Account Executive (Expansion)

Account Executive

By combining our unparalleled domain expertise with leading-edge technology, Ad Astra is helping higher education in its mission to advance timely student completions. We are building a cloud-based software platform that will provide the foundation for our next generation of industry-leading solutions and analytics. Simply put, we're helping students graduate faster.

Our Core Values

• We recognize talent. We recognize and appreciate the unique God-given talents that our people bring to Ad Astra. Aligning these individual gifts with our work sets team members up to succeed.
• We're unpretentious. There's no room for ego. We admit our imperfections and have the humility to know what we don't know.
• We're passionate. We aren't satisfied with the status quo. We're on a mission together to protect the value of degree completion and to transform the higher education industry.
• We're pioneering. We're pioneering and aren't afraid to fail—in fact, we celebrate it. We love it when our people boldly experiment with innovative solutions.
• We love fun. The health of our relationships is strengthened by working with people who stretch our thinking—and by enjoying the lighter side of life together. We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take fun seriously.
• We have grit. Beyond talent and intelligence, our people have stick-to-itiveness. We push through challenges to make goals a reality.

Position Summary

The Account Executive (AE) is responsible for driving revenue growth within an assigned portfolio of existing clients by identifying, developing, and closing expansion opportunities. This role focuses on deepening client partnerships, uncovering business needs, and aligning solutions to client goals to increase adoption, broaden product usage, and grow account value. The AE owns the expansion sales cycle from opportunity identification through proposal, negotiation, and close, while maintaining accurate pipeline forecasts and delivering against sales targets. In partnership with Client Success, Product, and Services teams, this role leverages client insights, usage trends, and strategic relationships to generate incremental revenue and support long-term client retention and growth.

Essential Functions/Core Responsibilities

• Own revenue expansion across an assigned portfolio of existing clients by identifying, developing, and closing upsell, cross-sell, and add-on opportunities
• Build and maintain strong client relationships, including executive and decision-maker alignment, to support account growth and long-term partnership value
• Develop and execute account growth strategies based on client business objectives, product adoption trends, and identified expansion opportunities
• Manage the full expansion sales cycle, including discovery, solution alignment, proposal development, pricing, negotiation, and contract close
• Maintain an accurate pipeline and forecast for expansion business, ensuring timely updates, clear visibility, and reliable revenue projections
• Partner closely with Client Success, Product, Marketing, and Services teams to uncover client needs, shape solutions, and advance growth opportunities
• Use client insights, product knowledge, and business context to recommend solutions that expand product adoption, increase account value, and support retention
• Prepare and present business cases, proposals, quotes, and other commercial documentation to support expansion opportunities with existing clients
• Capture client feedback, market insights, and use-case trends to inform internal stakeholders and help refine positioning, packaging, and product direction
• Identify client success stories and expansion outcomes, and collaborate with Marketing to incorporate them into reference and content strategies
• Other duties as assigned

Position Requirements

• Minimum 3 years of experience in account management, sales, business development, or expansion/renewal sales, preferably in SaaS B2B businesses or within Higher Education
• Bachelor's degree in business, sales, marketing, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant commercial experience preferred
• Ability to engage enterprise client stakeholders at various levels of technical and non-technical depth, including executive decision-makers
• Experience managing a sales pipeline, maintaining forecast accuracy, and progressing opportunities through the sales cycle
• Proven ability to build strategic relationships and develop executive champions that support account growth and expansion
• Track record of identifying client needs, developing account growth strategies, and achieving retention and expansion objectives
• Strong consultative selling, negotiation, and closing skills with experience guiding opportunities from discovery through contract execution
• Experience creating proposals, quotes, and business cases and presenting commercial terms to clients
• Proven ability to meet or exceed sales, retention, and expansion goals
• Assertiveness and professionalism in leading direct client conversations, including opportunity advancement, negotiation, and resolution of objections
• High emotional intelligence, including curiosity, empathy, self-awareness, and integrity
• Capable of analyzing data, interpreting client and business metrics, and using insights to inform account strategy
• Experience in Higher Ed is preferred

Essential Competencies

• Problem Solving
• Collaborative Communication
• Relationship Building
• Storytelling
• Flexibility

Additional Preferred Experience

• Gainsight PX
• Office 365
• Salesforce CRM
• Miller Heiman Sales Methodology

How Performance Is Measured For This Role

• Expansion Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
• Forecast accuracy
• Pipeline coverage
• Win rate
• Average deal size and overall expansion penetration
• Migration pace for clients adopting new platform

This position is in Overland Park, KS in the greater Kansas City metro area. Ad Astra does not cover relocation expenses.

Ad Astra is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and fairness—regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, political affiliation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.