Sales Specialist – Applications & AI

Sales Specialist – Applications & AI

At the company, our Purpose is to be a relentless ally, disrupting the status quo and unleashing our clients to Do Great Things !  We enable our clients to achieve key business outcomes that reshape how our world runs. As an expert technology adviser and managed service provider with cross-platform certifications, the company empowers our clients to keep up with continuous change and embrace innovation.

We can Do Great Things because we have great Associates. The company Core Values unify our diverse talents and are woven into how we do business. These five traits are the key to achieving our purpose:

Honesty, Reliability, Curiosity, Collaboration, and Passion.

About the role and what you'll be doing

The Sales Specialist – Applications & AI is a quota-carrying, commissioned sales role responsible for growing the company's Application Managed Services (AMS) and AI business. You will sell outcomes across the full stack, from the business processes our clients depend on, through the applications that run them, down to the data, AI and infrastructure underneath.  Your goal is to help enterprise clients run their critical applications more reliably, change them faster, and put AI into production where it delivers measurable value.

You collaborate with Account Executives and Client Partners who own the primary account relationship across the company's client base while bringing expertise and specialized selling on Applications & AI to build and close your own pipeline. You will bring the application and AI expertise, the executive point of view, and leadership that turn a client problem into a signed services agreement.

The company is an AI-led company, leveraging AI in its own operations and in live, mission-critical client environments across mainframe, hybrid, cloud, and applications, so you will be selling capabilities that already run in production, not just in a pilot.

Sales Strategy & Opportunity Development

• Own and deliver quarterly and annual bookings targets for Application Managed Services and AI, across both overlay opportunities and the pipeline you source yourself.

• Prospect for and open new application and AI conversations with C-level leaders, application leaders and business unit leaders, including in accounts where the company does not yet manage applications or AI.

• Partner with Account Executives and Client Partners on account plans that expand the company's role from infrastructure into the application, data and AI layers.

• Lead deal strategy from first conversation through contract: lead with a business problem, qualify rigorously, shape the solution, build the business case and drive to close.

• Use focused entry engagements, such as application observability and insight reviews, AI-assisted application and code assessments, data-readiness-for-AI assessments, AI strategy workshops and time-boxed AI proofs of value, to create early wins that convert into recurring managed services.

• Forecast accurately, keep CRM current, and give leadership a clear view of pipeline health, risks and upside.

• Maintain an informed view of client priorities, competitive activity, and the fast-moving AI and application services market.

Client Engagement & Solution Leadership

• Act as a trusted adviser on how to run, modernize and improve critical applications across mainframe, cloud and hybrid estates, and how AI can make them faster, more reliable and less costly to operate.

• Connect technology to business outcomes, translating faster change delivery, fewer incidents, lower run cost, reduced risk and new AI-enabled capabilities into terms that CIOs, CFOs and business leaders will fund.

• Facilitate discovery conversations, workshops and assessments with technical, operational and executive stakeholders to understand business challenges, identify the outcomes that matter most, and prioritize where application and AI investments will pay back first.

• Drive client conversations by leading with the client’s business outcomes, particularly around AI, working with business leaders to understand what they want to deliver on and work with the internal the company team to design a solution that meets that business objective.

• Position AI-enabled operations, including predictive incident detection, AI-driven root cause analysis, intelligent change-risk scoring and automated remediation, as part of how the company runs applications rather than as an add-on.

• Position the company’s AI Managed Services and connect opportunities to build out a client’s AI capabilities with how they plan to manage/govern those capabilities, connecting consulting (non-recurring revenue) to ongoing services for the company (recurring revenue opportunities).

• Build business cases, ROI models and commercial proposals, including SLA- and outcome-based structures, that support confident executive decisions.

• Address responsible AI, security, data governance and regulatory considerations credibly with clients in highly regulated industries.

Collaboration & Field Execution

• Orchestrate Solution Architects, AI and data specialists, application delivery leaders and partners to design solutions that can be delivered and run profitably.

• Lead solution positioning, proposal development, pricing discussions, presentations and contract negotiations for application and AI opportunities.

• Work with hyperscaler and AI technology partners on joint account planning, co-selling and partner-funded programs.

• Raise application and AI fluency across the sales organization by running enablement, sharing winning plays and mentoring sellers on how to find and qualify opportunities.

• Use AI in your own selling, including account research, meeting preparation, proposal development and pipeline analysis, and share what works with the team.

• Partner with marketing and portfolio teams on campaigns and programs that build application and AI pipeline.

Business Insights & Voice of the Customer

• Bring client feedback, competitive intelligence and win/loss insights back to portfolio, product and AI teams to shape offers, packaging and pricing.

• Actively identify barriers to customer success and help develop strategies that improve client outcomes.

• Advocate for client needs while balancing business objectives and operational realities.

• Support strategic growth initiatives and other responsibilities as assigned.

We want all new Associates to succeed in their roles at the company. That's why we've outlined the job requirements below. To be considered for this role, it's important that you meet all Required Qualifications. If you do not meet all of the Preferred Qualifications, we still encourage you to apply.

What You Will Need

• Bachelor's degree from a four-year college or university or equivalent work experience.

• Experience within a managed services provider (MSP), consulting organization, systems integrator, or technology services company.

• 7+ years of quota-carrying enterprise technology sales experience, including at least 3 years selling application services such as application managed services, application modernization, application development and support, or DevOps/SRE services.

• A consistent record of meeting or exceeding quota on complex, multi-year services deals, including opportunities you sourced yourself.

• Direct experience selling AI, data or intelligent automation solutions (for example, generative or agentic AI use cases, AIOps, or the data platforms that support AI), and the ability to explain what made those deals succeed beyond the pilot stage.

• Working knowledge of how modern applications are built, run and supported, including the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Agile, CI/CD, ITIL-based service management, observability and SRE practices, with enough depth to hold credible conversations with application and engineering leaders.

• Familiarity with cloud platforms including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

• Proven ability to engage and influence senior executives, including CIOs, CTOs, CFOs and business unit leaders, and to build business cases that tie technology investment to financial and operational outcomes.

• Experience in a sales specialist, overlay, or solution sales role, with a proven ability to influence without direct authority across a matrixed organization.

• Strong verbal, written, presentation and executive communication skills, with strong analytical and problem-solving ability.

• Personal fluency with AI tools in your day-to-day work, and the curiosity to keep pace with a fast-moving market.

• Proficiency with CRM tools, Microsoft Office applications, and sales enablement platforms.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience selling application services or modernization for mainframe or other legacy platforms alongside cloud.

• Experience selling AIOps, observability or AI-enabled IT operations services.

• Familiarity with emerging AI engineering practices such as specification-driven development, AI agent orchestration and workflow design, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server architectures.

• Familiarity with data governance, data mesh, data warehousing and data virtualization, and the data foundations AI depends on.

• Experience structuring SLA-, XLA- or outcome-based commercial models.

• Experience selling into regulated industries such as financial services, insurance, healthcare or the public sector, or deep expertise in another industry vertical aligned to the company's growth strategy.

• Experience working with large enterprise and mid-market clients and participating in large, strategic, multi-service transformation programs.

• Relevant certifications in cloud, AI, application or managed services technologies.

Why the company?

The company is a place to make better happen – for our clients and for your career. You can do great things through innovation or collaboration, by learning or volunteering, or to promote diversity and inclusion. You can do great things for your own health or for a healthier planet. Whatever it means to you to do great things we want the company to be the place you can do it.

We are a client-facing business, but we do encourage clients to allow us to work remotely most of the time so if you are not required to be on a client site, you can choose to work from home or in the company offices.

Some of our benefits include

• Unlimited Paid Days Off

• Three health plan options

• 401k with company match

• Eligibility for dental, vision, short and long-term disability, life and AD&D coverage, and flexible spending accounts

• Family Forming Benefit including fertility coverage and adoption/surrogacy reimbursement

• Paid childbearing and paternal leave

• Education Reimbursement, Student Loan Assistance or 529 College Funding

• Sabbatical leave

• Wellness program

• Flexible work schedule

As of the date of this posting, a good faith estimate of the current pay scale for this role is $144,000 to $188,000 annually based on a full-time schedule. Please note that placement in the range may vary based on numerous factors including but not limited to skills, experience, internal equity, and business needs. In addition to base salary, other compensation programs, depending on eligibility, include a role-based, sales-incentive plan, and an equity grant under our Associate Equity Appreciation Program.

The company is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. We are committed to providing equal employment to our Associates and building a diverse and inclusive workforce. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected basis, in accordance with applicable law.

Pay transparency nondiscrimination statement/posting OFCCP’s pay transparency policy can be found on OFCCP’s website .

If you need accommodation at any point during the application or interview process, please let your recruiter know or email [link for members] .