Job Summary

Sovereign AI is driving one of the largest infrastructure buildouts Europe has seen since the hyperscale wave. Governments are committing significant capital. Entrepreneurs are building GPU-dense data centers that didn’t exist 18 months ago. Many of these players haven’t chosen a storage partner yet — they’re making foundational decisions now that will shape their architectures for years.

This role puts you at the centre of that market!

NetApp is investing in the neocloud and sovereign-cloud segment as a strategic growth area. This is not a mature territory with an inherited pipeline — it’s a new market, a small team, and an open brief. You’ll identify the customers, build the relationships, bring the right internal teams to the table, and help shape the approach as the market develops.

This is a business development position focused on new customer acquisition — not traditional account management. You’ll proactively identify and build relationships with sovereign AI clouds, neoclouds, and entrepreneur-led AI data center builders across Europe.

What you’ll do

• Identify and pursue new business opportunities in the neocloud and sovereign-cloud ecosystem — tracking external signals (government subsidies, data center planning applications, GPU procurement patterns, executive moves, financing rounds) and building pipeline from the ground up.
• Develop and execute strategic account plans to drive revenue growth within a defined set of neocloud, sovereign AI, and AI data center builder accounts across EMEA.
• Bring internal teams together — product, engineering, SA/SE, and leadership — to deliver what the customer needs, including advocating for customer requirements inside NetApp.
• Co-develop market presence with Solutions Architects and partners: joint GTM offers, reference architectures, customer stories, and thought leadership that builds NetApp’s position in the AI infrastructure space.
• Build relationships with partners who may not yet work with NetApp — GPU resellers, data center developers, sovereignty primes, financing players, AI-platform ISVs, and prime integrators.
• Stay current on the AI infrastructure stack: data center builds, storage performance for training and inferencing workloads, data pipelines, data lakes, checkpointing, and model-serving architectures. Hold credible technical conversations with CTOs.
• Represent NetApp at executive level with neocloud founders, sovereign-cloud decision-makers, and government bodies.
• Monitor market dynamics — consolidation, funding shifts, regulatory changes, GPU supply constraints, sovereignty mandates — and feed strategic insights back to leadership.

How You'll Operate

• Small team, direct leadership access — short decision chains, not layers of management between you and the people who can say yes.
• You shape the approach — there’s no inherited territory plan or established channel motion. You’ll build it based on what you learn in the market.
• Resources behind you — NetApp’s engineering, product, and SA teams are available to support. The skill is knowing when and how to bring them in.
• Strategic priority — leadership treats this segment as a growth investment, not a side initiative.

What you bring

• 10+ years in business development or strategic account roles, with proven success building pipeline in new or emerging markets.
• Strong fluency in AI infrastructure: data center builds, storage for training/inference, data pipelines, GPU clusters, and the operating models of neocloud providers.
• Executive presence with the ability to engage C‑suite and government stakeholders in ambiguous, high‑stakes situations.
• Demonstrated ability to align and influence cross‑functional teams (product, engineering, SA/SE, leadership) to win complex deals without direct authority.
• High intellectual curiosity and commitment to continuous learning in a rapidly evolving market.
• Willingness to travel across EMEA as needed.

Strong Plus

• Existing relationships within the neocloud, sovereign‑cloud, or AI data‑center ecosystem in EMEA.
• Connections with prime integrators, government subsidy programs, or sovereign AI initiatives.
• Experience co‑developing market presence with technical teams and partners (joint GTM, reference architectures, events, thought leadership).
• Ability to understand a customer’s business model, unit economics, and competitive landscape before positioning solutions.
• Storage knowledge is beneficial but not required; candidates from traditional storage backgrounds should demonstrate involvement in AI‑related deals and a modern understanding of data/AI infrastructure.

Note to Candidates You don’t need to meet every requirement. If you see yourself in most of this profile and have the drive to learn the rest, we encourage you to apply.

What This Role Builds for You

• A network across Europe’s emerging sovereign AI ecosystem — access that is difficult to build from the outside.
• Deep expertise in one of the fastest‑growing infrastructure segments in the market.
• Experience shaping a market from early stages, valuable for future leadership, startup, or advisory paths.
• High visibility with NetApp senior leadership as someone who builds new capabilities, not just manages existing ones.

This Role May Not Be the Right Fit If

• You prefer working from a named account list with established relationships and warm pipeline.
• You are uncomfortable with ambiguity — this market is still forming and the playbook is not yet defined.
• You view storage as the full conversation rather than an entry point into broader data‑infrastructure strategy.
• You thrive only in structured enterprise sales cycles rather than fast‑moving, founder‑led buying processes.
• You rely on inbound leads rather than proactively sourcing and shaping opportunities.