Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Business Development Manager

About the Role

Alibaba Cloud is seeking a Business Development Manager for its Cloud Intelligence division. This full-time position is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and focuses on developing customer relationships, delivering product value, and converting opportunities within the cloud computing and AI sectors. The role requires 5-10 years of relevant experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze target markets, identify potential customers, map decision-making chains, and gather intelligence on customer needs, business plans, and technical environments.
• Engage customers through events, communication, and on-site visits to build trust and generate qualified business opportunities.
• Establish and maintain long-term relationships with customer CXOs or CXO-Directs to secure critical support.
• Develop expertise in hybrid cloud solutions (software, hardware, networking, security) and translate customer business needs into technical contexts.
• Articulate the value of Alibaba Cloud products (Apsara Stack, AI/Intelligent Computing) and differentiate them from competitors.
• Collaborate with SAs, product/R&D, and eco-partners to formulate sales and solution strategies, design engagement roadmaps, and drive execution.
• Leverage customer insight and Alibaba Cloud's solutions to deliver fit-for-purpose designs and address product/solution questions.
• Apply influence, negotiation, and commercial pricing strategies to convert opportunities and achieve revenue targets.
• Execute bidding processes and contract signing in compliance with Alibaba Cloud and customer business rules.
• Track customer requirement changes and drive contract amendments and renewals.
• Coordinate with product, delivery, and eco-partner teams to identify and resolve delivery issues.
• Support complex hybrid cloud project operations, including bid management, project management, risk management, and resource coordination.

Qualifications and Experience

• 5+ years of experience in cloud computing or AI-related industries, with 2+ years in sovereign cloud, public sector, finance, or internet To-B / To-G sales or pre-sales roles.
• Proven track record in complex solution selling to enterprise, government, and large industry customers.
• Experience in key-account breakthrough, large-scale project operations, bidding, and risk management.
• Mastery of value delivery for cloud computing services and GenAI solutions, with the ability to articulate Alibaba Cloud benchmark cases and competitive advantages.
• Understanding of customer business and digital transformation needs, including identifying pain points and delivering competitive solutions.

Project Operations and Customer Acquisition

• Capability to lead USD 10M+ large complex project operations for individual customers, formulating and executing multi-threaded, long-cycle strategies with full accountability for outcomes.
• Ability to distill project success patterns into standardized playbooks and templates for replication across regions or industries.
• Leadership in mid-sized projects through the full lifecycle, including competitive strategy, resource coordination, negotiation, and contract closing.
• Experience leading systematic new-customer acquisition in specific overseas industries or regional markets, designing and executing effective Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies.
• Ability to codify successful acquisition cases into reusable toolkits and enable teams to improve conversion rates.
• Strategic establishment of deep partnerships with global or regional strategic partners to scale new-customer acquisition through joint solutions and co-marketing.

Account Management and Relationship Building

• Proactive planning of next-phase cloud consumption and architecture evolution for key customers, converting ad-hoc demand into predictable upsell pipelines.
• Packaging new products/services (*, AI, big data platforms) into solutions addressing specific business pain points to drive significant upsell.
• Building and maintaining trust with customer technical and business decision-makers, establishing Alibaba Cloud's strategic advisor value.
• Building multi-level relationship networks within customer organizations and influencing key stakeholders in the decision chain.
• Planning and leading deep engagement activities such as executive visits to deepen customer relationships.
• Independent engagement with customer CTOs or project leads at the executive level for effective business dialogue, influencing and accelerating decision-making.

Negotiation and Commercial Acumen

• Leadership in negotiations, serving as principal negotiator, participating in strategy formulation, leading the negotiation process, and owning the outcome.
• Support for cloud services revenue target achievement.
• Strict enforcement of company-mandated baseline terms and conditions.