Account Director

Location

Abingdon, Oxfordshire | United Kingdom

Job description

RM plc is a £211m group of businesses, with c. 1,990 employees globally. Established in 1973, RM provides market-leading products and services to educational institutions, exam bodies and international governments which improve, simplify and support education and learning.

RM Group operates through three businesses: Technology (Managed Services, Software and Infrastructure for Schools), Assessment (Software and Services) and Education Resources.

Within the Assessment division, RM are experts in online exam testing and marking and the management any analysis of educational data. We work with government ministries, exam boards and professional awarding bodies for high stakes assessment in schools, universities and for 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. Every year more than a million people around the world get the marks they deserve thanks to RM.

RM offer a range of assessment services to our customers from a full outsourced managed service through to a licence and support service model. The RM vision is to grow from our current strong position as the leading provider of high stakes e-marking solutions into an organisation that is a major force in the eAssessment arena, and that is recognised as a thought leader in the market, bringing ideas such as artificial intelligence and adaptive testing into the eAssessment ecosystem in new, valuable and innovative ways.

As Account Director you will manage your accounts to deliver long term contracts and additional growth with full accountability for meeting and/or exceeding order, revenue, profit and cash targets. You will be fully accountable for driving sustainable growth within your accounts, creating strong and positive client relationships, overall customer satisfaction and delivery of contracts. You will ensure successful delivery of existing contracts and requirements, ensure customer expectations and service levels are met, and achieve long term client retention and contract growth.

You will need solid commercial and financial acumen, customer focus, commitment to delivery excellence and creativity in order to develop the strategy and direction for your accounts, aligned to Business Unit strategy and objectives. Working within a matrixed organisation as Account Director you will be required to lead and develop a highly effective and motivated team to ensure the execution of the strategy is successful. You will work with the wider RM Results team, and in particular the Product team, to support understanding of customer requirements, and the development of the short, medium and long term Product strategy for RM Results.

You will have the ability to effectively manage a range of stakeholders (internally and externally) and you will lead the strategic relationships within your designated customer accounts, including Managing Director level and C-suite relationships

Account Strategy and Business Development

• Accountable for the definition and successful execution of strategy for their accounts and the subsequent achievement of the order, revenue, profitable growth, and customer delivery objectives.
• Understand the Sector and markets, including changing dynamics, to evolve the thinking and strategy within their accounts and new business opportunities. Ensure that the product teams have the facts to be able to drive new innovations to respond to the opportunities defined in the markets.
• Define the account portfolio stakeholder map, personally own strong relationships with the key customer senior stakeholders and manage the involvement of the Head of Sector or SLT as required.
• Use Account Management processes in line with customer objectives to drive growth. Engage all key internal and external stakeholders to ensure the insight from account plans informs priorities for development that drive growth and profitability.
• Drive the sales of change, products, and services into the account, successfully closing most deals within the account team – but collaborating with members of the Sales and Marketing team for major opportunities as required and as agreed with the Business Unit Director.

Financial and Commercial

• Fully accountable for their customer portfolio and accounts P&Ls, with accountability and responsibility for meeting and exceeding Order, Revenue, Profit and Cash targets set in line with budget.
• Understand financial & commercial risks and opportunities for their accounts and how they deliver to the overall sector those accounts operate within. Embed provided frameworks for assessing probability and impact and taking proactive management for any matters that require action to improve or deliver upon.
• Drive an 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.
• Maintain a clear view of the financial performance (actual and forecast) of all elements of the account portfolio and be able to lead discussions confidently with the team and stakeholders across the business as required.

Customer Delivery and Satisfaction

• Accountable for delivery across the portfolio of accounts owned by the AD, ensuring that customer contracts and expectations are delivered by the team, across all stages of a customer/contract lifecycle.
• Ensure that 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.

• Experience in developing regional/sector account/sales strategy that drives significant growth.
• Experience in managing multimillion pound IT service accounts and a portfolio of strategic accounts.
• Strong experience in successful key account planning using Miller Heiman or other planning tools.
• Proven experience of 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
• Experience of leading strategic bid leadership and or contract renewal cycles to protect and grow revenue and profitability.
• Strong ability to develop and manage business relationships at all levels, including senior customer relationships, and to effectively influence senior internal stakeholders.
• Organisational planning, resource mobilisation and problem-solving abilities.
• Creative solutions to customer priorities and objectives
• Experience on-boarding new customers with a range of £50k up to £5m revenue per annum, 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
• Effective communication skills applicable through multiple channels (written, spoken, workshops, presentations)

What’s in it for you?  

At RM we recently introduced My Work Blend @RM which provides office - based colleagues with multi location and hybrid working options to suit them . 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. We expect how we make best use of hybrid working may continue to adapt as we adjust to our new ways of working.   

At RM we are committed to making 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 a t [email protected] .  

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 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.  

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