Key Account Manager – Government & Sovereign (Middle East)

Job Purpose:

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) is seeking an experienced Key Account Manager – Government & Sovereign, to Own and grow a portfolio of strategic government and sovereign key accounts across the Middle East by positioning IFM foundation models as trusted, secure, and high-impact solutions. This role manages intricate relationships with stakeholders and oversees procurement processes, ensures that deployments follow regulations, and leads major projects from their initial discovery phase through to production and growth.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute multi-year account plans for assigned government and sovereign entities; map stakeholders and influence paths.
• Drive opportunity creation, qualification, and progression through RFI/RFP, evaluations, pilots, contracting, and expansion.
• Lead executive engagement (CIO/CTO/CISO, digital transformation leaders, agency heads) and run structured account governance (e.g., QBRs).
• Partner closely with Solutions Engineering and IFM technical teams to scope priority use cases (Arabic language, citizen services, knowledge management, security-aware GenAI).
• Coordinate internal stakeholders (Legal, InfoSec, Procurement, Finance) to ensure compliant proposals, contracting, and delivery readiness.
• Capture and synthesize customer feedback to inform IFM product and research prioritization; act as the ‘voice of the customer’ internally.
• Maintain comprehensive records on MBZUAI’s platform such as SharePoint portal and facilitate communication via digital collaboration tools.
• Perform all other duties as reasonably directed by the line manager that are commensurate with these functional objectives.
• Maintain accurate CRM hygiene, pipeline reporting, and forecast commitments for assigned accounts.
• Ensure timely preparation of executive briefs, meeting notes, and next-step action plans; maintain disciplined follow-up.
• Contribute to regional planning, target setting, and post-mortems (wins/losses) to strengthen repeatable playbooks.

Academic Qualification:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• Master’s degree / MBA preferred.

Professional Experience:

Essential

• 8–12+ years in strategic account management, enterprise/government sales, or business development in technology (AI/cloud/data preferred).
• Demonstrated success navigating public sector procurement (RFI/RFP), security reviews, and multi-stakeholder decision cycles.
• Proven ability to build executive relationships and drive complex, high-value programs to closure.
• Working understanding of GenAI and foundation model deployment patterns (APIs, private/VPC, hybrid/on-prem).
• Comfort discussing security, data residency, privacy, and governance considerations with technical and compliance stakeholders.

Preferred

• Experience in regulated environments (public sector, critical infrastructure, finance, healthcare).
• Arabic and English fluency.