Enterprise Account Executive - Confluent

IBM; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 147,000 - 248,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) plan

Paid time off

Training & development

Inclusive culture

Job summary

IBM Global Sales in Boston is seeking an Enterprise Account Executive to sell Confluent solutions to national accounts. You will own the sales cycle from discovery to closing, building relationships with CIOs and senior stakeholders while leveraging MEDDPICC or Challenger methodologies.

Collaborate with Solutions Engineers, Global Account Managers, and Professional Services to tailor technical solutions and ensure a seamless customer experience.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of proven, quota-carrying sales experience in a competitive market.
• Demonstrated success in consultative, solution-selling environments within technology (SaaS, cloud, big data, open-source, or enterprise IT solutions).
• Experience with selling into GCC clients is a must
• Proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales quotas consistently.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage the full sales cycle, from prospecting and discovery to negotiation and closing complex deals, using structured sales methodologies like MEDDPICC or Challenger.
• Proactively identify, qualify, and develop a robust sales pipeline, building strong relationships with C-level executives and senior stakeholders within GCCs.
• Understand customer needs and business problems, developing and presenting compelling value propositions tailored to specific business outcomes leveraging Confluent's data streaming platform.

Skills

Quota carrying sales

Consultative selling

Solutions selling

C-level engagement

Forecasting & pipeline management

Negotiation

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

MEDDPICC

Challenger sales

CRM (Salesforce)

Job description

At IBM Global Sales, we bring together innovation, collaboration, and expertise to help clients solve their most complex business challenges. Working across industries and geographies, you’ll partner with colleagues, clients, and partners to co-create solutions that drive digital transformation and lasting impact.Success in Global Sales is built on curiosity, empathy, and collaboration. You’ll connect technical understanding with strong people skills, building trusted relationships and shaping solutions that improve business and society. With world-class onboarding, continuous learning, and a supportive culture, IBM offers the tools and opportunities to grow your career. Join us and be part of a global team that’s passionate about driving innovation and making a difference.

Your role and responsibilities

As a member of the Confluent Sales Team, (an IBM Company), the Enterprise Account Executive is responsible for selling Confluent solutions to our National Accounts segment. We expect you to use your prospecting, sales, negotiation, and leadership skills to effectively sell Confluent offerings to leading companies to meet and exceed your quarterly sales target. You must possess a 'consumption/growth' mentality with a proven track record of success within a value-driven sales model.

What You Will Do:

• Achieve and exceed quarterly and annual sales targets by driving net-new customer acquisition and expanding consumption within existing enterprise accounts.

Strategic Sales Execution:

• Own and manage the entire sales cycle, from prospecting and discovery to negotiation and closing complex deals, using structured sales methodologies like MEDDPICC or Challenger.
• Proactively identify, qualify, and develop a robust sales pipeline, building strong relationships with C-level executives and senior stakeholders within GCCs.

Consultative Selling:

• Understand customer needs and business problems, developing and presenting compelling value propositions tailored to specific business outcomes leveraging Confluent's data streaming platform.
• Partner closely with Solutions Engineers, Global Account Managers, Professional Services, and Customer Success teams to design effective technical solutions and ensure seamless customer experience.
• Become an in-depth subject matter expert (SME) on Confluent's offerings, the broader data infrastructure, DataStreaming, AI and Kafka landscape.
• Work with the partner ecosystem across AWS, GCP, Azure, GSIs and GCC focused Partners.
• Maintain accurate CRM records, provide regular sales reports, and forecast sales accurately.

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• 5+ years of proven, quota-carrying sales experience in a competitive market.
• Demonstrated success in consultative, solution-selling environments within technology (SaaS, cloud, big data, open-source, or enterprise IT solutions).
• Experience with selling into GCC clients is a must
• Proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales quotas consistently.

Technical Knowledge:

• Strong understanding of data, cloud technologies, open-source, and the business value of data streaming/Kafka (Confluent) solutions.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM has a global presence, operating in more than 175 countries with a broad-based geographic distribution of revenue. The company’s Global Markets organization is a strategic sales business unit that manages IBM’s global footprint, working closely with dedicated country-based operating units to serve clients locally. These country teams have client relationship managers who lead integrated teams of consultants, solution specialists and delivery professionals to enable clients’ growth and innovation. By complementing local expertise with global experience and digital capabilities, IBM builds deep and broad-based client relationships. This local management focus fosters speed in supporting clients, addressing new markets and making investments in emerging opportunities. Additionally, the Global Markets organization serves clients with expertise in their industry as well as through the products and services that IBM and partners supply. IBM is also expanding its reach to new and existing clients through digital marketplaces.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMer's as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

• Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being
• Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs
• Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law
• Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can growth skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals
• Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

This position is eligible for participation in an IBM Sales Incentive plan. Actual incentive opportunity will be based on performance and the eligible Target Incentive, as addressed in the applicable plan, all of which is subject to change. The compensation range listed for this position is the IBM Reference Salary that is used when you are not actively participating in a sales plan. Your actual base pay plus incentive opportunity will be determined by the Incentive Plan assigned to you.

Projected Minimum Salary per year

147,000.00

Projected Maximum Salary per year

248,000.00

Position type

Professional

Up to 40% or 2 days a week (home on weekends- based on project requirements)

Company

(0147) International Business Machines Corporation

Shift

General (daytime)

Contract type

Regular

Is this role a commissionable/sales incentive based position?