Assistant Director, Strategic Accounts - EMEA

ACS International, Ltd. (ACSI, the Company), a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Chemical Society (ACS), serves the scientific community worldwide with the vision of Improving all people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry and mission of advancing the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. We represent products and services provided by ACS divisions, including ACS Publications and CAS, to the world’s innovative scientific companies, government organizations, global patent offices and academic institutions to promote research and discovery.

Position Summary

The Assistant Director, Strategic Accounts – EMEA leads ACSI’s Strategic Accounts team across the EMEA region, including Strategic Account Managers and Senior Customer Success Managers. The role is responsible for protecting, strengthening, and growing CAS’s global enterprise accounts with a significant presence in EMEA.

The Assistant Director provides strategic leadership for the regional account portfolio, including account strategy, forecasting, executive stakeholder engagement, and team development. This role establishes regional priorities, drives strong forecasting and commercial discipline, coaches the team on effective execution, and maintains direct relationships with senior executives at CAS’s most strategic customers.

Success in this role requires a leader who combines strategic thinking with a hands-on, customer-focused approach. The Assistant Director leads by example, maintains a strong presence with customers, and spends a significant portion of time engaging directly with strategic accounts across the region.

The Assistant Director works closely with the Program Manager, Strategic Accounts to provide senior leadership with visibility into key account needs, risks, challenges, and growth opportunities. The role also partners with the Custom Services team to identify and develop services opportunities and ensure effective transition to the teams responsible for delivery.

Position Responsibilities

Account Strategy and Regional Leadership

• Lead the regional team of Strategic Account Managers and Senior Customer Success Managers responsible for protecting and growing CAS’s global enterprise accounts with a significant presence in EMEA.
• Develop and maintain strategic account plans in partnership with the team, ensuring plans reflect each account’s current health, business priorities, growth potential, and risk profile.
• Establish priorities for regional account coverage and evolve account assignments and strategies as the global enterprise account portfolio changes.
• Provide strategic direction, coaching, and support to enable strong account execution and sustainable growth.

Forecasting and Business Rigor

• Own the monthly forecast for the region’s global enterprise account portfolio in partnership with the team and Commercial Operations.
• Monitor forecast accuracy and use variance analysis and account insights to strengthen forecasting, account planning, and execution.
• Provide senior leadership with regular visibility into regional account health, opportunities, forecasts, and risks.
• Drive consistent and disciplined use of CRM, forecasting, and opportunity-management processes across the team.

Executive Stakeholder Engagement

• Develop and maintain relationships with senior customer executives across the region’s most strategic accounts, supporting long-term retention, partnership, and growth.
• Facilitate executive engagement between senior leadership and customer executives, ensuring appropriate senior-level engagement with key stakeholders at critical points in the customer relationship.
• Represent EMEA global enterprise accounts in internal executive reviews and strategic discussions.
• Serve as a senior point of engagement for strategic customer matters requiring regional leadership involvement.

Strategic Accounts Program Partnership

• Partner closely with the Program Manager, Strategic Accounts to ensure senior leadership is well informed of the needs, challenges, risks, and opportunities within the region’s global enterprise accounts.
• Contribute regional account intelligence and insights to the broader Strategic Accounts program, supporting consistent reporting and prioritization across regions.
• Collaborate with regional and global stakeholders to support a coordinated approach to enterprise customers operating across multiple markets.

Custom Services Pipeline Partnership

• Partner with the Custom Services team to identify and develop a pipeline of custom-services opportunities within the region’s global enterprise accounts.
• Support the qualification and effective handoff of services opportunities to the Custom Services team for facilitation and delivery.
• Maintain appropriate visibility into service engagements where delivery progress may affect overall account health, customer relationships, or future growth opportunities.

Team Leadership and Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of experienced commercial professionals, establishing high standards for account strategy, executive engagement, customer focus, and forecast discipline.
• Recruit, retain, and develop high-performing talent across Strategic Account Management and Senior Customer Success roles.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and customer-focused team culture.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and effective communication between the regional team and senior sales leadership.

The successful candidate will ideally bring:

Background and Experience

• An established professional network and recognized presence within the EMEA pharmaceutical and life sciences community, including senior-level relationships within major pharmaceutical organizations.
• 15+ years of progressive commercial experience, including significant experience managing large, complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise accounts.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing strategic account plans and forecasts across a portfolio of global enterprise customers.
• A proven track record of building trusted relationships and influencing senior customer executives, including C-suite and VP-level stakeholders, in a consultative, relationship-driven sales or customer success environment.
• Experience selling or supporting science-related solutions and/or information, data, or intellectual property solutions preferred.
• Demonstrated people-leadership experience, ideally leading experienced and highly accomplished commercial professionals.
• Strong experience with CRM, forecasting, and opportunity-management tools and processes; Salesforce experience is preferred.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with demonstrated ability to partner effectively with Strategic Accounts program leadership, Custom Services, Commercial Operations, and senior leadership.
• Excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Fluency in English is required. Fluency in German and/or French is a plus.

Educational Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, a science-related discipline, communications, or another relevant field. An advanced degree is preferred but not required.

Travel

Travel of up to 50% is expected, including domestic and international travel across the EMEA region, reflecting the customer-facing and executive relationship responsibilities of the position.

Compensation

An attractive compensation package will be offered, commensurate with the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience. The position includes eligibility for the Sales Incentive Plan, with incentive compensation tied to sales revenue and account performance.

To apply for a position, please submit your cover letter and CV to careers@acs-i.org