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Sales Development Representative - IBM/Red Hat

IBM

IBM

Sales & Business Development
Austin, TX, USA
Posted on Feb 26, 2026
Introduction

Red Hat at IBM, connects an innovative community of customers, partners, and contributors to deliver an open-source stack of trusted, high-performing technologies. As a Sales Development Representative (SDR), you will join the front lines of the open-source revolution, helping enterprises navigate the complexities of hybrid cloud environments.

This is an early-career opportunity with an industry leading culture for learning and will set you up for positive impact and success, whilst ongoing development will advance your career through an upward trajectory. Our sales environment is collaborative and experiential. Part of a team, you'll be surrounded by bright minds and keen co-creators – always willing to help and be helped – as you apply passion to work that will compel our clients to invest in IBM's products and services.

Your role and responsibilities

In this role, you will act as the bridge between market interest and the Red Hat ecosystem, balancing reactive qualification with proactive outreach.

  • Inbound Response & Qualification: Serve as the first point of contact for inbound inquiries regarding Red Hat’s portfolio, ensuring a rapid, high-quality response that reflects our commitment to customer success.
  • Proactive Outbound Prospecting: Target new accounts through strategic research and multi-channel outreach (phone, email, social). You will "open doors" at organizations that have yet to realize the power of an open hybrid cloud strategy.
  • Strategic Discovery: Lead initial discovery sessions to understand a client’s unique IT challenges. You will align their needs with Red Hat’s open-source solutions to drive new client acquisition.
  • Pipeline Development: Convert both inbound leads and outbound prospects into Sales-Qualified Opportunities, ensuring a seamless handoff to Account Executives and Ecosystem partners.
  • The "Open" Social Presence: Leverage social selling and digital platforms to amplify Red Hat’s mission and build a personal brand as a trusted advisor within the tech community.

Sales Execution & Collaboration: Work closely with Marketing and Regional Sales teams to manage the transition of interest into the pipeline, ensuring the right technical experts are brought in to solve complex client problems.

Required education
High School Diploma/GED
Preferred education
Bachelor's Degree
Required technical and professional expertise
  • Foundational Experience: A background in a tech-forward environment or a strong interest in the enterprise software landscape is preferred.
  • Resilience & Drive: A track record of meeting or exceeding goals. You are comfortable navigating "no" to get to "yes" and thrive in a fast-paced, high-energy sales culture.
  • Communication with Clarity: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills. You can take complex technical concepts and explain them in a way that resonates with business leaders.
  • Growth Mindset: An insatiable curiosity and a desire to learn Red Hat’s extensive portfolio. You are coachable, adaptable, and ready to evolve in a rapidly changing industry.
  • Team-First Mentality: Ability to work across the Red Hat and IBM ecosystem to ensure the best possible outcome for the client.

NOTE: This role requires the ability to be in the Austin, TX
IBM office minimum four (4) days each week.

Preferred technical and professional experience
  • Hustle and Can-Do Attitude: A relentless drive to pursue new business opportunities and overcome challenges with a positive, problem-solving attitude.
  • Organizational Prowess: Outstanding organizational, time management, and prioritization skills, capable of handling inbound with agility and making outbound cold calls when necessary.
  • Adaptability: Thrives in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities and last-minute requests, showcasing an ability to swiftly adapt and excel.

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.