Atilla AKALIN
Atilla AKALIN

Enterprise Sales Leader

Open to offers · Member since 30 Oct 2026
Location
Istanbul, Türkiye
Desired salary
Confidential
Work preference
Remote Only
Experience level
Senior

About

Professional summary

I am an enterprise sales leader with more than 20 years of experience selling complex cloud, SaaS, AI, telecom, and technology solutions to C-level decision-makers. My work spans Türkiye, Azerbaijan, CIS, and the wider EMEA region, with deep experience in telecom, financial services, energy, and regulated industries.

I build enterprise go-to-market strategies, subscription revenue models, sales organizations, and partner ecosystems from the ground up. I have consistently delivered growth in long-cycle, multi-stakeholder sales environments through strategic account management, executive negotiation, pipeline discipline, and value-based selling.

Most recently, I have advised technology scale-ups on enterprise SaaS, AI, sovereign cloud, Web3 security, compliance, and fintech market-entry initiatives. I help organizations establish sales operations, develop strategic partnerships with hyperscalers, data centers, and system integrators, and create qualified enterprise pipelines.

As Sales Director at DT Cloud, I grew monthly recurring revenue by 700% within nine months and built a 10-person sales and presales organization. I developed enterprise demand for sovereign cloud, OpenStack, Kubernetes, object storage, and GPU capacity for AI and machine learning workloads.

Throughout my career, I have exceeded major revenue targets, including a $16M annual target at ZTE, generated $3M annual revenue at TopTel, and expanded Alcatel-Lucent services revenue from $1M to $5M. I combine commercial leadership with a technical engineering background in networking, transmission systems, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise technology solutions.

Notice period: Two Weeks

Skills

22 capabilities

Tech stack & tools

Working toolkit

Application Hosting

Development

Marketing and Sales Tools

Experience

Career history

Strategic GTM Advisor (Consulting) — Enterprise SaaS, AI & Sovereign Cloud Strategic GTM Advisor

I advise technology scale-ups on enterprise go-to-market strategy, sales operations design, and subscription revenue models for SaaS, AI, and sovereign cloud offerings.

I build strategic partnership ecosystems with hyperscalers, data centers, and system integrators. My consulting engagements have included Web3 security and compliance market entry for Beosin, as well as strategic outreach and pipeline development for GFI fintech certification programs.

Sales Director DT Cloud

Owned go-to-market strategy and enterprise sales for a Turkish sovereign cloud provider offering OpenStack, Kubernetes, hybrid cloud, S3 object storage, and GPU/vGPU capacity for AI and ML workloads.

Grew MRR by 700% in nine months, built a 10-person sales and presales team, closed 16 enterprise financial-services logos, won SIEM and big-data projects for EPDK through Enerjisa, and established partnerships with TÖDEB and OSBUK.

Sales Director Exodus Clouds

Led sales for software-defined cloud interconnect services and established the company’s market positioning in Türkiye.

Formed alliances with Microsoft, AWS, Equinix, and DE-CIX to enable cloud-native connectivity sales to major Turkish holdings and enterprise accounts.

Business Development & Sales Manager TopTel Telekomünikasyon

Built channel and sub-distributor structures from the ground up for network and security products.

Generated $3M in annual revenue through business development, channel ecosystem development, and sales execution.

Fractional Sales Consultant Independent

Provided advisory services for telecom and digital business initiatives.

Conducted commercial analysis, ROI modeling, growth planning, and sales strategy support for client organizations.

Key Account Director, Turkcell ZTE Corporation

Managed the Turkcell strategic account and exceeded a $16M annual sales target, reactivating business between ZTE and Türkiye’s largest mobile operator after eight years of inactivity.

Won tenders for fiber home gateways, GPON, and push-to-talk software platforms; led DWDM and enterprise solution proofs of concept; and signed a strategic MoU with Turkcell at Mobile World Congress 2017.

Channel Account Manager Huawei Enterprise

Managed channel sales and partner development for Huawei Enterprise in Istanbul, Türkiye.

Achieved more than $3M in annual sales and signed 11 new certified partners.

Services Sales Manager · Technical Support Manager · Transmission Systems Expert Alcatel-Lucent

Held progressive roles in services sales, technical support management, and transmission systems engineering across Türkiye and EMEA. Grew services revenue from $1M to $5M in Türkiye and Azerbaijan with P&L ownership and expanded maintenance and software service contracts.

Led more than 30 engineers supporting IP and NMS operations for BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, and Belgacom. Delivered Türkiye’s first SDH and DWDM implementations and designed Türk Telekom’s data communications network using more than 60 Cisco routers.

Education

Learning history

Istanbul University

B.Sc., Electronics Engineering

Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering.

This professional hasn’t added portfolio projects yet.

This professional hasn’t listed any services yet.

Jobs Talent AI Tools Salaries
Menu