Senior Account Manager

Senior Client-Facing Account Manager

This is a senior client-facing seat on the ground in the United States — the person who owns a portfolio of accounts end-to-end and is the reason clients renew, expand, and refer us.

You'll lead a delivery pod of two Retention Marketing Specialists based in our Bangalore office, run the client relationship across strategy and delivery, and be the bar-raiser for everything that goes out of Propel's door — flows, copy, segmentation logic, dashboards, QBRs. You'll work directly with the founders on growing accounts, sharpening our craft, and shipping work that compounds for our clients quarter after quarter.

It's a role for someone who's already run lifecycle programs at scale, knows what "good" looks like in at least one major ESP, has held a client relationship through hard moments, and now wants the leverage of a fast-moving consulting firm — and the internal AI-built delivery system that lets one operator carry 12–15 accounts with real depth.

Key Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of 12–15 client accounts end-to-end — strategy, roadmap, delivery quality, retention, growth, and renewal — leveraging Propel's internal AI-built delivery system to operate at that scale without sacrificing depth
• Lead a distributed pod of two Retention Marketing Specialists in Bangalore — running structured handoffs, async reviews, and a daily window of live overlap
• Run the client relationship: weekly syncs, monthly business reviews, quarterly strategy planning, and escalation handling — be the voice of Propel for your clients in their time zone
• Architect lifecycle programs across email, push, SMS, WhatsApp, and in-app — including onboarding, activation, engagement, win-back, and reactivation flows
• Own the QA layer — nothing ships under your name without passing your bar for strategy, copy, segmentation, deliverability, and measurement
• Translate client data into decisions: read cohort retention, flow-level revenue, engagement decay, and turn it into the next 30/60/90-day plan
• Partner with founders on account expansion — surface new scopes, write SOWs, and own commercial conversations with clients up to a defined threshold
• Be the in-house expert on your accounts' ESPs (Customer.io, Braze, Klaviyo, Iterable, MoEngage, or CleverTap) and the connective tissue between them and the rest of the stack (CDP, analytics, attribution)
• Codify what works — turn repeated patterns from your accounts into playbooks, templates, and internal IP that level up the rest of the team and feed back into Propel's delivery system
• Represent Propel in the lifecycle community — events, partner meetups, conferences, and 1:1 client visits in your region and beyond

Compensation

Base salary varies by location, set against the local market for this seniority. Performance variable is uncapped and tied to retention, expansion, and pod outcomes.

Location - Base Salary - Variable

New York, NY - $140,000 - + Performance bonus

San Francisco, CA - $140,000 - + Performance bonus

Austin, TX - $85,000 – $100,000 - + Performance incentives

Nashville, TN - $85,000 – $100,000 - + Performance incentives

Sacramento, CA - $85,000 – $100,000 - + Performance incentives

Benefits (all locations): Health, Dental, Vision, 401(k), PTO. Plus reimbursement for ESP / AI tooling and an annual conference budget.

Workspace: Propel provides a hybrid co-working space in each city — 3 days in-office, 2 days flexible.

What You Get

• A senior seat with real ownership — your portfolio, your pod, your P&L visibility, working shoulder-to-shoulder with the founders
• A career path that opens up fast — Senior Account Manager → Group Account Manager → Director of Client Strategy as we scale toward $10M ARR
• A front-row seat to AI-native lifecycle marketing — you'll work on (and feed back into) tooling, agents, and workflows that most agencies are years away from
• The flexibility to operate as a senior leader — outcomes over inputs, autonomy over micromanagement
• Annual travel to our Bangalore HQ to work alongside your pod and the rest of the team

Required Competencies

• 5–8 years lifecycle / CRM /retention, ideally with 2+ years in agency or consulting
• Hands-on ESP fluency (Customer.io, Braze, Klaviyo, Iterable, MoEngage, CleverTap). Structured operator —nothing falls through the cracks
• Track record running multi-channel flows for B2C apps / DTC, with fluency in cohort retention, funnel and deliverability data
• AI-forward in daily work —copy, segmentation, QA and reporting, while raising the bar.
• Strong client presence with founders & growth leads
• Proven people management— even small teams
• Experience with distributed /offshore teams
• Ownership-driven, service-oriented, tenacious

Bonus Points

• Background working with B2C startups or digital health products
• Experience with CDPs (Segment, mParticle, Rudderstack) and product analytics (Mixpanel, Amplitude)
• Have rebuilt a broken lifecycle program from scratch and have the receipts
• Active in the lifecycle community — Customer.io / Braze / Klaviyo certifications, conference talks, written work

Role FAQs

1- How is this role different from the Retention Marketing Specialist role?‍ RMSes own the build — flows, copy briefs, ESP execution, reporting. You own the account — the relationship, the strategy, the quality of what RMSes ship, and the commercial health of the portfolio. They go deep on one thing; you stay zoomed-out across many.

2- How is it possible to manage 12–15 accounts as one AM?‍ Because Propel's internal delivery system does the heavy lifting. We've invested heavily in AI-built infrastructure — for briefing, QA, reporting, and asset generation — that takes the toil off the AM and lets you focus on strategy, client relationships, and pod leadership. The system is the unlock; the seniority is what makes it work.

3- How does the distributed pod actually work day-to-day?‍ Your two Retention Marketing Specialists sit in our Bangalore office. You overlap live for ~2 hours in your morning / their evening — that's where briefs, reviews, and unblocks happen. The rest is async: Looms, comments, structured handoffs. Done right, the time gap becomes an advantage — overnight builds, near-24-hour cycles, real momentum.

4- What does the hybrid setup look like in each city?‍ Propel provides a co-working space in each of New York, San Francisco, Austin, Nashville, and Sacramento. You're in-office 3 days a week for client meetings, pod reviews, and partner / community events; 2 days are flexible.

5- What's the split between strategy, client management, and delivery oversight?‍ Roughly 40% strategy and client relationship, 40% reviewing and steering the pod's delivery, 20% hands-on work (sharp briefs, complex flow architecture, escalations). The internal delivery system is what makes this split workable across 12–15 accounts.

6- Will I write copy or build flows myself?‍ Occasionally — for the hardest briefs, the most strategic launches, or when teaching the pod. But the default is: you brief, review, and elevate; the RMSes build.

7- What ESPs will I work in?‍ Whatever the client uses — most often Customer.io, Braze, Klaviyo, Iterable, MoEngage, or CleverTap. We expect deep fluency in one and