We are seeking an experienced Business Development Manager to drive growth of BFSI business in South Africa. The role will focus on building pipeline, generating demand, and expanding BFSI opportunities across Banking, Insurance and Financial Services Customers in South Africa and Botswana while supporting initiatives for Rest of Africa. The role demands acquiring new customer logos and stabilise the onboarded customer engagements.

The successful candidate will combine strong BFSI domain, local market connectivity, and proven business development capability to create and convert opportunities into a sustainable pipeline, contract closure and revenue realisation.

Key Focus Areas

• Business Groups: Banking, Financial Services and Insurance
  
• Partner Engagement: Key partner connects (SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, AWS. Google etc)
  
• Growth: Pipeline build, lead generation, demand creation, contract closure and revenue realisation.
  

Key Responsibilities

Business Development

• Drive growth of BFSI services and solutions across South Africa and Africa
  
• Identify, qualify, and develop new logos and opportunities
  
• Own end-to-end pipeline development from lead generation to deal closure support
  
• Align BFSI offerings with customer business priorities and industry needs
  
• Work closely with BFSI Business Group to bring Global BFSI capabilities, best practices, tools and accelerators for new customers in the region.
  

Customer Engagement

• Build and maintain relationships with senior customer stakeholders
  
• Lead business development conversations with CIOs, CFOs, and business leaders
  
• Position SAP solutions as enablers of business transformation and value realization
  

Pipeline & Demand Generation

• Drive lead generation and demand creation activities
  
• Work with marketing and alliance teams on campaigns and account-based initiatives
  
• Track, manage, and forecast sales pipeline
  
• Ensure disciplined opportunity qualification and progression
  
• Ensure Contract closures per planned targets
  

BFSI Ecosystem & Partner Engagement

• Maintain strong working relationships with Partner South Africa Sales teams
  
• Engage regularly with Partners’ Country Leadership and Account Executives
  
• Collaborate with ecosystem partners on joint pursuits and go-to-market initiatives
  
• Support co-selling, partner-led opportunities, and joint account planning
  

Internal Collaboration

• Work closely with BFSI Business Group presales, delivery, and solution teams
  
• Provide market and customer feedback to shape offerings and GTM strategies
  
• Participate in pipeline reviews, forecasting, and business planning
  

Required Skills & Competencies

Domain Expertise

• Strong understanding of the BFSI business
  
• Solid knowledge of the BFSI ecosystem in South Africa
  
• Ability to articulate value propositions across new BFSI customers
  

Business Development & Sales Skills

• Proven experience in pipeline building and opportunity generation
  
• Strong commercial acumen and understanding of enterprise sales cycles
  
• Experience working with complex, multi-stakeholder deals
  

Relationship & Stakeholder Management

• Well-connected within the BFSI South Africa ecosystem
  
• Strong customer-facing and partner-facing skills
  
• Ability to influence without authority in a matrixed environment
  

Professional & Personal Skills

• Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills
  
• Results-driven, proactive, and highly accountable
  
• Comfortable working independently with minimal supervision
  

Requirements

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Technology, Engineering, or related field
  
• 12-15 years of experience in BFSI business development, or BFSI enterprise sales
  
• Demonstrated experience working with key technology partners in South Africa
  
• Strong understanding of the South African enterprise market
  
• Fluency in English
  

Preferred

• Experience working for Software OEM, system integrator, or consulting firm
  
• Existing relationships with BFSI account teams and industry decision-makers
  
• Experience across one or more target industries
  

Success Measures

• Growth in BFSI-qualified pipeline
  
• Number and quality of new opportunities generated
  
• Strength of relationships with Customers and Partners
  
• Conversion of pipeline into revenue