Strategic Account Director

Strategic Account Director | Enterprise AI / Manufacturing

Location: New York City, NY or San Francisco, CA (In-Person)

Compensation: $225K Base + $105K Variable ($330K OTE, Uncapped) + ~$100K/Year Equity

Openings: 4 | Travel: Up to 50%

About the Company

Shields Group Search is partnering with a venture-backed AI technology company building an advanced platform that helps manufacturers reduce the cost of poor quality, improve product reliability, and drive measurable operational improvements.

The company's AI-powered technology enables large industrial and manufacturing enterprises to better understand complex product and quality data, identify emerging problems, and make smarter, faster decisions.

As the company continues expanding its relationships with major enterprise customers, it is hiring four Strategic Account Directors to lead commercial growth within its existing customer base.

About the Role

The Strategic Account Director is a commercial expansion role focused on growing existing enterprise relationships rather than generating net-new pipeline.

This individual will own the commercial relationship with customers, partnering closely with an AI Solutions Director who oversees technical delivery, deployment, and value realization.

The core motion is land-and-expand: starting with an existing customer pilot, demonstrating measurable value, and expanding that engagement into annual and multi-year enterprise contracts across additional business units, products, and data sources.

The primary objective is to grow revenue from signed customers and transform smaller pilots into significantly larger, long-term enterprise partnerships.

Success requires independently leading customer discovery, developing compelling executive narratives, and building business cases that connect complex technical use cases with tangible commercial outcomes. This is not a role where the Strategic Account Director can rely heavily on marketing materials or sales engineers to drive the conversation.

The ideal candidate can engage deeply with technical stakeholders, communicate effectively with VPs and C-suite executives, and translate sophisticated technology into clear business value.

Unlike traditional enterprise sales positions, this role requires a highly consultative, technically informed approach. The company is less focused on conventional enterprise sales pedigrees and more interested in professionals who combine technical or strategic expertise with strong commercial ownership.

The team is intentionally considering candidates from a range of professional backgrounds rather than limiting the search to one rigid profile.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate combines technical or industrial domain expertise, strategic problem-solving, executive communication skills, and direct commercial or revenue ownership.

Particularly compelling backgrounds include former strategy consultants or technical professionals who earned an MBA and transitioned into customer-facing commercial, deployment, or value-oriented roles.

Target backgrounds include:

• Engineers who spent approximately 5 years working at an OEM or manufacturing company before attending business school.
• Former strategy consultants from firms such as McKinsey, BCG, or similar organizations.
• Professionals who began in strategy consulting and transitioned into customer-facing commercial, enterprise deployment, or value engineering roles.
• Candidates with backgrounds at firms such as Accenture who subsequently moved into commercial or value-oriented positions at enterprise technology companies similar to Celonis.
• Professionals combining a technical background, MBA, and strategy consulting experience who later transitioned into customer-facing deployment or commercial responsibilities.
• Candidates with meaningful experience in heavy industrial equipment, manufacturing, aerospace, medical devices, consumer products, or electronics.

Strong candidates will have demonstrated professional tenure, technical credibility, and meaningful revenue ownership without necessarily following a traditional sales career path.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Account Ownership & Expansion

• Own and grow commercial relationships across a portfolio of existing enterprise accounts, from initial pilot through multi-year expansion.
• Serve as the primary commercial relationship owner, developing long-term partnerships with senior stakeholders and decision-makers.
• Identify opportunities to significantly increase revenue within existing customer organizations.

2. Land-and-Expand Execution

• Lead the expansion of existing pilots and proof-of-concept engagements into annual and multi-year enterprise contracts.
• Drive expansion across multiple business units, products, teams, and data sources.
• Build account strategies designed to convert initial customer traction into substantial enterprise relationships.

3. Executive Engagement & Business Case Development

• Build and present compelling executive-level narratives tailored to each customer's priorities.
• Develop commercially persuasive business cases that demonstrate measurable ROI and operational value.
• Communicate directly with VP-level and C-suite stakeholders to align technical initiatives with broader organizational objectives.

4. Technical Discovery & Consultative Selling

• Personally lead technical discovery to understand complex customer use cases, business challenges, and deployment opportunities.
• Develop a sufficiently deep technical understanding to engage credibly with engineering, operations, and manufacturing stakeholders.
• Translate technical capabilities and implementation outcomes into clear commercial value without relying on a sales engineer or prebuilt marketing materials.

5. Cross-Functional Partnership & Deployment Expansion

• Partner closely with AI Solutions Directors and technical delivery teams responsible for implementation, deployment, and value realization.
• Collaborate to convert successful pilots into production deployments.
• Ensure commercial expansion strategies remain closely aligned with measurable customer outcomes.

Must-Have Requirements

• 4–8+ years of relevant experience in customer-facing commercial roles, including strategic account management, enterprise consulting, customer success leadership, or similar positions, with direct revenue ownership.
• Senior executive relationship management: Demonstrated success building and maintaining relationships with senior leadership and C-suite stakeholders at large organizations.
• Executive communication and storytelling: Ability to independently develop, present, and defend compelling executive-level narratives and business cases without relying on marketing teams or sales engineers.
• Technical and commercial fluency: Ability to independently navigate technical discovery, understand sophisticated customer use cases, and connect them to revenue growth or measurable ROI.
• Travel flexibility: Willingness and ability to travel up to approximately 50% for on-site customer meetings and visits.

What Makes a Candidate Stand Out

Relevant Industry Expertise

• Exposure to heavy industrial equipment, manufacturing, aerospace, or medical devices.
• Experience in consumer products or electronics is also highly relevant.
• Familiarity with complex industrial organizations, manufacturing processes, or enterprise technical deployments is a strong advantage.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $225,000
• Target Variable Compensation: $105,000
• Total On-Target Earnings (OTE): $330,000
• Commission Structure: Uncapped with accelerators
• Top Performer Earning Potential: $600,000–$800,000
• Equity: Approximately $100,000 annually

Location & Logistics

• Location: New York City, NY or San Francisco, CA
• Open Positions: 4
• Travel Requirements: Up to approximately 50% for on-site enterprise customer visits

Why This Opportunity?

This is an opportunity to help scale a sophisticated AI platform within some of the world's most complex industrial and manufacturing environments.

Rather than pursuing purely transactional sales, Strategic Account Directors will work directly with enterprise executives and technical stakeholders to demonstrate value, build strategic partnerships, and transform early customer engagements into meaningful long-term commercial relationships.

The position offers significant commercial ownership, substantial earning potential, meaningful equity, and the ability to directly influence the company's enterprise expansion strategy.