Account manager

Job Details:

Salary Range: Undisclosed, Travel Percentage: Greater than 20% Travel, Job Category: Customer Service

Academic Analytics is seeking a proactive, commercially minded Client Account Manager to serve as the primary architect of our partnerships with university clients. In this role, you will provide proactive support to become a trusted advisor, ensuring our clients not only utilize our data but derive measurable strategic value from it. You will own the full lifecycle of the client relationship—from onboarding and adoption to renewal and expansion. By leveraging your consultative skills and data fluency, you will help senior university administrators solve complex challenges, ensuring that Academic Analytics remains an indispensable part of their institutional strategy.

Core Pillars of Responsibility

1. Strategic Value Delivery & Adoption
   • Drive Outcomes, Not Just Usage: Move beyond basic training to deliver consultative insights. Partner with client leadership to define what "success" looks like for their institution and map our solutions to their specific strategic goals (e.g., faculty development, research excellence, grant acquisition).
   • Proactive Consultation: Anticipate client needs by understanding their goals and challenges, understanding data and longitudinal trends, learn specific "plays" and best practices gleaned from the broader Academic Analytics community to help clients overcome hurdles before they arise.
   • Data Storytelling: Collaborate with our data analysts to translate complex datasets into compelling narratives and executive summaries that demonstrate clear ROI to stakeholders.
2. Relationship Multithreading
   • Executive Engagement: Go wide and deep within the university hierarchy. Systematically build and nurture relationships beyond the primary user, establishing trust with Provosts, VPs of Research, Deans, and Department Chairs.
   • Stakeholder Mapping: Actively identify key decision-makers and influencers across the campus ecosystem to ensure the partnership is resilient to personnel changes.
   • Community Facilitation: Connect client leaders with their peers at other institutions, fostering a sense of community and sharing best practices that entrench the value of the Academic Analytics network.
3. Commercial Ownership: Renewals
   • Renewal Assurance: Own the renewal number. Execute a high-touch engagement cadence throughout the year to ensure there are no surprises at contract maturity.
   • Risk Mitigation: Proactively identify "at-risk" accounts (e.g., low adoption, leadership changes) and execute "get-well" plans to restore health and sentiment prior to renewal discussions.
   • Annual Strategic Briefings (ASBs): Lead quarterly and annual strategic briefings with senior university leadership and Academic Analytics executives to reiterate value delivered, showcase ROI, and align on goals for the upcoming year.
4. Strategic Expansion & Growth
   • Consultative Upselling: Identify whitespace opportunities where additional Academic Analytics products can solve new problems for the client. Frame upsells not as "products" but as "solutions" to specific institutional pain points.
   • Pipeline Generation: Partner with the sales team to nurture leads within existing accounts, turning happy users into internal champions who advocate for expanded services.

Qualifications: The Ideal Candidate

You are a "Pracademic"—someone who possesses the intellectual rigor to converse with a dean and provost, and the commercial savvy to close a contract of renewal. You are not looking for a support role; you are looking for a role where you drive strategy.

Experience & Education

• Advanced Degree Required: Bachelor’s degree is required; advanced degrees are a plus to establish peer-level credibility with university leadership.
• Higher Ed Fluency: Deep professional experience engaging with higher education administration or research strategy. You understand how universities "think," how they budget, and how governance works.
• Client Success/Account Management Experience: Proven track record of managing a book of business, driving renewals, and identifying growth opportunities in a SaaS, data, or consulting environment.

Skills & Competencies

• Analytical Communication: The ability to interpret complex data and explain it to both data scientists and non-technical administrators.
• Proactive "Hunter" Mindset: You don’t wait for the phone to ring. You actively seek out conversations, schedule campus visits, and uncover hidden needs.
• Agility: The ability to pivot quickly in a fast-paced, remote environment. You are organized enough to manage a complex portfolio but flexible enough to handle urgent client needs.
• Tech Savvy: Proficiency in CRM tools (Salesforce), virtual presentation platforms, and the Microsoft Office Suite.

Work Environment & Travel

Remote-First: This is a fully remote position supporting a national client base. You must be self-motivated and disciplined. High-Impact Travel: Expect ~40% travel. This is not "maintenance" travel; it is strategic engagement. You will be visiting campuses to engage with leadership, attend national conferences, and participate in team workshops.