About The Role

A large majority of CDP’s revenue is generated through repeat business with a small subset of high-value ‘Key accounts’. These accounts are selected by the CDP leadership team for their multi-year growth potential, alignment with CDP’s current and future service offerings, and access to senior/executive client sponsors. The Key Account Manager role is a dedicated commercial leadership role, responsible for the commercial growth, strategic development and long-term value of key accounts. Managing up to five key accounts or up to eight smaller accounts, the role acts as commercial owner of the account portfolio, the architect of account strategy, trusted senior partner to client decision-makers, and internal orchestrator aligning CDP resources around client value. The role demands a proactive, value-driven growth mindset and a focus on long-term client partnership over transactional sales.

This role will cover the US East Coast and can be based remotely, with frequent travel to clients across the territory and our US office in Raleigh, North Carolina.
 
Job Duties and Responsibilities:

Objectives

  • Drive profitable, multi-capability growth across assigned accounts.
  • Protect and enhance gross margin performance.
  • Increase senior/executive-level sponsorship and share of wallet.
  • Maintain forecast accuracy within agreed tolerance

    Key Stakeholder Interactions

  • Senior client decision-makers (e.g. technical, procurement).
  • Head of Account Management, Sector Leads and Capability Leads.
  • Business Developers and Marketing team.
  • Project Leads and delivery teams.

    Account Growth & Strategy

  • Own and execute strategic internal account plans.
  • Develop joint value plans with senior client stakeholders that align CDP capabilities to the client’s strategic objectives.
  • Identify and progress opportunities for new programmes and cross-capability/sector expansion.
  • Build a balanced portfolio of qualified opportunities to ensure predictable revenue growth.
  • Monitor competitive positioning and anticipate client needs and market shifts.
  • Actively contribute to the evolution of CDP’s sector and service strategy by translating account-level insight, client investment patterns and competitive signals into actionable strategic recommendations.

    Commercial Ownership & Performance

  • Take accountability for account-level P&L and sales performance.
  • Provide formal input into bid/no-bid decisions, pricing strategy and account-level investment prioritisation in collaboration with Sector Leadership.
  • Ensure pricing reflects value and margin targets; manage cost of sale and investment trade-offs.
  • Maintain accurate pipeline data, bid prioritisation and conversion tracking.
  • Partner with Sector Leads on deal shaping and risk management.

    Relationship Management & Influence

  • Build and sustain trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders.
  • Expand relationships up and across the client organisation to reduce single-thread risk.
  • Develop and maintain structured stakeholder maps and engagement plans across technical, operational, procurement and executive stakeholders.
  • Act as a trusted advisor by bringing insight and perspective to client conversations.
  • Handle difficult conversations calmly and credibly to resolve issues and protect client trust.

    Internal Leadership

  • Serve as the internal voice of the client, ensuring teams understand client context and success criteria.
  • Align Sector Leads, Capability Leads and Project Leads around account objectives and client value.
  • Escalate risks early and constructively when delivery, margin or client trust is at risk.
  • Share learning and best practice across accounts to raise overall performance.
  • Project Leads retain delivery accountability; the SAM retains responsibility for account-level commercial integrity and client trust.

    Capability Building & Coaching

  • Model best-in-class account management behaviours and share expertise.
  • Coach Account Leads and Project Leads transitioning into client-facing roles.
  • Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of CDP’s account management tools, processes and standards.
  • Support recruitment and onboarding of new client-facing staff.

    Marketing & Market Insight

  • Provide feedback to marketing on effectiveness of collateral and campaigns for the account.
  • Identify marketing opportunities and customer stories to build CDP’s profile.
  • Collaborate with Marketing team on proposals, case studies, events and thought leadership.

About You

As a Key Account Manager candidate, you will be assessed against the following attributes:

Strategic & Commercial Leadership

Ability to operate as the commercial owner of a portfolio of key accounts, balancing growth, margin, risk and long-term value creation.

Evidence of competency includes:

  • Ownership and growth of complex B2B accounts (£1m+ annual value).
  • Clear understanding of account-level P&L and margin drivers.
  • Demonstrated ability to shape pricing strategy and manage commercial negotiations.
  • Multi-year account planning with structured growth hypotheses.
  • Disciplined pipeline management and forecast accuracy.
  • Experience balancing short-term revenue with long-term account value.

Client Insight & Strategic Thinking
Ability to translate deep understanding of client strategy, industry context and competitive positioning into actionable account growth strategy.

Evidence of competency includes:

  • Mapping of client business models, investment priorities and decision-making structures.
  • Identification of whitespace opportunities and cross-capability/sector expansion.
  • Anticipation of market or client shifts before formal procurement cycles.
  • Converting client insight into commercially successful programmes.

Stakeholder Influence & Negotiation
Ability to build, expand and manage complex multi-stakeholder relationships in regulated, procurement-driven environments.

Evidence of competency includes:

  • Confident engagement with Senior Director/VP/C-suite stakeholders.
  • Structured stakeholder mapping and reduction of single-thread risk.
  • Effective management of procurement and commercial gatekeepers.
  • Successful navigation of difficult conversations regarding scope, margin, performance or delivery risk.
  • Development of executive sponsorship within strategic accounts.

Internal Organisation & Cross-Functional Leadership
Ability to align internal teams around account strategy and protect account-level commercial integrity.

Evidence of competency includes:

  • Leading cross-functional teams across technical, sector and capability groups.
  • Providing clear commercial direction to support bid/no-bid and investment decisions.
  • Escalating delivery or margin risks constructively and early.
  • Resolving internal misalignment between sales, delivery and capability functions.
  • Coaching colleagues transitioning into client-facing roles.

Executive Presence & Personal Effectiveness
Professional maturity, credibility and judgement consistent with Principal-equivalent level.

Evidence of competency includes:

  • Structured, articulate communication in high-stakes environments.
  • Calm and credible handling of commercial tension or conflict.
  • High emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
  • Strong negotiation capability.
  • Commitment to continuous improvement and contribution to the evolution of CDP’s Account Management discipline.

About Us

We’re an employee‑owned innovation partner with a growing US team in Raleigh, NC, part of the Research Triangle. We bring ideas to life-from insight to engineering to pilot manufacture—across consumer and healthcare.
Apply
Copyright © 2026 Powered by Eploy