Global Account Director

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary commercial owner and client advocate for assigned accounts and prospects.
• Develop and execute territory and account plans that identify opportunities for retention, expansion, new business and strategic relationship development.
• Build relationships across scientific, clinical, regulatory, operational, procurement and executive stakeholders.
• Develop a strong understanding of client's pipeline, development priorities, business objectives and organizational dynamics.
• Maintain regular, meaningful client engagement, including in-person interaction across the territory.
• Build Certara's presence within the local biopharmaceutical ecosystem and actively develop relationships with prospective clients.
• Discover and Qualify the Right Opportunities
• Lead discovery conversations that identify the business and scientific context behind client needs.
• Understand the critical decisions clients are trying to make, the confidence required to make those decisions and the consequences of delay, uncertainty or failure.
• Distinguish between stated requests and the underlying problem Certara can help the client solve.
• Qualify opportunities based on strategic fit, client value, Certara differentiation, likelihood of success and appropriate use of Certara resources.
• Orchestrate Certara Around the Client
• Bring together the appropriate scientific, software, services and commercial expertise based on the client's needs.
• Ensure internal participants understand the client context, meeting objectives, stakeholders and desired outcomes before client engagement.
• Lead client conversations while enabling Certara's scientific and technical experts to provide the depth and credibility appropriate to the opportunity.
• Connect capabilities across Certara where doing so creates greater client value rather than defaulting to individual products or organizational silos.
• Maintain clear commercial ownership as opportunities move across teams and capabilities.
• Create a consistent client experience regardless of which Certara teams are involved.
• Create and Grow Business
• Generate new opportunities through proactive territory development, account penetration, referrals, networking and engagement with the local life sciences ecosystem.
• Identify whitespace within existing accounts by understanding client pipelines, priorities and unmet needs.
• Develop opportunities across Certara's portfolio rather than limiting conversations to capabilities clients already purchase.
• Develop and execute opportunity strategies that address competitive position, stakeholder alignment, value, commercial structure and path to decision.
• Lead commercial negotiations in collaboration with appropriate internal stakeholders.
• Meet or exceed territory bookings and growth objectives.
• Protect and Expand Client Relationships
• Proactively identify relationship risks, delivery concerns and potential barriers to future growth.
• Cook appropriate internal resources to resolve issues quickly and communicate clearly with clients.
• Ensure lessons from client feedback, wins and losses are shared internally and used to improve future engagement.
• Look beyond individual transactions to build durable, expanding relationships with clients.
• Maintain Commercial Discipline
• Maintain accurate account, opportunity, pipeline and activity information in Salesforce.
• Develop credible forecasts based on demonstrated client evidence and clearly understood next steps.
• Maintain sufficient qualified pipeline to support territory and corporate objectives.
• Establish clear next actions, owners and timelines following meaningful client interactions.
• Collaborate effectively with Software Specialists, Portfolio Teams, scientific experts, marketing, operations and other commercial colleagues.
• Contribute market, competitive and client insights that improve Certara's commercial strategy.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; scientific or life sciences education strongly preferred.
• Advanced scientific training is valued but not required.
• Demonstrated success in business development, account management, consulting, scientific sales or another client-facing commercial role within biopharma, biotechnology, CRO, life sciences software or a related industry.
• Strong understanding of the drug discovery and development process and the challenges facing biopharmaceutical companies.
• Scientific curiosity and sufficient technical fluency to engage credibly with drug development professionals and identify when deeper expertise is required.
• Experience developing new business as well as expanding established client relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to uncover client priorities and translate complex scientific or business challenges into commercially actionable opportunities.
• Strong executive presence and ability to engage effectively across scientific, operational, procurement and C-suite stakeholders.
• Ability to lead through influence and coordinate multidisciplinary teams in a matrix organization.
• Strong commercial judgment, including opportunity qualification, competitive strategy, value positioning and negotiation.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships while constructively challenging clients and internal stakeholders when appropriate.
• High level of curiosity, accountability and initiative with a strong bias toward client engagement and action.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability and willingness to spend significant time engaging clients and prospects in person across the assigned territory.