Key Account Director

Up to £70,000 Doncaster, Office Based Monday to Friday, 08:30 - 17:00

Macildowie are working with this client based in Doncaster to recruit an experienced Key Account Lead to take strategic ownership of one of the organisation's largest and most important customer relationships.

This isn't traditional account management.

The customer is a substantial and complex organisation, and the successful candidate will need to understand how to navigate multiple stakeholders, competing priorities and a sophisticated commercial environment while identifying opportunities to move the relationship towards a genuine strategic partnership.

Job Description Key Account Lead

You'll need to be equally comfortable analysing commercial data, building relationships with senior stakeholders, solving operational challenges and identifying opportunities for growth.

The Role

Reporting to the Head of Sales, you'll act as the strategic lead for this major account.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Taking strategic ownership of a significant national customer relationship
• Developing a long-term account strategy and customer roadmap
• Identifying opportunities for commercial growth and deeper partnership working
• Building trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across the customer's organisation
• Understanding the customer's short, medium and long-term priorities
• Navigating a complex stakeholder environment effectively
• Analysing customer and operational data to identify opportunities and improve decision making
• Working cross-functionally to ensure the customer receives the best possible service
• Leading and developing the team supporting the account
• Supporting pricing decisions and ensuring commercial structures are clearly communicated
• Resolving customer queries and occasional complaints effectively
• Maintaining accurate customer and opportunity information through CRM/ERP systems
• Working with Marketing to identify opportunities to strengthen the relationship
• Preparing regular commercial reports and account updates
• Proactively identifying solutions to challenges before the customer has necessarily recognised them

Frequent travel to customer and operational sites will form part of the position.

Job Description Key Account Lead

About You

This role would suit an experienced Strategic Account Manager, National Account Manager, Key Account Manager or Commercial Account Lead who has managed large, complex B2B customers.

We're particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate:

• Significant strategic sales or account management experience
• Experience within manufacturing or a related commercial environment
• Management of large, complex or blue-chip customers
• Excellent senior stakeholder management skills
• A track record of growing existing customer relationships
• Experience developing accounts from supplier relationships into strategic partnerships
• Strong commercial negotiation capability
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Experience using CRM and ERP systems
• The ability to move comfortably between strategic, analytical and relationship-focused work
• Strong emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt communication to different stakeholders
• Resilience and confidence working within complex customer environments

Experience within retail, FMCG, beverage or blue-chip manufacturing environments would be particularly useful.

Job Description Key Account Lead

What's on Offer?

Salary up to £70,000

• Permanent position
• Ownership of a strategically important major customer
• Opportunity to transform an established account into a deeper commercial partnership
• Significant exposure to senior stakeholders
• A role combining strategy, commercial analysis and relationship management
• Opportunity to work within a growing manufacturing and supply-chain organisation

For somebody who enjoys getting underneath how a major customer really works — understanding the people, commercial drivers and challenges behind the account — this is an opportunity to make a significant impact.

If that sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you.