AI Sales Specialist, Google Cloud, Sub Saharan Africa

Google; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 800 000 - 1 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech company in Johannesburg is looking for an experienced AI Sales Specialist to build and expand customer relationships. In this role, you will partner with internal teams to drive business growth utilizing advanced AI technologies. The ideal candidate has 10 years of sales experience in the enterprise software or cloud space and a strong understanding of AI/ML. This role offers the opportunity to work at the forefront of AI advancement while fostering a collaborative work culture.

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in a sales role in the enterprise software, cloud, or AI space.
• Experience in promoting the AI technology stack.
• Ability to connect AI/ML with business value and engage executive stakeholders as an advisor.

Responsibilities

• Build relationships with customers as a trusted advisor.
• Deliver against quota and achieve strategic business growth goals.
• Work with Google accounts and cross-functional teams to develop go-to-market strategies.

Skills

Business development

Sales

Account management

AI/ML understanding

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10 years of experience in a sales role in the enterprise software, cloud, or AI space.
• Experience in partnering with technical staff to build business cases and implementation plans.
• Experience in business development, sales, or account management guiding customer adoption of solutions and delivering business growth in AI or a related technology field.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in promoting the AI technology stack.
• Experience working with and managing partners in complex implementation projects including global system integrators and packaged software vendors.
• Experience working with product teams and an understanding of how to embed our technology into their product set.
• Ability to connect AI/ML with business value and engage executive stakeholders as an advisor and thought leader.
• Ability to drive business growth across a broad set of industry-specific AI/ML use cases.

About the Job

As an AI Sales Specialist, you will be responsible for building and expanding relationships with new and existing customers. You will develop relationships with external customer stakeholders, identifying innovative ways to multiply the impact of the team. You will partner with internal Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Sales teams to assist with business growth.

It's an exciting time to join Google Cloud’s Go-To-Market team, leading the AI revolution for businesses worldwide. You’ll excel by leveraging Google's brand credibility—a legacy built on inventing foundational technologies and proven at scale. We’ll provide you with the world's most advanced AI portfolio, including frontier Gemini models, and the complete Vertex AI platform, helping you to solve business problems. We’re a collaborative culture providing direct access to DeepMind's engineering and research minds, empowering you to solve customer challenges. Join us to be the catalyst for our mission, drive customer success, and define the new cloud era—the market is yours.

Responsibilities

• Build relationships with customers as a subject matter expert and trusted advisor, managing complex business cycles, identifying solution use cases, and influencing long‑term strategic direction of accounts.
• Deliver against quota and achieve or exceed strategic business and growth goals while forecasting and reporting your assigned territory’s business.
• Work with Google accounts and cross‑functional teams (e.g., Customer Engineering, Marketing, Customer Success, Product, Engineering, Channels) to develop go‑to‑market strategies, drive pipeline and business growth, close agreements, understand the perspective of the customer, and provide excellent prospect and customer experience.
• Develop and execute strategic account plans informed by our responsible AI framework across an assigned territory or market.
• Work with multiple customers and opportunities simultaneously, understanding each customer’s technology footprint and strategy, growth plans, business drivers, competitors, and how they can transform their business using our technologies.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.