Data Platform Sales SME

Introduction
At IBM Global Sales, we bring together innovation, collaboration, and expertise to help clients solve their most complex business challenges. As a Product Sales SME for Data Platform, you will utilize your deep knowledge and experience with IBM's Data products to drive business growth. This role focuses on IBM's Enterprise Data side of the platform, including watsonx.data, watsonx.data intelligence, watsonx.data integration, Confluent among other OEM solutions. You will serve as the primary Subject Matter Expert across accounts in the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, supporting all industries.
Your role and responsibilities

Your Role and Responsibilities:

You are the owner of your business across your territory and client set. As the Data Platform SME, you are accountable for driving revenue, building pipeline, and delivering measurable client value across the full watsonx.data portfolio and Confluent. Your responsibilities span three main pillars:
Business Ownership
Own the budget for your assigned product set and territory, with operational rigor to deliver against budget objectives each quarter
Develop and execute a territory business plan that generates new pipeline and grows opportunities quarter to quarter
Maintain deep awareness of your install base, competitive landscape, and market dynamics across your client set
Lock in and drive execution on Americas sales plays to generate pipeline, including Data Lakehouse, Data Intelligence, Data Integration, and Real-Time Streaming plays
Product Expertise
Achieve and maintain Level 3 minimum product expertise across watsonx.data, watsonx.data intelligence, watsonx.data integration, and Confluent
Understand the competitive landscape across product sets, including Databricks, Snowflake, AWS, Informatica, Collibra, and Confluent alternatives, and effectively handle objections and sell through competitive challenges
Develop deep conversational capability across product differentiators and what sets IBM apart in the market, including open lakehouse architecture, hybrid deployment flexibility, AI-powered data engineering agents, governed data products, and real-time event streaming
Value Delivery
Articulate IBM Data Platform offerings in the context of the value they create for a specific enterprise and persona, connecting capabilities to business outcomes such as cost optimization, AI readiness, regulatory compliance, and time-to-insight
Own the generation of value assessments and mutually align with clients on measurable use cases tied to the watsonx.data portfolio
Align with the Americas Value Assessment team to scale value assessment methodology across a growing number of client engagements in territory
Ensure operational rigor so that a value assessment is part of all pilots and hands-on technology engagements, with client executive sponsorship to progress to closure
Required education
Bachelor's Degree
Preferred education
Bachelor's Degree
Required technical and professional expertise
5+ years of experience in enterprise software sales, technical sales, or solutions engineering with a focus on data platforms, data management, analytics, or AI
Demonstrated ability to own and close complex, multi-product enterprise transactions
Strong track record of meeting or exceeding quota targets
Experience selling into mid-market and enterprise accounts across multiple industries
Ability to engage with both technical stakeholders (data engineers, architects, CTOs) and business stakeholders (CDOs, CFOs, line-of-business leaders)
Willingness to travel within the assigned Southeast territory (NC, SC, KY, TN, GA, AL) up to 60%
Watsonx.data: Open hybrid data lakehouse, multi-engine query optimization (Presto, Spark), data virtualization, structured and unstructured data management, Apache Iceberg
Watsonx.data intelligence: Data governance, metadata management, automated data quality, data lineage, data cataloging, data product development and sharing, Knowledge Accelerators
Watsonx.data integration: ETL/ELT pipelines (Data Stage), real-time streaming, data replication, data observability, AI-powered data engineering agents, hybrid deployment
Confluent: Apache Kafka, real-time event streaming, stream processing, connectors ecosystem, hybrid and multi-cloud event architectures, schema registry
Cross-portfolio: How all four products work together to deliver governed, real-time, AI-ready data across hybrid environments
Preferred technical and professional experience
Prior experience with IBM Data & AI products or competitive platforms (Databricks, Snowflake, Informatica, Collibra, Cloudera)
Experience with data lakehouse architectures, data governance frameworks, or real-time streaming platforms
Technical certifications in relevant data or cloud platforms
Familiarity with regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, public sector) and associated data compliance requirements
Experience building territory business plans and managing pipeline through CRM systems (Salesforce)

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 IBMers 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.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS:

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 grow 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.
  This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.
  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.
  Job Title
• Data Platform Subject Matter Expert
• Enterprise Data Fabric
  Date posted
  15-May-2026
  Job ID
  112231
  City / Township / Village
  Brookhaven
  State / Province
  Georgia
  Country
  United States
  Work arrangement
  Hybrid
  Area of work
  Sales
  Employment type
  Regular
  Contract type
  Regular

Projected Minimum Salary per year:

144,000.00

Projected Maximum Salary per year:

268,000.00
Position type
Professional
Travel required
Up to 60% or 3 days a week (home on weekends - based on project requirements)
Company
(0147) International Business Machines Corporation
Shift
General (daytime)
Is this role a commissionable/sales incentive based position?
Yes
Application Info
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