Alliance Sales Executive, Associate Director - IBM - Consumer Products & Retail

About the role

EY's Sales & Strategic Pursuits (S&SP) function drives market-leading growth by integrating sales leadership, sector insight, technology expertise, and solution depth. As an IBM Alliance Sales Executive for Consumer Products & Retail, you will operate at the front edge of growth for one of EY’s most strategic alliance relationships.

Responsibilities

• Sales Origination: Relentlessly originate and qualify net-new pipeline within the Consumer Products & Retail sectors by identifying unmet needs, emerging priorities, and transformation opportunities.
• Drive sales across three core channels: direct client origination, IBM field-led co-sell motions, and EY account team-led pursuits.
• Lead early-stage opportunity identification and qualification, independently shaping pursuits from signal detection through deal maturation.
• Architect and scope deals that integrate IBM technology with EY consulting and managed services capabilities, ensuring engagements generate meaningful EY services revenue alongside the technology sale.
• IBM Alliance Leadership: Act as a trusted partner to IBM Consumer & Retail field teams, evangelizing for EY by building credibility and mindshare across account executives, solution leaders, and sales leadership.
• Evangelize and position EY’s IBM-powered offerings across the CP&R portfolio: AI-driven planning and FinOps (watsonx, Planning Analytics, Apptio), real-time operations and intelligent automation (Confluent, watsonx Orchestrate, Maximo Application Suite), and retail edge and core modernization (Red Hat OpenShift, mainframe modernization).
• Consumer Products & Retail Industry Impact: Demonstrate deep understanding of CP&R clients' most pressing issues, including margin pressure, demand volatility, supply chain disruption, inventory optimization, pricing and promotion effectiveness, and evolving customer expectations. Translate IBM capabilities into outcomes that resonate with CP&R executives.
• AI-Enabled Selling & Innovation: Infuse AI into the full sales lifecycle: account and opportunity analytics, intelligent prospecting and prioritization, pattern recognition across pipeline and buying signals, AI-supported storytelling, proposal shaping, and pursuit orchestration, and integration of digital sales agents.
• Market Leadership & Collaboration: Bring deep CP&R domain knowledge and IBM technology expertise, with the ability to translate that knowledge into enterprise-scale transformations that deliver measurable outcomes. Envision and activate a multi-alliance ecosystem, positioning EY as the orchestrator of partners, platforms, and services to unlock new growth and transformation opportunities for clients.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of quota-carrying sales experience in professional services, technology, and/or enterprise solutions.
• Demonstrated success as a net-new business hunter, not solely an account or alliance manager.
• Direct experience selling to Consumer Products and Retail clients, with strong understanding of industry challenges and transformation drivers.
• Strong IBM ecosystem experience, including co-sell and partner-led motions, with active IBM field relationships.
• Deep familiarity with IBM’s enterprise portfolio, including AI, data and analytics, hybrid cloud, automation, and industry platforms.
• Experience operating within a complex, multi-vendor technology landscape.
• Prior experience selling at a Big Four firm or large global systems integrator.
• Experience structuring managed services engagements alongside a technology platform sale.
• Exceptional client relationship management and executive communication skills.
• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent).