US Account Manager (SaaS, Higher Ed)

Summary

Gecko builds software that helps universities connect with and support students across recruitment, communications, events, and engagement. The Account Manager will own a portfolio of university and college partners across the US, leading relationship management, retention, renewals, expansion, and senior stakeholder engagement. The role combines proactive customer success with commercial account management, regular travel, and responsibility for renewal and expansion targets.

Responsibilities

• Take full ownership of a portfolio of university and college partners
• Understand their goals, priorities, challenges, usage and future plans
• Build trusted relationships with everyone from day-to-day users to senior sponsors
• Create strong, multi-threaded relationships across departments and teams
• Develop success plans and account strategies that connect Gecko to meaningful outcomes
• Keep a clear view of partner health, risk and opportunity at all times
• Own renewals from early planning through to agreement
• Make sure partners can clearly see the value they are getting from Gecko
• Identify opportunities to expand into new teams, departments and use cases
• Lead expansion opportunities from discovery through to negotiation and close
• Carry renewal and expansion targets and maintain an accurate pipeline
• Run account reviews that connect partner outcomes to future opportunities
• Keep Salesforce useful, current and honest
• Visit partners regularly on campus across the US
• Use face-to-face time to deepen relationships and uncover what is really happening inside an account
• Represent Gecko at Higher Education conferences, exhibitions and partner events
• Balance in-person and remote engagement in a way that works for each partner
• Act as the strategic owner of your partner relationships, bringing in Support, Product or other teams when specialist help is needed and making sure nothing falls between the cracks
• Work closely with Commercial, Product, Support and Enablement
• Deliver confident demos, account reviews, presentations and commercial conversations
• Follow through. If you say you will do something, it gets done

Skills

• You have experience owning a portfolio of accounts in a B2B SaaS business, with direct responsibility for retention, renewals and expansion
• You are comfortable managing complex or strategic accounts with multiple stakeholders and longer decision cycles
• You can build genuine relationships without losing commercial focus
• You can point to commercial outcomes you have personally influenced, whether through renewals, expansion, upsell or growth within existing accounts
• You are confident talking about pricing, value, revenue and next steps
• You know how to uncover an opportunity and progress it properly
• You can lead meetings, demos, executive reviews and negotiations
• You are organised, proactive and comfortable managing a portfolio, pipeline and regular travel
• You ask good questions, listen properly and do not wait to be told what to do
• You care about the wider team and will share what you know
• Travel is a regular part of this role. You'll visit university and college partners across the US where face-to-face time adds value, attend Higher Education conferences and events, and occasionally travel internationally, including to the UK
• We are a remote-first company, but this is not a remote-only relationship role. You need to enjoy getting out, meeting people and building trust face-to-face
• This role works broadly in line with East Coast hours, so we're looking for someone based in the Eastern or Central time zones
• *Please note that we can only accept applications from US-based applicants who already have a valid right to work in the US
• Experience in Higher Education or EdTech would be useful, but it is not essential

Qualifications

Must Haves

• You have experience owning a portfolio of accounts in a B2B SaaS business, with direct responsibility for retention, renewals and expansion
• You are comfortable managing complex or strategic accounts with multiple stakeholders and longer decision cycles
• You can build genuine relationships without losing commercial focus
• You can point to commercial outcomes you have personally influenced, whether through renewals, expansion, upsell or growth within existing accounts
• You are confident talking about pricing, value, revenue and next steps
• You know how to uncover an opportunity and progress it properly
• You can lead meetings, demos, executive reviews and negotiations
• You are organised, proactive and comfortable managing a portfolio, pipeline and regular travel
• You ask good questions, listen properly and do not wait to be told what to do
• You care about the wider team and will share what you know
• Travel is a regular part of this role. You'll visit university and college partners across the US where face-to-face time adds value, attend Higher Education conferences and events, and occasionally travel internationally, including to the UK
• We are a remote-first company, but this is not a remote-only relationship role. You need to enjoy getting out, meeting people and building trust face-to-face
• This role works broadly in line with East Coast hours, so we're looking for someone based in the Eastern or Central time zones
• *Please note that we can only accept applications from US-based applicants who already have a valid right to work in the US

Nice to Haves

• Experience in Higher Education or EdTech would be useful, but it is not essential

Benefits

• 33 days’ holiday
• Flexible working
• Opportunity to work from another location through the Workation policy
• Remote-first working
• Brilliant home office set-up
• MacBook Pro
• Headphones of your choice
• Medical benefits
• Dental benefits
• Vision benefits
• 401(k)
• Perks via Perkbox
• Real ownership: trusted to run accounts and make decisions
• Commercial impact: work directly influences retention, expansion and growth
• Small, ambitious team that is collaborative, direct and low on bureaucracy
• Opportunity to help shape the evolving Customer Success function
• Connected virtual culture with a collaborative virtual office