Principal, Deal Strategy

With Confluent, organizations can harness the full power of continuously flowing data to innovate and win in the modern digital world. We have a purpose that drives us to do better every day – we're creating an entirely new category within data infrastructure - data streaming. This technology will allow every organization to create experiences and use the power of data in ways that profoundly impact the way we all live. This impact is our purpose and drives us to do better every day.

One Confluent. One team. One Data Streaming Platform.

Data Connects Us.

About the Role:

As a Principal in our Deal Strategy team, you'll be a key collaborator with Confluent's Field Sales team, including Sales leadership, Regional Sales Directors (RSDs), and Account Executives (AEs) and Value Engineering teams. You'll dive deep into Confluent's offerings and value propositions, ensuring you're well-versed to work effectively with Partners, the broader Confluent Customer Success Group (CSG), Operations, and other teams. Together, we'll ensure that our deal structures and proposals are perfectly tailored to meet our customers' needs.

Your role in the team goes beyond just working on deals. You'll be our ears on the ground, providing valuable feedback from the field about trends, competitive insights, and customer feedback. This information is crucial for continuously refining our pricing, deal structures, and overall value proposition. Additionally, you'll play a pivotal role in facilitating training and education, helping to instill best practices across our Field teams. In short, your work will impact our direct sales efforts and contribute to our broader business strategy's ongoing evolution and success. This position reports to our AMER Director, Deal Strategy.

What You Will Do:

• Collaborate with sales teams on our non-standard deals by structuring strategic and competitive proposals that meet customer needs and are beneficial to long term growth. 
• Co-create the value proposition of Confluent’s offerings with our Value Engineering and sales teams and brainstorm on potential deal strategy plays in early customer engagements. 
• Perform deep-dive discovery and qualification with account teams and customers to understand the business problems we are solving for and work towards mutually beneficial outcomes.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in Confluent value selling methodologies including best practices for deal structuring, complex pricing strategies, and commercial levers. 
• Manage cross-functional stakeholders timing and expectations during deal structuring process for multiple in-flight deals occurring in parallel.
• This may include leading working sessions, performing analysis and consolidating approvals for innovative, strategic deals that fall outside standard processes.
• Identify opportunities to build repeatable, scalable processes within our team and our hand-offs to internal stakeholders. 
• Continuously update your expertise in Confluent's portfolio, including on-premise, cloud, and hybrid deal constructs, to provide informed advice and support

What You Will Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree with over 10 years of experience in roles such as Management Consulting, Deal Strategy, Finance, Growth or Strategy & Operations. 
• Exceptional critical thinking skills with the ability to absorb and synthesize complex concepts in varied situations into logical, data-driven decisions 
• Experience constructing strategic hypotheses with deep understanding of the big picture view of the operational implications. 
• Proficient in financial analysis and partnering on the development of  business cases, with a bias towards data driven decision making
• Deep understanding of various software selling models (SaaS, perpetual, on-demand, consumption, etc.) and a strong interest in Data, Enterprise Architecture, and Infrastructure
• Knowledgeable about the Data and SaaS/Cloud industries, with a keen aptitude for learning about Data in Motion and Confluent’s portfolio
• Demonstrated ability to meet timelines on multiple projects while simultaneously managing stakeholder expectations and managing risk. 
• Proven project management skills, capable of building relationships and solving problems with cross-functional teams in a remote environment
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written, able to effectively convey information across different teams, roles, and levels
  Relevant experience putting together proposals for executives or customers coupled with past experience or interest in go-to-market strategy and execution

Come As You Are

At Confluent, equality is a core tenet of our culture. We are committed to building an inclusive global team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, beliefs, and experiences. The more diverse we are, the richer our community and the broader our impact. Employment decisions are made on the basis of job-related criteria without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

At Confluent, we are committed to providing competitive pay and benefits that are in line with industry standards. We analyze and carefully consider several factors when determining compensation, including work history, education, professional experience, and location. This position has an annual estimated salary of $237,780- $285,345 and a competitive equity package. The actual pay may vary depending on your skills, qualifications, experience, and work location. In addition, Confluent offers a wide range of employee benefits. To learn more about our benefits click HERE.

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