Vice President - Public Sector, Central Government

Description

The Public Sector team is at the forefront of Italy's digital transformation, helping ministries, national agencies and central government institutions redesign citizen services at scale with trusted AI.

We are seeking a proven, strategic and operationally rigorous Regional Vice President to lead our Central Government business in Italy and a team of Senior Account Executives owning the country's most complex and highest-visibility public sector accounts.

As RVP, Central Government, you will own the number, the go-to-market strategy and the talent agenda for the segment.

You will lead a team of experienced, quota-carrying senior or strategic sellers through multi-year, multi-stakeholder programmes, frequently procurement-led, often publicly scrutinised, always mission-critical, while positioning Agentforce, the Salesforce Core Platform, Data Cloud, MuleSoft and Tableau as the trusted foundation for AI-powered public administration.

Our Ohana culture is core to how we work. We are looking for an executive who brings credibility with permanent secretaries and Directors General, authenticity as a coach, and the judgement to operate where commercial ambition meets public accountability.

Your Impact

• Own the Central Government revenue plan for Italy: set the growth strategy, define territory and account coverage, and deliver against ACV and pipeline targets across new logos, expansion and renewals.
• Lead, coach and grow a team of Senior Account Executives, raising the bar on deal quality, executive access and value articulation rather than activity volume alone.
• Recruit, develop and retain top-tier public sector sales talent; identify capability and hiring gaps and build credible plans to close them.
• Personally engaged as executive sponsor on strategic pursuits at the most senior levels of government, including Director General, CIO/CTO, Secretary General and Head of Digital Transformation.
• Coach the team through complex, procurement-led cycles: public tenders, framework agreements, negotiated procedures and in-house or aggregator routes to market.
• Build and execute the segment Go-To-Market plan with Solution Engineering, Professional Services, Alliances (global and local systems integrators), Legal, Public Policy, Security and Trust, and Industry Marketing.
• Run disciplined weekly forecast and pipeline inspection; deliver accurate, defensible forecasting to Italy Leadership Team.
• Shape Salesforce's position on Italian public sector requirements such as data residency and sovereignty, national cloud qualification, security and compliance, working in partnership with Trust, Product and Government Affairs.
• Convert delivery into advocacy: build satisfied, referenceable government customers and turn flagship programmes into repeatable plays across the segment.
• Represent Salesforce in public sector forums, institutional events and press-facing moments as a credible senior spokesperson.

Your Qualifications

• Proven first or second line sales leadership experience, ideally leading senior or strategic sellers in enterprise software, SaaS or cloud platforms.
• Demonstrable track record selling to and within Italian Central Government, including ministries, national agencies and public bodies, with established relationships at executive level.
• Deep working knowledge of Italian public procurement: Codice dei Contratti Pubblici, Consip and MEPA, framework agreements, in-house providers and aggregated purchasing, plus the practicalities of public budget and funding cycles, including EU-funded programmes such as the NRRP (PNRR).
• Fluency with the Italian digital government regulatory landscape, covering AgID guidelines, ACN cloud qualification and security requirements, CAD, interoperability and GDPR, with the ability to turn these constraints into deal strategy rather than blockers.
• Consistent, quantifiable overachievement of quota and revenue goals as both an individual contributor and a leader.
• Strong track record of recruiting, developing, promoting and retaining a high-performing sales organisation, with a visible bench of leaders you have built.
• 10+ years in enterprise software or applications sales, with significant time selling IT-centric solutions primarily at CxO level, and 3+ years in people leadership.
• Executive presence and communication skills sufficient to hold the room with senior institutional stakeholders, boards and C-suite partners.
• Value-based, customer-outcome selling: able to construct and articulate growth strategies, business cases and ROI for AI and data platform investments in a public accountability context.
• Proven success in a highly matrixed multinational, influencing without authority across product, marketing, services, alliances and policy functions.
• Strong operational and analytical rigour, able to analyse and synthesise sales data to diagnose funnel health and reallocate effort with conviction.
• Comfort operating amid ambiguity, political complexity and reputational sensitivity, with unimpeachable ethical standards and judgement.
• Familiarity with AI, agentic automation, data integration and analytics platforms, and the credibility to discuss trusted AI in a regulated public environment.
• Fluent Italian and English, written and spoken. Based in Rome or Milan, with regular travel across Italyand EMEA.
• Degree or equivalent relevant experience. Experience is evaluated based on the core competencies for the role, for example extracurricular leadership, military service, volunteer roles and work experience.

Across all Sales Leaders, we are looking for the following attributes:

• Strong leadership capabilities
• Experience in sales coaching and mentoring
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, team environment
• Has a strong drive for results
• Strong engagement and communication skills
• Consultative selling experience
• Can collaborate and influence in a “win as a team” environment
• Resourceful
• Is a trusted advisor to the customers and colleagues
• Courageous Communicator
• Prior experience working within the Software/Infrastructure/Platform (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS) space