Overview
Would you like to help enrich the lives of learners around the world?
At RM, we’ve been pioneers of education technology since 1973. We provide technology and resources to the education sector, supporting over 10 million students worldwide. We work with over 28,000 schools, nurseries, and education trusts in 115 countries to deliver customer-centric solutions that improve education outcomes.
What we do helps learners at all stages of their lives, from preschool to higher education and professional qualification; we partner with schools, examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions to enrich the lives of learners.
RM Group operates through three businesses: Technology (Managed Services, Software and Infrastructure for Schools), Assessment (Software and Services) and TTS (Educational Resources).
Within the assessment market, we are experts in providing solutions for online exam testing and marking and the management and analysis of educational data. We work with government ministries, exam boards and professional awarding bodies for high stakes assessment such as GCSEs, A Levels, and professional qualifications. Each year, our software is used globally to conduct hundreds of thousands of on-screen tests and to mark millions of paper-based scripts. For over a decade we have been partnering with the world’s leading awarding bodies to deliver intuitive, secure, and reliable e-marking solutions.
Visit our website to find out more: www.rm.com/assessment
Reporting to the Global Head of Strategic Partnerships, the Strategic Account Director role is key to the execution of the RM Results Growth strategy across the assessment sectors for a portfolio of Strategic Growth Accounts, with a focus on driving strong revenue and profitability with their portfolio of customers and across a range of market sectors.
As Strategic Account Director you will lead a portfolio of Strategic Growth accounts and have responsibility for the effective and long-term partnership with some of the most significant customers within the RM Assessment Portfolio. It is essential the role holder can demonstrate thought leadership centred around market trends within assessment and resulting in proactive growth and profitability of the major accounts that meet or exceed the agreed financial targets and manage a range of matrixed and diverse teams supporting the long-term success and ambition for your account portfolio.
You will need exceptional commercial and financial acumen, positive and proactive customer focus, leading all the way up to C-Suite level engagement both internally to RM and within the customer portfolios, commitment to deliver excellence and creativity in order to hunt and develop the strategy and direction for your growth across the Strategic account portfolio, that align to Business Unit strategy and investments. Working within a matrixed organisation as Strategic Account Director you will be required to lead and develop a highly effective and motivated team with full ownership for the life cycle of a customer partnership with RM. You will work with the wider RM Assessment team always generating a winning mentality and fostering collaborative leadership that demonstrates outstanding teamwork.
The digital global assessment landscape is maturing at pace across a range of market sectors including both general led qualifications such as GCSE and A Levels through to professional led qualifications. The Strategic Account Director needs to be operating proactively within the market, speaking at events, engaging in industry forums and totally aligned with major customer priorities and growth aspirations. The role holder will influence the investment plans for RM through the knowledge and insight gained in such forums.
Responsibilities
Major Account Portfolio Strategy and Business Development
1. Accountable for the definition and successful execution of a growth strategy for the Major account/s and the subsequent achievement of the order, revenue, profitable growth, and customer delivery objectives.
2. Exceptional leadership skills demonstrated across a matrix structure developing a winning mentality for growth within your portfolio of strategic accounts. Leading with robust account planning framed with a strong creative narrative that in turn leads to positive sales objectives for the customer portfolio. Engaging key stakeholders within RM at all levels (including exec board level).
3. Pro-actively engage within the assessment industry and supporting events. Gaining market knowledge about advancements in the assessment landscape that help shape vital investment plans for RM both in product, services and people. Demonstrate through a robust commercial vision for growth that investment will positively accelerate growth for revenue and profit.
4. Demonstrate an ability to proactively hunt for and generate new growth pipeline for your account/s, whilst converting opportunities to generate new revenue and profitability for Assessment. Demonstrating strong and robust short- and longer-term growth in line with the RM Assessment strategic intent for growth across your given markets/major accounts.
5. Understand the Sector and markets, including changing dynamics, to evolve the thinking and strategy within their account/s new business opportunities.
6. Lead your strategic account/s portfolio stakeholder engagement strategy and execution, personally own strong relationships with the key customer at C-Suite level. Knowing how and when to engage RM SLT and Exec partners to benefit the maturing of the customer relationship and growth plans. Bringing a positive energy to both RM internal teams as well as key customer relationships. Proactively informing all parties on growth plans and new concepts that keep RM relevant and evolving as a strong partner.
7. Representing the voice of your customers within RM, ensuring at all times RM is aligned to customer objectives opportunities and therefore drive strong growth. Engage all key internal and external stakeholders to ensure the insight from account plans informs priorities for development that drive growth and profitability.
8. Collaborating with members of the Sales and Marketing team for major opportunities as required and as agreed with the Global Head of Partnerships.
9. Drive the migration of paper-based examinations to digital. Constantly promoting the RM Global Accreditation Platform as a leading global solution. Demonstrating that a partnership with RM holds more than just products and services. Leading around thought leadership for innovation and insight into new concepts of assessment that will transform a learner's experience and build long-term partnerships with RM for all major accounts.
Financial and Commercial
1. Fully accountable for their strategic customer/s portfolio and accounts P&Ls, with accountability and responsibility for meeting and exceeding Order, Revenue, Profit and Cash targets set in line with budget. Managing your accounts each month providing a strong articulation for growth.
2. Present to SLT and Exec level on the financial performance of your strategic account portfolio (monthly). Demonstrating performance against in-year target. Demonstrate the thought process and plan for the 3–5-year growth strategy and how that will significantly increase growth for the major account portfolio.
3. Lead and own financial & commercial risks and opportunities for their strategic accounts and how they deliver to the overall business performance for Assessment. Embed provided frameworks for assessing probability and impact and taking proactive management for any matters that require action to improve or deliver upon.
4. Leadership for the driving of important level of financial and commercial acumen across the teams that support and deliver for the portfolio of accounts led by the account director, through mentoring, coaching and support.
5. Maintain a clear view of the financial performance (actual and forecast) of all elements of the Strategic account portfolio and be able to lead discussions confidently with the team and stakeholders across the business as required.
6. Contribute to the overall monthly finance presentation to Global Head of Strategic Partnership and Business Growth Director for your accounts performance for revenue and profitability.
Customer Satisfaction
1. Accountable for Customer Satisfaction and retention across the portfolio of accounts owned by the Strategic Account Director, ensuring that RM delivers customer contracts and expectations, across all stages of a customer/contract lifecycle.
2. Leadership for the contractual framework that supports the strategic accounts within your remit. Clarity on the service levels provided by the Functional Divisions meet the requirements of the existing and new contracts by working closely with the Head of Delivery role and the Customer Relationship Managers. Ensure service does not impact opportunity for growth and where it is at risk own corrective action planning to resolve.
3. Leadership for the customer experience model through bid, onboarding and delivery. Meet and exceed the key measures across the customer experience lifecycle for your customer.
Leadership and Management
1. Matrix manages a diverse team for your strategic customer set. Leading with positive energy and engagement across teams to engage a commitment to support the plans outlined within the account planning process to ensure all parties are committed to protect and grow the relationship, investment, and growth for the account portfolio.
2. Leadership for the growth of your Strategic Account Portfolio. Ensuring the lifecycle of the customer journey is managed to a high standard across the RM teams, taking the customer on a positive journey for growth that reflects in a long-term partnership with RM.
3. Be a visible and creative leader within the business growth team and drive strong, clear communication to ensure the full team understand the account strategy and plan to enable them to succeed in supporting their execution.
Experience
* Experience in developing strategic accounts sales strategy across a 3-year horizon that drives significant growth in revenue and profitability.
* Experience working within the Education, Training or Assessment sector required.
* Able to demonstrate outstanding leadership for C-Suite level customer relationships. Bringing a dynamic and positive energy to our key customer relationships.
* Able to demonstrate leadership for hunting growth opportunities within strategic accounts.
* Experience in managing multimillion-pound IT service accounts.
* Outstanding leadership in successful key account planning.
* Proven experience of leading and managing and motivating teams during periods of high pressure and operational challenge, in a high stakes, high volume, and high quality (ideally regulated) environment, excelling at maintaining a positive customer relationship.
* Experience of delivering, successfully and sustainably, against revenue, order intake, cost/profit, and cash collection/debt targets across a complex range of accounts.
* Able to demonstrate leadership for PR to external markets when successfully winning and growing.
* Strong and confident in leading strategic bid opportunities for growth and or contract renewal cycles to protect and grow revenue and profitability.
* Very Strong ability to develop and manage business relationships at all levels, including senior customer relationships, and to effectively influence senior internal stakeholders.
* Creative solutions to customer priorities and objectives that generate growth.
* Experience onboarding new customers with a range up to £40m TCV, into a managed service and/or the delivery of IT software and services change programmes is desirable.
* Ability to work effectively under pressure with competing and rapidly changing priorities.
* Excellent communication skills applicable through multiple channels (written, spoken, workshops, presentations).
What’s in it for you?
At RM we have My Work Blend @RM which provides office-based colleagues with multi location and hybrid working options. As well as your office base, you can spend a proportion of your time working at other locations that suit your role and your life, including home, other offices, customer sites, distribution centres or on the move. We encourage you to discuss arrangements for this role with your potential line manager during the recruitment process.
RM is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all permanent and temporary staff to share this commitment. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and all successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks along with other relevant employment checks.
As well as a competitive salary and our core benefits package which includes private medical healthcare, life assurance and a Group Personal Pension Plan with higher contribution levels available, some roles are also eligible for a performance-related bonus. There are lots of voluntary benefits too. You could buy additional annual leave, join our dental plan, sign up for a health assessment, or take part in our cycle to work scheme. You could even earn yourself an extra bonus for successfully recommending a friend or family member for a position within RM.
To better reflect the society that we serve, we’re committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. To achieve this, we create teams of talented people from different backgrounds and experiences and strive to be a business where our people can bring their whole selves to work, we also want to make the recruitment process as inclusive as possible for everyone. Should you require additional support with your application or through the interview process, please contact us at recruitment@rm.com.
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
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