Strategic Account Manager

Introduction

A career in IBM Software means you'll be part of a team that transforms our customer's challenges into industry-leading solutions. We are an infinitely curious team, always seeking new possibilities, and dedicated to creating the world's leading AI-powered, cloud-native software solutions. Our renowned legacy creates endless global opportunities for our network of IBMers. We are a team of deep product experts, ensuring exceptional client experiences, with a focus on delivery, excellence, and obsession over customer outcomes. This position involves contributing to HashiCorp's offerings, now part of IBM, which empower organizations to automate and secure multi-cloud and hybrid environments. You will join a team managing the lifecycle of infrastructure and security, enhancing IBM's cloud solutions to ensure enterprises achieve efficiency, security, and scalability in their cloud journey.

• Drive Strategic Sales: Develop, manage, and close business within named strategic enterprise accounts in Germany, owning the entire sales cycle from prospecting to contract closing.
• Consistently achieve or exceed sales quotas by selling HashiCorp's full cloud platform software suite to new and existing customers.
• Customer Adoption & Expansion: Increase adoption of Terraform and Vault in each account by demonstrating enterprise value and securing initial "Land" wins, then Expand usage to additional projects, teams, and workflows.
• Develop strategies to Extend our footprint (e.g. introducing additional HashiCorp products or integrating with IBM and RedHat automation tools) and ensure high renewal rates through customer success focus.
• Enterprise Solution Selling: Align HashiCorp's solutions to the customer's business needs, challenges, and technical requirements. Articulate and evangelize our vision for infrastructure as code and zero-trust security, showing how Terraform and Vault can solve complex enterprise problems.
• Execute a consultative, value-based sales approach, positioning integrated HashiCorp-IBM offerings that drive tangible outcomes (e.g. improved cloud governance, compliance, and operational efficiency).
• Collaborative Go-to-Market: Work closely with IBM's enterprise go-to-market teams and ecosystem. This includes teaming with IBM account managers, technical specialists, and consulting services to position integrated solutions and coordinate sales efforts.
• Leverage IBM's broad portfolio and partner network to create comprehensive proposals that embed HashiCorp products within the client's digital transformation roadmap.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Build trusted advisor relationships at multiple levels of the customer organization - from C-level executives to architects and operators in Development, IT Operations, and Security.
• Orchestrate resources from HashiCorp and IBM (including solution engineers, partners, and executive sponsors) to influence key decision makers and address stakeholder concerns throughout lengthy sales cycles.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Lead virtual account teams and coordinate with internal groups such as Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Customer Success. Provide market feedback to HashiCorp, IBM and RedHat product teams regarding features, integrations, and client needs to ensure our offerings remain competitive and aligned with customer expectations.
• Pipeline & Forecast Management: Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of opportunities within your territory. Proactively identify and cultivate new logos while expanding business with existing clients. Diligently track progress and forecast revenue on a regular cadence with accuracy, providing clear visibility into expected bookings.
• Deal Execution & Compliance: Qualify opportunities using established enterprise sales methodologies (e.g. MEDDPICC) to focus efforts on high-probability deals.
• Navigate complex procurement processes and ensure thorough execution of all deal paperwork, coordinating with management, legal, finance, and IBM deal desks as needed to get contracts over the line.
• Thought Leadership: Stay informed about industry trends in cloud, DevOps, and automation, as well as developments in HashiCorp and IBM product roadmap.
• Represent the company at industry events, conferences, and webinars as needed. Champion the benefits of HashiCorp's Terraform and Vault in the context of IBM's automation strategy, positioning yourself as a knowledgeable resource in the German market.

• Experience: 8+ years of successful enterprise software sales experience, including managing complex sales cycles and large strategic accounts. Proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets in a consultative selling environment.
• Domain Knowledge: Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and IT automation tooling. Familiarity with Multi-Cloud infrastructure and IT Security management is required, with the ability to quickly learn HashiCorp's product portfolio.
• Strategic Selling Skills: Demonstrated ability to drive Adopt-Land-Expand sales motions in large organizations.
• Excellent strategic account planning, opportunity qualification, and value selling skills. Comfortable engaging both technically and commercially at enterprise scale (e.g. mapping solutions to business outcomes, ROI/TCO analysis).
• Stakeholder Management: Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills. Ability to influence and build credibility with diverse stakeholders, including senior executives, technical teams, and partner representatives. Experience collaborating in a matrixed environment or with alliance partners is a strong plus.
• Language & Communication: Native levelStrategic Account Manager in German and fluent English are required. Able to communicate complex technical concepts in clear, persuasive terms tailored to a German enterprise audience.

• Industry Expertise: Knowledge of the German market and key industries (e.g. chemical, retail, automotive, logistics, manufacturing, telecom, defense). Experience selling solutions addressing compliance, security, or cloud transformation challenges prevalent in German enterprises is highly valued.
• Technical Acumen: Deeper familiarity with HashiCorp's product suite (Terraform, Vault, Consul, Nomad) and how they integrate into broader enterprise ecosystems. Understanding of IBM's software and cloud portfolio (e.g. Red Hat OpenShift, Ansible, Cloud Paks, AI/Automation tools) and how these can complement HashiCorp solutions
• Sales Methodologies: Training or certification in enterprise sales frameworks (MEDDPICC, Challenger, Miller-Heiman, etc.) and ability to apply a structured approach to complex sales. Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM for pipeline management and forecasting.
• Collaborative Mindset: Prior experience in a co-selling or alliance-driven role, especially working alongside large tech companies or global systems integrators. Ability to navigate cross-company dynamics and align different teams around common goals.