Beyond Data: How a Sales Director Drives Real Impact for Customers

Aamir Thoker, Sales Director at Confluent, will tell you that making an impact starts with helping customers tackle their toughest challenges. And a motivating work culture—where collaboration, learning, and support are part of every day—empowers his team to do just that.

Learn more about Aamir’s experience and growth at Confluent and how his team and environment have set him up for success.

How have you grown or changed since joining Confluent?

I joined Confluent as an Enterprise Account Manager and started with a handful of global accounts in Singapore. After delivering quick success within the first two quarters of joining, I was given a broader territory in Vietnam and the Philippines. I took the opportunity and grew the business by hitting 150% of my growth target.

This year, my role expanded to leading the team as our business became substantial and supporting a local sales team to accelerate the revenue growth. We added two account managers reporting to me, and the plan is to keep growing the team.

I grew as an enterprise sales professional by appreciating the opportunity to grow wide and deep within my accounts. This helped the organization give me the opportunity to build a team for greater revenue impact.

What's unique about Confluent's company culture? What’s one question you would tell people to ask about the culture during their interviews?

Confluent has a very inclusive culture and provides ample time for employees to learn the business—unlike other businesses that expect employees to hit the ground running with results from day one.

What motivates you to excel in your role, and how does Confluent support your ambitions?

What motivates me the most is providing for my family; it’s at the heart of everything I do. I also enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from setting and reaching goals. Confluent gives me the opportunity to do meaningful work while challenging myself to excel and grow.

How does your company encourage belonging?

We create a sense of belonging by supporting each other’s success. Helping teammates with their sales deliverables directly impacts the results they achieve. Being able to lend a hand in closing deals feels rewarding, and our team culture is all about working hard together and celebrating the wins as one.

What’s the best part about interacting with customers, in your experience?

For me, it’s about connecting with customers every day and really listening to their challenges. What might start as a data issue often ties back to their business. Some lose sleep over keeping systems running, while others face huge financial losses from outages. These conversations remind me that at the end of the day, it’s about the people. Customers buy from people they trust—those who genuinely care, who understand their struggle, and who want to help them succeed.

Rapid-fire questions:

1. What job did you want to have when you were a child?

   1. I wanted to be the CEO of a multinational company.

2. What’s the best decision you made in your career?

   1. I believe the best decision was to get into data and the open source software space with Hortonworks. It was a paradigm shift in my thinking and exposed me to a large addressable market.

3. What’s your favorite TV show set in an office?

   1. Suits, Mad Men, and Game of Thrones.

4. What’s your work-from-home must-have?

   1. A distraction-free environment.

5. If you could have your team off-site anywhere in the world, where would it be?

   1. Dubai.

6. What’s your favorite way to unwind after work/on the weekends?

   1. Unwinding for me means any sport and bringing my son to swimming.