Director of Account Management

About the Role

Lendscape develops lending software utilized by financial institutions across the UK, Europe, Asia, and the United States. As the company expands, the Account Management (AM) team is critical for client retention and growth. The Director of Account Management leads the entire team's performance, managing Account Managers who specialize in commercial growth of stable accounts and management of accounts with Professional Services or active development projects. This role also involves hands-on portfolio management as a player-coach to model expected standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow two Account Management teams focusing on Commercial expansion and Service excellence, ensuring standardized processes for global consistency.
• Manage recruitment, performance evaluations, and career progression within the AM team.
• Clarify and maintain distinct roles between AM Commercial (upsell-focused) and AM Service (service-led), resolving overlaps efficiently.
• Support cross-learning by encouraging the Service team towards commercial focus and vice versa.
• Conduct regular pipeline reviews using a six-stage opportunity qualification framework before transitioning opportunities to New Business Sales.
• Ensure every client account maintains an active sales opportunity pipeline or documented reasons if not.
• Maintain personal responsibility for a client portfolio, handling end-to-end client relationships post go-live as an example for the team.
• Develop and execute commercial strategies, including renewal and upsell plans, managing sales cycles for deals up to £70,000.
• Hold personal Professional Services (PS) and upsell quotas alongside overarching team targets.
• Accountable for the AM team’s total quota combining PS and upsell targets; provide performance forecasts to executive leadership.
• Keep accurate renewal and expansion forecasts within CRM systems.
• Oversee smaller deal closures (<£70k) by AM Commercial and manage handoffs of larger deals to New Business Sales.
• Ensure smooth transitions between New Business Sales and AM ownership post deal closure.
• Drive net revenue retention (NRR) of 110% annually and maintain gross retention of 95%.
• Monitor account health metrics including open tickets, Professional Services progress, Customer Health Scores/NPS, and mitigate relationship risks.
• Handle executive-level escalations for at-risk accounts, ensuring issues are resolved and client confidence remains strong.
• Boost customer satisfaction scores and track renewal cycles thoroughly.
• Improve customer reference metrics, targeting 15% participation in references across the customer base, 100% participation from critical accounts, and generating 4 new case studies annually.
• Represent Account Management in Enhancement Review Boards (ERB), managing enhancement requests and client communication.
• Collaborate with leadership from Support, Delivery, Sales, Product, and Technology to resolve resource constraints, prioritization, and product issues affecting clients.
• Ensure proper data management and hygiene in CRM and Jira focusing on renewals, expansion pipelines, and account health information.

Required Experience and Skills

• Demonstrated success leading and expanding Account Management or Customer Success teams, preferably within B2B SaaS or fintech sectors.
• Proven record of driving high Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and Gross Retention Rate (GRR).
• Strong background as a high-achieving individual Account Manager before advancing into leadership roles, comfortable balancing hands-on and managerial responsibilities.
• Experience with quota ownership at both individual and team levels in commercially responsible positions.
• Skilled in managing structured sales opportunity qualification and handoff processes.
• Experience in financial services, lending, or fintech is an asset.
• Adept at working within global companies, managing teams and clients across multiple time zones.
• Effective people leader skilled in recruiting, developing, and motivating Account Managers.
• Commercially knowledgeable in ARR, forecasting, quotas, and revenue-driving account strategies.
• Organized and rigorous with pipeline and sales handoff disciplines.
• Strong relationship-building skills with the ability to engage stakeholders from operational teams to executives.
• Proactive risk and opportunity identification across client portfolios.
• Clear and credible communication of performance metrics to leadership.

Personal Traits

• Leads by example, actively engaging with clients as a player-coach rather than distant management.
• Accountable for both team results and activities.
• Collaborative, working effectively with cross-functional leaders without direct authority over those areas.
• Calm and resilient under pressure, managing multiple concurrent escalations.
• Committed to genuine people development beyond just output management.

Benefits

• Clear ownership over the Account Management function and its operational excellence.
• Supportive senior leadership team focused on operational and client success.
• Authority to shape the AM team’s strategies, playbook, and structure as the division grows.
• Close partnership with Product and Technology, with client feedback influencing product development.
• Opportunities for significant career advancement in a rapidly expanding company.
• Competitive compensation with performance-related incentives linked to team targets, retention, and portfolio expansion.