Strategic Account Manager-Specialist Chemicals

About the Role

Own the relationship, navigate the science, and grow the business at Polysciences, where our specialty chemistries become part of technologies that matter—from medical devices and diagnostics to pharmaceutical and life science applications. As a Strategic Account Manager, you’ll work at the intersection of science, customers, and business, building relationships with customer scientists and business leaders, partnering with our R&D and manufacturing teams, and uncovering new opportunities within key accounts.

Responsibilities

• Own and grow a portfolio of strategic Specialty Products accounts, ensuring customer retention, revenue growth, profitability, and relationship health.
• Develop a deep understanding of each customer’s business, applications, technical requirements, product pipeline, priorities, and risks.
• Build relationships with customer stakeholders across scientific, engineering, quality, regulatory, procurement, operations, and leadership functions.
• Apply chemistry expertise to participate in technical discussions, clarify problems, challenge assumptions, and evaluate potential solutions with customers and internal teams.
• Anticipate and address technical, quality, supply, manufacturing, and communication issues before they impact customer confidence.
• Bring together internal experts, establish clear next steps, and drive accountability and follow-through.
• Develop proactive communication strategies, especially during technical problems, delays, quality concerns, or supply issues.
• Lead commercial negotiations, including pricing, quotations, forecasts, development fees, and supply commitments.
• Identify opportunities to expand accounts into additional custom chemical products, applications, or manufacturing services.
• Partner with Business Development on significant new opportunities within existing accounts.
• Collaborate with assigned Project Managers while owning customer relationships, commercial alignment, communication, and escalation.
• Maintain accurate account plans, opportunities, forecasts, and customer activity in Salesforce.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related scientific discipline.
• Customer-facing commercial experience with technically complex specialty chemicals, custom chemical products, or product development.
• Experience in strategic account management, key account management, technical sales, or a comparable customer-facing scientific role.
• Ability to communicate credibly with scientists, engineers, quality and procurement professionals, and business leaders.
• Experience navigating complex technical, quality, operational, supply, or commercial issues involving key customer relationships.
• Commercial experience with pricing, negotiations, contracts, forecasting, revenue growth, or account profitability.
• Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive decisions without direct authority.
• Proficiency in Salesforce or another CRM.
• Primarily onsite in Warrington, PA, with flexibility for customer travel and business needs.
• Willingness to travel at least 30%, predominantly within the US.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with monomers, polymers, microspheres, particles, biomaterials, functional polymers, or related specialty chemistries used in medical devices, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, or life sciences.
• Experience with custom chemical development, scale-up, and technology transfer processes.
• Experience in a small or mid-sized technical manufacturing company where employees are resourceful, hands-on, and accountable for results.

Pay

The base salary range for this position is $114,200–$140,000, based on experience and qualifications. This role is also eligible for a target sales incentive of 15% of base salary, tied to performance against established goals, with additional earning potential for above-goal results.

Polysciences, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Must have legal authorization to work in the US and will not require sponsorship.