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Hello, I'm
Romain Testu

Director, Customer Architecture  ·  Nordics  ·  BeneLux  ·  France

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Who I Am

{
  "name":       "Romain Testu",
  "age":        41,
  "location":   "Bois-Colombes, France 🇫🇷",
  "role":       "Director, Customer Architecture",
  "regions":    [
    "France", "Nordics", "BeneLux"
  ],
  "education":  "ENSIMAG Grenoble (2008)",
  "it_xp_years":   17,
  "saas_cyber_xp": 11,
  "languages":  ["French", "English"],
  "motto":      "Always Be Curious"
}

Passionate about presales for 17 years, I've built my career around a simple belief: understand before you convince. From SOA consultant to presales manager at Splunk and then Lacework, I've always looked to create impact — for customers, for the teams I lead, and for the companies I represent.

Passions & Hobbies

✈️ Travel 📷 Photography 🏐 Beach Volleyball 🏔️ Hiking 🔨 DIY & Home Renovation 🏸 Badminton
17
years in IT
11 in SaaS & Cyber
EMEA
full regional coverage
at Lacework
10+
SEs & Specialists
led across France
~100%
YoY growth sustained
at Splunk
// field: personal.photography

Through the Lens

Photography and travel aren't just hobbies — they're how I stay curious about the world. From the cliffs of Scotland to the elephants of Thailand, from Yosemite with my son to the trails of the Pays Basque — some moments are worth more than a document.

Elephants in Thailand
📍 Chiang Mai, Thailand At the elephant sanctuary — one of those encounters you never forget.
Scotland cliffs and lighthouse
📍 Isle of Skye, Scotland Neist Point. The edge of the world, with a lighthouse holding its ground.
Father and son at Tenaya Lake, California
📍 Yosemite, California Tenaya Lake with my son — some moments are worth crossing an ocean for.
Romain's kids and dog
📍 At home The crew. The real motivation behind everything.
Pays Basque mountain landscape
📍 Pays Basque, France Hiking the Pyrenean foothills — where the clouds crack and light pours through.
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My Journey

2005 – 2008
Engineering Student
ENSIMAG · Grenoble
Top-tier engineering school — Mathematics & Computer Science.
2008
Engineering Intern
Oracle · Paris
First exposure to the enterprise world. Oracle Middleware.
2008 – 2012
Consultant / Presales — Oracle Middleware
Lyon
SOA architecture, Webcenter, enterprise projects (Apicil, MMA...).
2012 – 2014
Webcenter Architect
Québec, Canada 🍁
Two years on a national project. First major international experience.
2014 – 2015
Talend Middleware Expert
Keyrus · Lyon
⭐ First ELK deployment of my career — the beginning of a long story with Elastic, even if I didn't know it yet.
2015 – 2018
Senior Sales Engineer
Splunk · Paris
Strategic territory, Technical Account Planning. Several +$1M ARR deals.
2018 – 2021
SE Manager France
Splunk · Paris
🏆 Team of 10 SEs · ~100% growth YoY · Some good competitive battles against Elastic (Airbus, BPCE, and more...).
2021 – 2022
Senior Solutions Architect
Lacework · Paris
Prospection → technical closing. First major Cloud Security accounts in EMEA South.
2022 – 2024
SA Manager EMEA South
Lacework (Fortinet) · Paris
Rebuilt the SA team. Key accounts: Randstad, BNP Paribas, and more.
2024 – 2025
SA Manager EMEA
Lacework (Fortinet)
Scope expanded across all of EMEA.
2025 → Now
Director, Customer Architecture
Elastic · France · Nordics · BeneLux
🚀 New chapter. Back to where it all started. And now — we're on the same team.
// query: { "match": { "motivation": "elastic" } }

Why Elastic

🤝

A culture that fits

Talking to the team during the interview process, I noticed something rare: people are genuinely happy to be here. A company that values initiative and autonomy — exactly how I like to work and what I try to build in every team I lead.

📈

A role with real impact

At Elastic, most new revenue comes from existing customers. The Customer Architecture team isn't a support function — it's a growth engine. The impact of this team on Elastic's valuation is direct and measurable. That's exactly where I want to be.

🤖

Hybrid Search & AI

Elastic's positioning on Hybrid Search and operationalizing AI is a unique opportunity. It's the domain where I want to deepen my expertise — and Elastic has everything needed to be the leader in bringing this to enterprise customers.

// agg: { "small_world": { "terms": { "field": "shared_history" } } }

Small World 🌍

While preparing for this call, I realized we already share some history. Hover over the cards.

✈️
AIRBUS
"A story of competition..."
↻ hover to discover

At Splunk, Airbus was my most iconic deal.

An account we won in a fiercely competitive context — against Elastic.

I was on the other side. I saw your value proposition from the opposing trenches. Today? We're on the same team.

Very happy to switch sides 😄

👥
randstad
"A name we both know..."
↻ hover to discover

Randstad is our largest customer in Europe at Lacework — and a major Splunk account I worked closely.

I personally led a high-pressure renewal there, in a very competitive context.

And you know them from the inside. We've each lived Randstad from a very different angle.

🏛️
ORACLE
"Paris, 2008 / 2009..."
↻ hover to discover

I did my final year internship at Oracle Paris in 2008, then worked on Oracle Middleware until 2012 — including Webcenter, the solution you were managing.

Small world, right? 😄

Merci.

Romain Testu  ·  Director Customer Architecture  ·  Nordics · BeneLux · France

romain.testu@gmail.com  ·  +33 6 33 78 47 08

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