Business Development Manager, Higher Education Vertical Team
About the role
Would you like to shape how America's colleges and universities use cloud, AI, and data to create engines for innovation and financial resilience? Would you like to be part of a team helping higher education institutions reimagine their business models by leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) across student success, workforce development, athletics, advancement, and auxiliary services?
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute a comprehensive business development strategy for assigned accounts within the US Higher Education vertical, driving revenue growth and market share across four-year colleges and universities, state systems, community colleges, and for-profit institutions.
- Establish trusted relationships with key decision-makers at higher education institutions, including Presidents, Provosts, CIOs, CTOs, Vice Presidents for Advancement, Athletic Directors, and Auxiliary and Business Services leaders.
- Identify emerging customer needs and market trends by researching institutional budgets, federal funding programs (NIH, NSF, DOE, CHIPS Act), state appropriations, and regulatory changes affecting higher education (e.g., CMMC compliance, outcomes accountability mandates, Title IV changes).
- Develop go-to-market strategies for key solution areas, including solution positioning, partner engagement, and procurement approaches tailored to higher education buying cycles.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Solution Architects, Professional Services, Partners, Marketing, and leadership to deliver compelling value propositions that address institutional priorities across teaching, research, and administration.
- Serve as the voice of the customer, influencing AWS product roadmaps based on higher education sector requirements and emerging use cases.
- Leverage strategic partnerships with higher-education-focused ISVs (e.g., Salesforce, Ellucian, Instructure, Blackboard, D2L), systems integrators, and consulting partners to accelerate adoption and drive co-sell revenue.
- Deliver business reviews to senior leadership on strategies aligned with revenue growth expectations, including pipeline progression, win/loss analysis, and market intelligence.
- Represent AWS at industry events (e.g., EDUCAUSE, Internet2, ACE, NACUBO, CASE, NCAA) to build brand awareness and thought leadership.
Requirements
You should possess a strong background in business development, strategic sales, or institutional leadership within higher education or higher education technology. The ideal candidate demonstrates the ability to think strategically about the full variety of cloud-enabled solutions (from core migration and modernization to Generative AI-enabled automation and personalization to predictive analytics and access to democratized data) and to build and execute plans that match available solutions to institutional needs across multiple revenue streams.
Qualifications
- 5+ years of learning design, learning science, instructional design, educational psychology, or similar field experience
- Experience with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Workday), or experience in identifying, leading, and executing opportunities to improve, automate, standardize or simplify finance or business tools and processes
- Experience in a dynamic environment with a high degree of customer service
- Experience in administrative, technical or non-technical roles (dean, assistant dean, provost, vice provost, CIO, COO, IT Director) in a large university system or other large R1 research institution
- A leader within higher education who has requires critical thinking and extraordinary presentation and storytelling skills, along with the ability to build executive level relationships
Skills
Experience interpreting data and making business recommendations
Experience identifying, negotiating, and executing complex legal agreements
Experience designing, implementing, and scaling workforce development programs across large-scale operations, including forecasting workforce needs and leveraging analytics to drive program decisions
Experience using analytical tools for workforce metrics and reporting
Benefits
Comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave.
Pay
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location.
Schedule
Amazon offers flexible scheduling options to help you find the right balance between work and personal life.