to execution to be accountable for it, showing ability to move fluidly between C-level strategy and hands-on deal reality. Your primary mandate will be to drive revenue growth (ARR / NRR), protect the installed base (GRR), reduce churn, and accelerate platform adoption, with Vision One at the core, while addressing UKI market dynamics and regulatory requirements. Strategic and commercial accountabilities ARR & NRR growth: Defines the technical growth plays and platform strategies that expand Annual Recurring Revenue and improve Net Revenue Retention across the UKI market. GRR & churn mitigation: Owns the approach to protecting the installed base: identifying at-risk accounts, defining retention plays, and ensuring platform value realisation prevents churn before it materialises. Vision One attach: Sets the strategy and business rationale for accelerating Vision One attach rates across the customer lifecycle, tying every expansion conversation to measurable customer outcomes. Cross-sell & upsell: Prioritises cross-sell and upsell opportunities across the platform portfolio: which plays to run, in which segments, and why. Lighthouse & strategic deals: Leads technical strategy and executive engagement on lighthouse opportunities and strategic deals that expand footprint and set competitive benchmarks in UKI. Market and go-to-market strategy Defines and owns the technical market strategy aligned to UKI growth priorities, industry plays, and customer maturity levels. Shapes platform positioning and differentiated value propositions to support new logo acquisition and competitive displacement. Drives the initiatives required to win in priority segments, verticals, and key accounts. Aligns technical go-to-market plays with Sales, Channel, and Marketing for coherent execution across the customer lifecycle. Sovereignty, compliance and regulatory strategy Defines the platform's strategic positioning against UK and Irish regulatory frameworks, data residency, and sovereignty requirements. Determines which sovereignty-related capabilities and messaging are required to win in public sector, critical infrastructure, and regulated industries. Owns the business case for sovereign delivery models or in-country service capabilities where these are key buying factors. Executive and ecosystem engagement Builds trusted advisor relationships with senior customer stakeholders (CISOs, CTOs, Board-level). Leads executive briefings, transformation discussions, and C-level engagements that position the platform as a strategic investment. Drives strategic collaboration with ecosystem partners (MSSPs, GSIs, Telcos, Alliances), defining partnership and co-development opportunities in-market. Team architecture and Solution Engineering leadership Designs the shape of the UKI SE team around business need rather than fixed structure: sizing, specialisation, pooled versus dedicated coverage, and how the team reconfigures as market priorities shift. Builds a bench that can flex to demand, moving capacity toward the segments, verticals, and strategic pursuits that matter most at any given time, and reprioritising when business needs change. Connects people with complementary skills across reporting lines to respond to opportunities, rather than being constrained by the org chart. Owns resource allocation, territory coverage, and workload balance aligned to sales priorities. Present and future skill needsMaintains a live view of the team's current capability against what the market demands: platform depth, Vision One, sovereignty and regulated-market readiness, and emerging AI-security skills. Identifies the skill gaps that will matter twelve to twenty-four months out, and builds the pipeline (hiring, enablement, certification, internal development) to close them before they bite. Builds skill benches at each level so the team has depth and succession, not single points of failure. This is a Teacher-mode expectation in the Radial Web / BBT model: crafting a sustainable capability blueprint and preparing skill pipelines, not just filling today's roster. Delivery, pipeline and operational healthDrives execution across demos, Proof of Concepts, workshops, and technical validations with consistent delivery quality; owns technical qualification and solution strategy across active UKI opportunities. Drives competitive positioning and technical closing through hands-on deal support; manages escalations and critical interventions, deploying the right resources at the right time. Builds scalable playbooks, demo standards, and methodologies; tracks operational KPIs (win rates, PoC success, evaluation conversion, time-to-impact, SE utilisation) and sustains a high-performance culture. Success measures ARR / NRR growth acceleration in UKI. GRR improvement and churn reduction. Vision One attach rate acceleration. Strategic and lighthouse deal wins. Platform adoption and expansion. Sovereignty-aligned market success in regulated UKI sectors. Scalable, high-quality technical sales execution and field readiness. Experience & Competencies Required: Business and commercial acumen: Translates technology into revenue and retention outcomes; prioritises on business impact, not technical elegance. Strategic clarity: Articulates why a play matters, not just what to do; balances platform strategy with UKI market realities. Platform and solution thinking: Thinks in platform plays and lifecycle attach pathways rather than isolated products. Executive influence: Credible at C-level and Board; leads transformation conversations, not just sales cycles. Regulatory sensitivity: Integrates sovereignty, data residency, and compliance into strategy as a UKI differentiator. Operates at altitude, dives when needed: Moves fluidly between boardroom strategy and hands-on technical validation, the defining trait for this blended role. Leads and develops teams: Builds, coaches, and retains a high-performing SE team; creates clarity in ambiguity. Actively builds a learning culture: mentors and coaches, creates a safe space to learn, and invests in the long-term skill bench so UKI capability outlasts any single hire. Closes the customer feedback loop to Product: Systematically captures customer experience and pain points from the field and feeds them back to PM as structured signal, not anecdote, so the platform roadmap reflects UKI market reality. This is Builder-mode customer-centric insight feeding Bridge-mode connection into Product: the role is the deliberate link between what customers experience and what gets built. Aligns tightly with Sales, Channel and Marketing leadership: Builds fearless, trust-based working relationships with GTM leadership so technical strategy and field execution move as one. Translates business strategy into shared action and expected outcomes, re