Sales Specialist - Data Streaming Platform (DSP) - Confluent

IBM
IBM

Sales & Business Development

California, USA · Tokyo, Japan · Texas City, TX, USA

Posted on Jun 19, 2026
Introduction

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

Confluent is seeking a highly motivated and results-oriented Sales Executive to drive revenue growth globally for Data Streaming Platform (DSP) workloads. This role focuses on acquiring, building and managing strategic partnerships with first line AE/SEs, Product Management, Partners, and Marketing. The successful candidate will be a proven sales professional with a strong track record of building revenue streams and business value, specifically within the data infrastructure space.

What You Will Do:

· Develop & Drive DSP Sales Motion: Develop and execute a regional go-to-market strategy to identify key personas and a GTM Motion for each that align with Confluent's strategic goals and focus on capturing DSP workloads from Data Lake, Data Warehouse, and ETL/Reverse ETL vendors (Shift Left) and preparing AI-Ready data.

· Define Clear Objectives: Target segments, and key performance indicators (KPIs), and create targeted sales campaigns utilizing direct sales, digital marketing, and partner channels to drive awareness and interest in Confluent's DSP solutions.

· Execute and Land New Streaming Projects: Engage with key stakeholders within target organizations and internally to understand their pain points and business objectives, presenting tailored solutions that demonstrate the value of using Confluent's platform for processing raw (bronze) data into more meaningful data for operational, AI, and analytics use cases.

· Hunt for New Opportunities: Proactively prospect and develop a robust sales pipeline. Identify and qualify potential partners based on their market reach, technical capabilities, and alignment with Confluent's strategic objectives.

· Build Strategic Partnerships: Cultivate strong, long-term relationships with key decision-makers within target accounts and ecosystem. Evangelize mutually beneficial partnership agreements that drive revenue growth for both organizations.

· Evangelize Confluent's DSP Capabilities: Clearly articulate the value proposition of Confluent's streaming platform to technical and business audiences within partner organizations. Showcase the benefits of using Kafka and Confluent for DSP workloads.

· Develop Compelling Sales Presentations: Create and deliver persuasive presentations that highlight the revenue-generating potential of partnering with Confluent. Tailor presentations to the specific needs and priorities of each potential partner.

· Collaborate with Partners: Work closely with partner organizations to develop joint go-to-market plans, co-marketing initiatives, and sales enablement programs.

· Stay Ahead of the Curve: Maintain a deep understanding of the evolving data streaming landscape, emerging technologies, and competitive dynamics.

Required education
High School Diploma/GED
Preferred education
Bachelor's Degree
Required technical and professional expertise

· Proven Data Analytics Sales Experience: Demonstrated success in selling analytics software solutions, ideally within the data infrastructure, database, open source, messaging, or big data space.

· Hunter Mentality: A proactive and results-oriented approach to sales with a proven ability to identify, qualify, and close new business opportunities.

· Strong Technical Acumen: A solid understanding of data streaming concepts, Kafka, and the Confluent platform. Ability to effectively communicate technical value to both technical and business audiences.

· Executive Presence: Confidence and credibility to engage with senior-level executives within partner organizations.

· Excellent Communication and Presentation Skills: Ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts and deliver compelling sales presentations.

· Strong Business Value Skills: Proven ability to justify favorable agreements that align with Confluent's business objectives.

· Experience in a High-Growth Environment: Prior experience working in a fast-paced, dynamic startup or high-growth technology company.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Acquisition Agreement Knowledge: Experience with acquisition or integration agreements, understanding terms and conditions, and implementing compliance measures. • Incentive Plan Optimization: Experience in analyzing and optimizing incentive plans to meet business objectives, ensuring alignment with organizational goals. • Stakeholder Engagement: Experience in building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, facilitating collaboration and communication to drive successful outcomes.

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.

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