Industry Advisor for Public Sector and Defense

We help the world run better

At SAP, we enable you to bring out your best. Our company culture is focused on collaboration and a shared passion to help the world run better. How? We focus every day on building the foundation for tomorrow and creating a workplace that embraces differences, values flexibility, and is aligned to our purpose-driven and future-focused work. We offer a highly collaborative, caring team environment with a strong focus on learning and development, recognition for your individual contributions, and a variety of benefit options for you to choose from.

Location: Italy and other EMEA Countries

What you'll do:

The Industry Advisor (IA) plays a critical role supporting our Industry business to grow sales pipeline and engage with our customers to secure revenue. The Industry Advisor provides industry perspective, strategic solution advice, and thought leadership to drive pipeline growth and quality through demand generation strategies, support sales cycles and customer co-innovation programs, and contribute to building SAP's leadership position in the industry. 

Area 1 – Planning, Strategy, & Practice Development:

• Develop and execute a quality and actionable business plan
• Quarterly business plan review
• Enable Sales, the VAT team, and the Partner Ecosystem on how to differentiate SAP for the industry
• Develop compelling industry specific content in support of the five key job areas

Area 2 – Drive Awareness & Incremental Demand:

• Develop SAP's brand in the industry through thought leadership, content creation, appearances in industry events, articles, and social & traditional media interviews, etc.
• Create and nurture industry customers and communities
• Get doors open.  Create / qualify new pipeline opportunities
• Provide Industry advisory for account planning

Area 3 – Mature Industry Opportunities in Pipeline:

• Accelerate pipeline opportunity conversion to qualified customer engagements
• Develop industry specific account strategies
• Conduct executive first meetings to differentiate SAP based on industry relative to the customer's objectives

Area 4 – Support Deal Execution:

• Differentiate SAP by industry throughout the sales cycle to increase win rates and grow deal sizes
• Help shape the engagement by advising the sales teams to ensure the right industry message is delivered in deliverables like RFP responses, business cases, product demos, industry solution architecture, etc.
• Lead customer executive conversations

Area 5 – Support Customer Success Realization:

• Support post sale advisory and Executive Steering Committee meetings for top accounts in plan
• Support Industry Customer Advisory Councils and networking
• Build and nurture customer references

What you bring:

• 12-15+ years professional experience
• Expertise in Public Sector and/or Defense
• Customer facing experience and fluency in English, with knowledge of other languages as an asset
• Bachelor's degree required, MBA preferred
• Strong communication, problem-solving, and project management skills
• Ability to work in dynamic and high-pressure environments
• Experience with managing escalations and building strategic partnership

Where you belong:

• Business development profile with ~ 30% travel
• Represent the company on industry subject matters internally and externally
• Work with co-workers from diverse backgrounds and collaborate with other sales roles
• Experience in working with Cloud solutions
• First experience with SAP industry solutions for your industry

 ​Bring out your best

SAP innovations help more than four hundred thousand customers worldwide work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively. Originally known for leadership in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP has evolved to become a market leader in end-to-end business application software and related services for database, analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management. As a cloud company with two hundred million users and more than one hundred thousand employees worldwide, we are purpose-driven and future-focused, with a highly collaborative team ethic and commitment to personal development. Whether connecting global industries, people, or platforms, we help ensure every challenge gets the solution it deserves. At SAP, you can bring out your best.

We win with inclusion

SAP's culture of inclusion, focus on health and well-being, and flexible working models help ensure that everyone – regardless of background – feels included and can run at their best. At SAP, we believe we are made stronger by the unique capabilities and qualities that each person brings to our company, and we invest in our employees to inspire confidence and help everyone realize their full potential. We ultimately believe in unleashing all talent and creating a better and more equitable world.

SAP is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to the values of Equal Employment Opportunity and provide accessibility accommodations to applicants with physical and/or mental disabilities. If you are interested in applying for employment with SAP and are in need of accommodation or special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please send an e-mail with your request to Recruiting Operations Team:

For SAP employees: Only permanent roles are eligible for the SAP Employee Referral Program, according to the eligibility rules set in the SAP Referral Policy. Specific conditions may apply for roles in Vocational Training.

EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability:

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their age, race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, et al), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, or disability.

Successful candidates might be required to undergo a background verification with an external vendor.

Requisition ID: | Work Area: Sales  | Expected Travel: 0 - 30%  | Career Status: Professional  | Employment Type: Regular Full Time   | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid.