US Account Manager (SaaS, Higher Ed)

Gecko

• $80K — $95K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5-7 years of experience in B2B SaaS account management or customer success roles
  • Proven track record in account retention, renewals, and expansion
  • Ability to manage complex accounts with multiple stakeholders
  • Strong interpersonal skills to build authentic relationships
  • Proficiency in navigating commercial conversations confidently
  • Highly organized with a proactive approach in managing pipelines
  • Experience in Higher Education or EdTech is a plus, but not required

Responsibilities

  • Own a portfolio of university and college partners, ensuring their success and growth
  • Develop and implement success plans that align with partners' objectives
  • Lead renewal processes and identify opportunities for account expansion
  • Conduct in-person visits and engage with partners to build trust and rapport
  • Run account reviews, connecting outcomes to future collaboration opportunities
  • Collaborate with internal teams to address partner needs and support initiatives
  • Deliver impactful presentations and commercial discussions to stakeholders

Benefits

  • Remote-first work culture with flexibility for in-person engagement
  • Opportunity to travel to university partners, conferences, and events
  • Engagement in meaningful, long-term relationships within the education sector
  • Chance to drive significant impact in a growing EdTech company
  • Supportive team environment that values collaboration and knowledge sharing
Full Job Description
Build Partnerships That Universities Wouldn't Want to Lose

Help universities get more from Gecko by building trusted relationships, delivering real value and driving long-term growth!
Make Every Account Matter

Great Customer Success is not about keeping people happy on a quarterly call.

It is about understanding what matters to a partner, earning trust across the institution, proving value, spotting risk early and knowing when there is a genuine opportunity to grow the relationship.

That is what this role is.

As an Account Manager at Gecko, you will own a portfolio of university and college partners across the US. You will be responsible for their success, retention and growth, from day-to-day relationship management through to renewals, expansion and senior stakeholder conversations.

You will spend time with partners on campus, represent Gecko at sector events and build the kind of relationships that are difficult to create through a screen alone. You will also carry commercial responsibility, with clear ownership of renewal and expansion targets.

This is not a support-led Customer Success role. You will make sure your partners get what they need and bring in the right people when issues arise, but your focus is proactive account management, retention and growth.

We are looking for someone who can combine strong account management with commercial confidence. Someone who understands complex organisations, can navigate multiple stakeholders and is comfortable moving from a success conversation into a commercial one when the opportunity is right.
What You'll Actually be Doing
Own Your Partner Portfolio
  • Take full ownership of a portfolio of university and college partners.
  • Understand their goals, priorities, challenges, usage and future plans.
  • Build trusted relationships with everyone from day-to-day users to senior sponsors.
  • Create strong, multi-threaded relationships across departments and teams.
  • Develop success plans and account strategies that connect Gecko to meaningful outcomes.
  • Keep a clear view of partner health, risk and opportunity at all times.
Lead Renewals and Growth
  • Own renewals from early planning through to agreement.
  • Make sure partners can clearly see the value they are getting from Gecko.
  • Identify opportunities to expand into new teams, departments and use cases.
  • Lead expansion opportunities from discovery through to negotiation and close.
  • Carry renewal and expansion targets and maintain an accurate pipeline.
  • Run account reviews that connect partner outcomes to future opportunities.
  • Keep Salesforce useful, current and honest.
Build Relationships in Person
  • Visit partners regularly on campus across the US.
  • Use face-to-face time to deepen relationships and uncover what is really happening inside an account.
  • Represent Gecko at Higher Education conferences, exhibitions and partner events.
  • Balance in-person and remote engagement in a way that works for each partner.
Make Things Happen
  • Act as the strategic owner of your partner relationships, bringing in Support, Product or other teams when specialist help is needed and making sure nothing falls between the cracks.
  • Work closely with Commercial, Product, Support and Enablement.
  • Deliver confident demos, account reviews, presentations and commercial conversations.
  • Follow through. If you say you will do something, it gets done.
What Success Looks Like

In your first year, we would love to see:
  • Strong retention and renewals completed on time.
  • Expansion targets met or exceeded.
  • A healthy, credible pipeline across your portfolio.
  • Clear, well-managed account plans with no hidden surprises.
  • Strong relationships across multiple levels within each institution.
  • Partners using Gecko well and achieving meaningful outcomes.
  • Regular, valuable face-to-face engagement.
  • Confident account reviews that lead to clear decisions and next steps.
  • Partners who trust your judgement and see you as someone who gets things moving.
Who You Are
  • You have experience owning a portfolio of accounts in a B2B SaaS business, with direct responsibility for retention, renewals and expansion.
  • You are comfortable managing complex or strategic accounts with multiple stakeholders and longer decision cycles.
  • You can build genuine relationships without losing commercial focus.
  • You can point to commercial outcomes you have personally influenced, whether through renewals, expansion, upsell or growth within existing accounts.
  • You are confident talking about pricing, value, revenue and next steps.
  • You know how to uncover an opportunity and progress it properly.
  • You can lead meetings, demos, executive reviews and negotiations.
  • You are organised, proactive and comfortable managing a portfolio, pipeline and regular travel.
  • You ask good questions, listen properly and do not wait to be told what to do.
  • You care about the wider team and will share what you know.

Experience in Higher Education or EdTech would be useful, but it is not essential. We care more about your ability to manage complex relationships, deliver commercial growth and understand what matters to our partners.
A Word on Travel

Travel is a regular part of this role. You'll visit university and college partners across the US where face-to-face time adds value, attend Higher Education conferences and events, and occasionally travel internationally, including to the UK.

We are a remote-first company, but this is not a remote-only relationship role. You need to enjoy getting out, meeting people and building trust face-to-face.
Working Pattern

This role works broadly in line with East Coast hours, so we're looking for someone based in the Eastern or Central time zones.

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