Director, Professional Services

The Descartes Systems Group Inc.; Woerden; Hybrid; EUR 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work options

Competitive compensation

Job summary

The Descartes Systems Group Inc. is seeking a Director of Professional Services for our TMS pillar to lead a global team in complex software implementations across Europe.

You will align business leadership, consulting, and commercial judgment to deliver successful outcomes and manage risks early. You will drive strategic leadership, governance, and delivery excellence while balancing customer needs with contractual commitments and profitability, building trusted relationships with senior

Qualifications

• Experience leading professional services teams in complex software implementations.
• Proven ability to manage international customer programmes and governance.
• Strong strategic and financial management skills within services delivery.
• Ability to drive pre-sales and contractual negotiations with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Deliver complex TMS implementations for international customers across Europe.
• Identify risks early and maintain governance to ensure on-time delivery.
• Lead senior customer engagements and manage critical escalations.
• Define and execute the Professional Services strategy and operating model.
• Balance customer outcomes with commercial commitments and delivery profitability.
• Develop and mentor high-performing teams and foster talent development.

Skills

Professional Services

International Delivery

Strategic Leadership

Executive Sponsorship

Governance & Methodology

Resource Planning

Business Development

People Leadership

Financial Management

Job description

Descartes Unites the People and Technology that Move the World The need for efficient, secure, and agile supply chains and logistics operations has become ever more critical and complex. By combining innovative technology, powerful trade intelligence and the reach of our network, Descartes helps get goods, information, transportation assets, and people where they’re needed, when they’re needed. We’re one of the most broadly deployed logistics and supply chain technology companies in the world. More than 26,000 customers around the globe use our cloud-based solutions to transform the way they move inventory and information to enhance productivity, better serve customers, thrive competitively, keep pace with evolving regulations, and respond to rapidly changing market conditions. Descartes is publicly traded (Nasdaq:DSGX, TSX:DSG) with headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and offices and partners around the world. With record financial performance for more than 16 years, we lead the industry in innovation investment. Every day, logistics service providers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and other logistics-intensive businesses of all sizes rely on our scale, stability, and comprehensive solution footprint to move what’s most important to them. Learn more at www.descartes.com.

Mission — Why the Job Exists

The Director of Professional Services for our TMS pillar will lead a professional team of business and technical experts in complex software implementations for international customers across Europe. The role brings together business leadership, consulting, and commercial judgement to identify risks early, create alignment and steer customers and internal teams toward successful outcomes.

Outcomes — What Success Looks Like

• Deliver complex TMS implementations that achieve agreed customer outcomes, timelines, scope and commercial objectives.
• Identify risks early, establish strong governance, and take corrective action before issues impact delivery or customer relationships.
• Build trusted customer relationships, confidently engaging senior stakeholders and navigating challenging conversations.
• Drive commercial performance, balancing customer needs with contractual commitments, scope, resources and financial outcomes.
• Create alignment across teams, working with our Sales, Product Management, Customer Success, Support and Engineering departments to resolve dependencies and keep programmes moving.
• Continuous Improvement of Professional Services execution process to strengthen implementation practices and reduce time-to-value.

Skills & Competencies — How The Work Gets Done

• Software Implementation: You bring strong experience in Professional Services, enterprise software implementation and consulting, ideally within TMS, supply chain, logistics or another complex enterprise software environment. You understand software implementation in a commercial environment, with a focus on scope management, resource availability, delivery risk and customer
• International Customers: You can organise and steer complex international customer programmes, quickly spotting when something is going off track and creating the context needed to make good decisions. You combine strong commercial judgement with a consultative approach and are comfortable influencing senior customer and internal stakeholders' expectations, and can operate with autonomy in complex situations.
• Strategic Leadership: Greater emphasis on defining and executing the Professional Services strategy, driving organisational growth, scalability, and operational excellence.
• Executive Sponsorship: Acting as executive sponsor for strategic customer engagements and managing critical customer escalations.
• Professional Services Methodology & Standardisation: Ownership of implementation standards, governance frameworks, delivery methodologies, and best practices.
• Resource & Capacity Planning: Responsibility for long-term capacity planning, workforce management, and balancing demand with available resources.
• Business Development Support: Active involvement in pre-sales activities, strategic opportunities, contract negotiations, and delivery planning.
• People Leadership & Talent Development: Build, coach, and develop high-performing teams while driving talent development, succession planning, and employee engagement.
• Financial & Commercial Management: Ownership of budgeting, forecasting, resource utilisation, revenue, margin, and overall delivery profitability.

People Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing team of consultants and project managers.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous learning.
• Drive talent development, succession planning and employee engagement within the Professional Services organisation.

Financial & Commercial Management

• Develop and manage annual budgets and forecasting processes.
• Optimise resource allocation and utilisation to achieve business and delivery targets.
• Monitor Professional Services performance against revenue, margin and utilisation objectives.
• Balance customer outcomes with commercial commitments and delivery profitability.

Culture Add: TEAM Values

We value team members who communicate with transparency, sharing information openly and building trust across functions. You bring excellence and expertise to your craft, holding a high bar for quality while continuously improving your skills. You demonstrate accountability by owning outcomes, following through on commitments, and taking responsibility for results. You are driven by metrics, using data and experimentation to inform decisions and deliver measurable impact.

Aptitudes

• Smart: Able to quickly understand complex systems, connect ideas, and make sound judgments.
• Curious and Energetic: Actively seeks to understand customer problems, emerging technologies, and better ways of working.
• Coachable: Open to feedback, willing to adapt, and continuously improving through learning.
• Transparent: You communicate with transparency, sharing information openly and building trust across functions.

What’s In It For You

You’ll have a visible role in the success of some of Descartes’ most complex international TMS customers, working with senior customer stakeholders and leaders across the business. You’ll have the autonomy to shape challenging engagements, strengthen how we deliver Professional Services and expand your impact as the TMS business grows.

Join Us

As we scale, we’re looking for new doers, collaborators and innovators to join Descartes in uniting the people and technology that move the world as the Global Leader in Logistics and Supply Chain Technology. We’re entrepreneurial, hardworking, geeky-in-a-good way problem solvers. Guided by our values, we nurture a TEAM focused culture that invests in people and creates opportunities for advancement across a broad spectrum of career paths. We prioritize work-life balance and foster an environment with the space to take ownership, to be heard, and to carve a path for your individual accomplishments to help drive our success. At Descartes, everyone has a voice and the best idea wins, regardless of who makes it. We offer competitive compensation, great benefits, remote and flexible work hours, and the opportunity to join a company on an awesome mission with a great existing team and trajectory.

Descartes also has a deep sense of environmental responsibility. Learn more about how we helped our customers save over 552,000 metric tons of CO2 in 2020 by reducing fuel and paper consumption: https://www.descartes.com/who-we-are/social-responsibility-sustainability/environmental-impact. Join a team that’s committed to working with customers to conserve resources and enhance sustainability.

We conduct a mix of in-person and virtual interviews. Virtual interviews are held via Microsoft Teams and are recorded and transcribed. We may utilize AI tools to support our hiring team in notetaking, summarization, and internal training. AI tools are not used in our recruitment process for decision-making purposes. Recordings, transcripts, and notes are used for recruitment, including improvement of our process, and record-keeping purposes. Should you have any questions or concerns about our process, please connect with our hiring team in advance of scheduled interviews.

We are an Equal Employment employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial, or local law. For more information about our commitment to equal employment opportunity, please review our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics at Descartes.com