Technology Sales - Brand Partner Specialist at IBM

Your Role and Responsibilities

• The Partner Technical Specialist mission is to work with Ecosystem Partners to identify opportunities, and progress technical sales, resulting in client success and IBM Technology business growth. Additionally, you will identify opportunities to expand Ecosystem partner skills coverage for Security, in order to scale success. Your understanding of the Ecosystem enables you to identify and involve the right Ecosystem Partners with the right skills for client success. You will leverage your technical insights to work alongside our Ecosystem Partners to remove technical inhibitors and co-deliver demos with Partners, support partner Proof of Concept/Value, advise partners on Solution Assurance, and progress opportunities to closure. You will engage with Partners and Clients with an opinionated point of view as an IBM technologist, practitioner and brand specialty solution expert. The PTS role is part of the overall Ecosystem team with overall responsibility to assist in the building of partner capability and capacity for sustained IBM growth.
• You will also work as an integral part of the IBM Technology sales organization and work closely with the Sales team through the pre-sales cycle. The role requires carrying out solution technical presentations, demonstrations, delivering Proof-of-Concepts and ensure client readiness for the implementation of proposed security solutions. The role also expects to deliver Business Partner technical enablement for IBM Security solutions, at the point of opportunity.
• In this role, you will be a solution subject matter expert - analysing customer situations and requirements and designing high quality security solutions, which are tailored to the client’s business and technical needs in a way that is valued by the customer and superior to the competition. It is essential the candidate can apply in-depth understanding of best practices, key concepts, products, offerings and services within the IBM Security portfolio and utilize knowledge and experience about technology, industry and business.

Responsibilities

• Act as IBM Security subject-matter technical expert to validate how a proposed solution meets and exceeds customer requirements.
• Build confidence with clients to become their trusted advisor for Security.
• Support sales team on prospect conference calls, WebEx and onsite visits by providing product demonstrations; expertly responds to technical questions and explains features in the context of solving customer’s business problems using IBM Security solutions.
• Lead technical response to client’s Request for Proposals (RFP) and Request for Information (RFI) with the ability to articulate through writing clearly high-quality responses that describes the solution and how it meets the customers’ functional and non-functional requirements.
• Proactively scope the technical solution required to address customer requirements, assess customers met and unmet needs, and recommend solutions that optimize value. Identify additional business development opportunities.
• Monitor customer support for technical solutions proposed throughout the sales process, intervening or alerting the sales and account teams to potential risks.
• Effectively communicate within the IBM Security division providing feedback from the field in support of business opportunities that can grow our security solution.
• Help deliver Business Partner technical enablement to build & maintain their skills continually.
• Willingness to travel (up to 50%) for customer engagements and training/ enablement.

Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• CISSP, CISM or equivalent technical certification.
• Fluency in spoken and written English.
• Deliver verbal and written communications that are impactful and persuasive.
• Ability to engage with multiple customers and transform their requirements to security solution design.
• Business acumen, with an understanding of the complete sales process, from lead discovery to deal closure and transition to implementation.
• 5+ years of Technical consulting/Technical sales/Technical Architecture experience in Security solutions encompassing On-Premise and SaaS solutions.
• Experience in engaging with clients to help design Security solutions.
• Passionate about Cybersecurity, understands the industry and competitive landscape, follows the current market trends and outlook.
• Knowledge of the IBM solution areas (Threat Management, Data Security and Identity & Access Management)
• Understanding of the complete security landscape and adjacent solutions (data & AI, containers, virtualization).
• System administration skills (Virtualization platforms, Docker/Kubernetes, OSes, DevOps), application servers and familiarity with common IT systems (HR, ERP, CRM, Core Banking).

Preferred Technical And Professional Expertise

• Scripting and programming experience (preferably Java, JavaScript, Python, SQL, Ansible) a plus.