OverviewThe Global Account Director (GAD) is the commercial owner and client advocate for an assigned portfolio of accounts and prospects within a defined geographic territory. This includes existing Certara clients, former clients and organizations with which Certara does not yet have a commercial relationship.
The role is responsible for developing trusted client relationships, creating new opportunities, growing existing accounts and bringing the breadth of Certara's scientific, software and services capabilities together around the client's most important drug development decisions.
GADs do not need to be the deepest scientific expert in every area Certara serves. They must, however, have sufficient scientific and drug development fluency to engage credibly with clients, ask insightful questions, recognize meaningful opportunities and bring the right Certara experts into the conversation at the right time.
Success requires curiosity, commercial judgment and the ability to understand not simply what a client is asking Certara to do, but what decision they are trying to make, why that decision matters and what confidence they require to act.
The GAD makes Certara easier to work with by providing clear commercial ownership and coordinating the right people and capabilities around the client.
ResponsibilitiesOwn the Territory and Client Relationship - Serve as the primary commercial owner and client advocate for assigned accounts and prospects.
- Develop and execute territory and account plans that identify opportunities for retention, expansion, new business and strategic relationship development.
- Build relationships across scientific, clinical, regulatory, operational, procurement and executive stakeholders.
- Develop a strong understanding of client's pipeline, development priorities, business objectives and organizational dynamics.
- Maintain regular, meaningful client engagement, including in-person interaction across the territory.
- Build Certara's presence within the local biopharmaceutical ecosystem and actively develop relationships with prospective clients.
Discover and Qualify the Right Opportunities - Lead discovery conversations that identify the business and scientific context behind client needs.
- Understand the critical decisions clients are trying to make, the confidence required to make those decisions and the consequences of delay, uncertainty or failure.
- Identify the stakeholders involved in the decision, how the decision will be made and the client's priorities, constraints and timelines.
- Distinguish between stated requests and the underlying problem Certara can help the client solve.
- Qualify opportunities based on strategic fit, client value, Certara differentiation, likelihood of success and appropriate use of Certara resources.
- Be willing to challenge, reshape or walk away from opportunities where Certara is not positioned to create sufficient value or win successfully.
Orchestrate Certara Around the Client - Bring together the appropriate scientific, software, services and commercial expertise based on the client's needs.
- Ensure internal participants understand the client context, meeting objectives, stakeholders and desired outcomes before client engagement.
- Lead client conversations while enabling Certara's scientific and technical experts to provide the depth and credibility appropriate to the opportunity.
- Connect capabilities across Certara where doing so creates greater client value rather than defaulting to individual products or organizational silos.
- Maintain clear commercial ownership as opportunities move across teams and capabilities.
- Create a consistent client experience regardless of which Certara teams are involved.
Create and Grow Business - Generate new opportunities through proactive territory development, account penetration, referrals, networking and engagement with the local life sciences ecosystem.
- Identify whitespace within existing accounts by understanding client pipelines, priorities and unmet needs.
- Develop opportunities across Certara's portfolio rather than limiting conversations to capabilities clients already purchase.
- Build compelling value propositions based on the importance of the client's decision, Certara's differentiation and the value of reducing risk, uncertainty, time or resource requirements.
- Develop and execute opportunity strategies that address competitive position, stakeholder alignment, value, commercial structure and path to decision.
- Lead commercial negotiations in collaboration with appropriate internal stakeholders.
- Meet or exceed territory bookings and growth objectives.
Protect and Expand Client Relationships - Maintain awareness of active engagements and overall client experience without replacing the project delivery team.
- Proactively identify relationship risks, delivery concerns and potential barriers to future growth.
- Coordinate appropriate internal resources to resolve issues quickly and communicate clearly with clients.
- Ensure lessons from client feedback, wins and losses are shared internally and used to improve future engagement.
- Look beyond individual transactions to build durable, expanding relationships with clients.
Maintain Commercial Discipline - Maintain accurate account, opportunity, pipeline and activity information in Salesforce.
- Develop credible forecasts based on demonstrated client evidence and clearly understood next steps.
- Maintain sufficient qualified pipeline to support territory and corporate objectives.
- Establish clear next actions, owners and timelines following meaningful client interactions.
- Collaborate effectively with Software Specialists, Portfolio Teams, scientific experts, marketing, operations and other commercial colleagues.
- Contribute market, competitive and client insights that improve Certara's commercial strategy.
QualificationsQualifications - Bachelor's degree required; scientific or life sciences education strongly preferred. Advanced scientific training is valued but not required.
- Demonstrated success in business development, account management, consulting, scientific sales or another client-facing commercial role within biopharma, biotechnology, CRO, life sciences software or a related industry.
- Strong understanding of the drug discovery and development process and the challenges facing biopharmaceutical companies.
- Scientific curiosity and sufficient technical fluency to engage credibly with drug development professionals and identify when deeper expertise is required.
- Experience developing new business as well as expanding established client relationships.
- Demonstrated ability to uncover client priorities and translate complex scientific or business challenges into commercially actionable opportunities.
- Strong executive presence and ability to engage effectively across scientific, operational, procurement and C-suite stakeholders.
- Ability to lead through influence and coordinate multidisciplinary teams in a matrix organization.
- Strong commercial judgment, including opportunity qualification, competitive strategy, value positioning and negotiation.
- Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships while constructively challenging clients and internal stakeholders when appropriate.
- High level of curiosity, accountability and initiative with a strong bias toward client engagement and action.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability and willingness to spend significant time engaging clients and prospects in person across the assigned territory.
What Success Looks Like Successful Territory Managers become trusted advocates for their clients inside Certara and trusted representatives of Certara with their clients.
They know their territory, understand the organizations and drug development programs within it, create opportunities rather than waiting for them, and focus Certara's resources on work where we can deliver meaningful value and win. The ability to follow the drug and propose Certara solutions over the course of the drug development lifecycle.
Clients experience
one Certara, regardless of how many scientific, software or services teams are involved.
Internally, the Territory Manager provides a clear view of the client: what matters to them, what decisions they face, where Certara can create value, what could put the relationship at risk and what needs to happen next.
The result is sustainable territory growth built on stronger client relationships, better-qualified opportunities and work where Certara is differentiated and positioned to succeed.
