Account Director - Inflight Entertainment

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Thales people architect solutions that enable two-thirds of planes to take off and land safely. We create in-flight entertainment systems that engross 50 million fliers every year and we develop the avionics that control the world’s largest commercial aircrafts. Our simulators train the next generation of pilots for fighter jets, transporters and search and rescue helicopters. And, together, each and every member of our aerospace team makes a difference.
For over 50 years, Thales has been a trusted partner of the United Arab Emirates, providing innovative and cutting-edge solutions in Defence, Aeropsace and Cyber & Digital, aligned with the nation’s long-term vision. With a strong local presence and more than 500 employees across three offices, Thales is deeply embedded within the UAE’s ecosystem. Thales Emarat Technologies plays a pivotal role as a key industrial enabler, fostering national sovereignty, self-reliance, and innovation. Through localization, strategic collaboration, and exporting ‘Made in the Emirates’ technologies to global markets, we contribute significantly to the UAE’s ambitious growth and development while helping build a future we call all trust.

The Account Director owns the commercial relationship with a strategic airline account and acts as the customer advocate inside Thales, working across internal functions to ensure the customer needs are understood and satisfied. The role secures sustainable and profitable growth above market by building a true long term partnership with the customer, applying a systematic and customer centric account management approach that maximises mutual value.

The Account Director is the lead commercial point of contact and the decision maker on matters affecting the account, including impact on profit and loss within the defined commercial mandate. The role engages established and prospective customer stakeholders to build intelligence, drive customer success, and generate sales, and serves as the point of escalation for the account. The Account Director communicates the value of the full Thales Group portfolio, not only IFE, and in particular leads the expansion of digital, connectivity, and recurring services revenue alongside the core IFE hardware base.

This role is critical to the future commercial performance of the IFE business in the region. It carries one of the largest and most complex airline relationships in the portfolio, sets the strategic direction for that account, and converts deep customer understanding into profitable order intake and growing wallet share over the long term.

Essential Functions / Key Areas of Responsibility

Ensure Customer Success through

• Serving as the lead commercial point of contact for the customer account team
• Building relationships with senior executive and C level stakeholders and strategic ecosystem partners across the region
• Developing trusted advisor relationships with key customer stakeholders and executive sponsors
• Ensuring the timely and successful delivery of Thales solutions according to customer needs and objectives
• Communicating the progress of monthly and quarterly initiatives clearly to internal and external stakeholders
• Collaborating with the sales and account teams to identify and grow opportunities within the account
• Supporting cross functional integrated product teams and acting on issues impacting the customer experience
• Managing customer expectations, survey activity, and experience scorecards to sustain a high level of customer satisfaction
• Leading the account team to provide proactive, world class support focused on responsiveness, quality, and speed of resolution

Customer Commercial Negotiations and Customer Strategy

• Owning and growing the account end to end against the account plan, delivering order intake and margin commitments
• Leading complex commercial negotiations from opportunity through to signed contract, coordinating pricing, legal, product, and program teams to secure profitable outcomes
• Driving the shift toward digital, connectivity, and value based services, converting recurring revenue and selling services opportunities beyond the installed hardware base
• Developing new business with the existing customer and identifying areas of improvement to meet sales targets
• Forecasting and tracking key account metrics, and working with marketing to establish effective support

Customer Analysis and Consultation

• Creating and maintaining the account development plan, opportunity pipeline, capture plans, and accurate forecasting
• Maintaining customer priority status and aligning internal resources accordingly
• Preparing reports and professional presentations to communicate opportunities, trends, and issues to customer teams and senior management
• Leading customer quarterly business reviews with stakeholders and executives
• Maintaining inputs and updates in the Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM, Salesforce) as appropriate

Minimum Requirements: Skills, Experience, Education, Knowledge, Certifications, Language

• Bachelor degree in business administration, marketing, sales, engineering, or a relevant field; Master degree preferred
• Fifteen (15) or more years of experience in sales, key account management, or commercial roles within the airline or aviation industry
• Direct, demonstrable experience with IFE, inflight connectivity, or onboard digital and passenger experience products (mandatory)
• Ten or more years establishing and implementing account plans, roadmap, and strategy across internal and external strategies, contracts, budget, and objectives
• Ten or more years in contract management associated with issue and litigation resolution and customer complaint management
• Proven ownership of large, complex business to business accounts, including order intake in the tens of millions of US dollars
• Track record of selling services, software, or connected solutions, not only hardware
• Experience operating inside or selling to a major international airline with a complex, multi stakeholder decision structure
• Proficient with CRM (Salesforce) and the Microsoft Office suite; excellent communication and negotiation skills
• Domestic and international travel required, up to 35 percent or more

Preferred Qualifications

• An existing network within major Gulf or international carriers
• Background with an IFE original equipment manufacturer, an airline IFE or product team, a connectivity provider, or a systems integrator
• Demonstrated experience transitioning a hardware account toward recurring services revenue
• Understanding of avionics or aviation digital and connectivity technology
• Self motivated and self directed, able to operate autonomously with a results oriented, can do mindset
• Able to mentor and lead an account team and to manage competing priorities effectively

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working. Great journeys start here, apply now!