OpenShift Sales Specialist – Michigan​/Lakes Region

About the Role

This role is built for someone who thinks like a developer, understands a ‘day in the life of a developer’, but operates as the strategic dealmaker. It involves going deep on the technology and architecture requirements in one conversation, and helping to construct and deliver a comprehensive solution/proposal in the next. As part of Red Hat’s Open Shift team, you’ll work alongside account teams to position Open Shift as the platform of choice across all our enterprise accounts, spanning cloud-native application development, hybrid cloud, vm to container migration, AI app development, and edge computing.

Red Hat leads the hybrid cloud market on open-source principles, and we’re extending that leadership. This role puts you at the center of that story.

• Earn trust with developers: engage engineering and platform teams at a peer level, demonstrating genuine understanding of their daily challenges, tool chains, and the realities of building and running software at scale.
• Probe for needs: consult with customers daily to surface business drivers, technical pain points, and transformation goals, then connect those directly to Red Hat solutions.
• Own the sales cycle: lead sales campaigns from discovery and technical qualification, through validation, and secure the technical win. In some cases through to final procurement as needed.
• Business Translator: translate technical solutions into business value for executives while staying credible and relevant with application developers, infra architects, and engineering leads.
• Champion cloud-native transformation: guide customers through rapid app platform modernization, virtualization migration and cloud adoption conversations.
• Build & execute the strategy: partner early and often with account teams to develop territory plans, identify whitespace, and position Open Shift as the platform of choice.

• Developer‑adjacent seller: 7+ years in enterprise software, cloud, or technology sales with the technical experience and depth to be accepted by app development teams. ‘Code to Boardroom’ range: comfortable white‑boarding a Kubernetes/hybrid cloud architecture with a platform team, and presenting a modernization business case to a CTO in the same day.
• Platform evangelist: working knowledge of Kubernetes, Open Shift, and/or cloud‑native ecosystems; with a genuine passion for open source and Red Hat’s model.
• Consultative nature: skilled at asking the right questions to uncover what customers actually need, not just what they say they want.
• Executive presence: strong presentation and storytelling skills that resonate across both technical and business audiences.
• Collaborative and accountable: proven track record working across matrixed teams while taking personal ownership of pipeline, quota, and customer outcomes.

$ – $ (inclusive of base pay + target incentive compensation). Pay is based on location, experience and other factors.

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible Spending Account – healthcare and dependent care
• Health Savings Account – high deductible medical plan
• Retirement 401(k) with employer match
• Paid time off and holidays
• Paid parental leave plans for all new parents
• Leave benefits including disability, paid family medical leave, and paid military leave
• Employee stock purchase plan, family planning reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, transportation expense account, employee assistance program, and more

Red Hat is a proud equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Red Hat supports individuals with disabilities and provides reasonable accommodations to job applicants.