Senior Account & Relationship Executive

Job description

About Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions is a leading provider of enterprise legal management solutions that help corporate legal departments manage their legal operations, matters, outside counsel, legal spend, and performance. Our solutions, including Passport, TyMetrix 360°, and LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer, support some of the world's largest and most complex corporate legal departments. We combine enterprise technology, deep legal domain expertise, data, analytics, and AI to help customers improve operational efficiency, control legal spend, make better decisions, and demonstrate the value of the legal function. Our customers include leading organizations across financial services, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and other industries. Position Summary The Account Manager is responsible for protecting and growing the commercial relationship across an assigned portfolio of WK ELM customers. The Account Manager owns renewal and expansion strategy, opportunity execution, pricing, contracting, revenue forecasting, and the commercial account plan. The Account Manager serves as a strategic commercial advisor to General Counsel, Legal Operations, Finance, Procurement, and Technology stakeholders. The role develops a strong understanding of the customer's business priorities, buying process, competitive environment, and growth potential, then translates customer needs and demonstrated value into clear renewal and expansion strategies. This is a senior individual-contributor role requiring executive presence, sound commercial judgment, disciplined account leadership, and the ability to navigate complex enterprise relationships. The Account Manager is expected to anticipate risk and opportunity, mobilize cross-functional resources, and influence outcomes without direct authority. Customer Success leads the customer success plan, adoption, customer health, value realization, and risk recovery. Account Management leads renewal execution, expansion, pricing, contracting, and the commercial forecast. The two roles partner on account planning, executive alignment, retention, and sustainable growth. The Account Manager partners closely with Customer Success, Technical Account Management, Support, Product, Professional Services, Solution Consulting, Finance, and Legal to present one coordinated WK ELM strategy to the customer and deliver against commercial commitments. Key Responsibilities Commercial Account Strategy & Ownership • Develop and execute commercial account plans for assigned customers • Establish clear renewal, retention, and expansion objectives for each account • Understand the customer's business priorities, commercial environment, buying process, and competitive landscape • Maintain stakeholder maps that identify executive sponsors, champions, decision makers, economic buyers, Procurement, Legal, Finance, and Technology stakeholders • Identify risks to revenue retention or growth and lead the appropriate commercial response • Maintain accurate and current account, opportunity, contact, and activity information in the CRM Renewal & Retention Management • Own the renewal timeline, commercial strategy, forecast, negotiation, contract execution, and close • Begin renewal planning in accordance with the established renewal cadence and maintain a clear mutual action plan through signature • Use customer health, adoption, value realization, and risk insights from Customer Success to shape the renewal strategy • Develop pricing, term, packaging, and multiyear strategies that support customer value and WK ELM objectives • Lead engagement with Procurement, Legal, Finance, and other commercial stakeholders. • Coordinate internal approvals for pricing, concessions, contract terms, and deal structure. • Identify and address competitive threats, commercial objections, and barriers to renewal. • Share accountability with Customer Success for retention while remaining directly accountable for commercial renewal execution and forecast accuracy. Growth & Expansion • Own expansion pipeline, opportunity strategy, commercial execution, and close within assigned accounts • Qualify customer needs and expansion signals identified through Customer Success, account engagement, product usage, or market insight • Position WK ELM capabilities across Passport, TyMetrix 360°, LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer, Legal Collaborator, AI, and related offerings • Lead discovery and partner with Solution Consulting, Product, Professional Services, and Customer Success to develop compelling business cases and value propositions • Expand relationships across Legal, Legal Operations, the executive team, Finance, Procurement, and Technology • Maintain accurate expansion pipeline, close plans, next steps, and revenue forecasts • Drive cross-sell, upsell, platform adoption, additional users, modules, data, AI capabilities, and services where aligned to customer priorities Executive & Commercial Relationship Management • Build credible relationships with General Counsel, Legal Operations leaders, executive sponsors, economic buyers, Procurement, and other senior stakeholders • Lead strategic commercial discussions and establish alignment on the long-term WK ELM relationship • Partner with Customer Success on Quarterly Business Reviews and Executive Business Reviews, leading commercial strategy, renewal, and growth discussions • Develop executive sponsorship and mobilize WK ELM leadership when executive engagement will advance retention or growth • Understand customer organizational dynamics, decision criteria, budget cycles, and approval processes • Represent the commercial voice of the customer internally, including buying barriers, competitive context, and investment priorities Forecasting & Operational Discipline • Maintain complete, accurate, and timely renewal and expansion forecasts • Apply the required sales methodology, qualification standards, opportunity stages, and inspection cadence • Create and maintain close plans and mutual action plans with clear owners, milestones, decision criteria, and dates • Communicate material changes to timing, value, probability, risk, or customer commitment promptly • Manage account pipeline coverage and progression with the same discipline applied to new logo opportunities • Deliver clear account updates, risk assessments, and recommended actions in forecast and executive reviews Cross-Functional Leadership • Partner with Customer Success to align the commercial account plan with the customer success plan and value realization priorities • Use Customer Success insights on adoption, health, stakeholder engagement, and outcomes to inform renewal and expansion decisions • Partner with Technical Account Management, Support, and Professional Services on service or delivery matters that create commercial risk or opportunity • Partner with Product and Marketing on customer needs, competitive intelligence, references, and growth opportunities • Partner with Solution Consulting to translate customer priorities into differentiated solution and value narratives • Coordinate with Finance, Legal, and leadership to secure approvals and execute agreements • Establish clear ownership across internal teams and maintain one coordinated message to the customer • Influence outcomes across teams without direct authority Required Experience • 7+ years of progressive experience in Account Management, Sales, Customer Success, Enterprise Software, or a related customer-facing discipline • 5+ years managing strategic, complex, or enterprise customer relationships • Demonstrated experience owning renewals, expansion opportunities, pricing, and commercial negotiations • Proven ability to retain and grow complex enterprise customer relationships • Experience developing and executing strategic account plans • Experience managing complex procurement, legal, and contracting cycles • Experience building business cases and value propositions for enterprise software investments • Experience forecasting recurring revenue and managing renewal and expansion pipeline • Demonstrated ability to engage credibly with senior executives, economic buyers, and functional leaders • Experience identifying and addressing competitive threats and account risk • Strong negotiation, executive communication, presentation, and relationship-management skills • Strong operational discipline and experience using CRM systems and structured sales methodologies • Experience leading cross-functional teams in a SaaS or enterprise software environment • Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and internal teams without direct authority Preferred Experience • Experience in Legal Operations, Legal Technology, Enterprise Legal Management, eBilling, Matter Management, CLM, ERP, Procurement, or Financial Systems • Experience supporting Fortune 1000 or similarly complex global enterprise customers • Familiarity with corporate legal department operations, including legal spend management, outside counsel management, matter management, and legal operations • Experience selling or expanding enterprise SaaS platforms, data, analytics, AI, or professional services • Experience managing competitive displacement, account defense, or complex renewal situations • Experience working in highly regulated industries or complex global stakeholder environments • Experience partnering with Customer Success teams on adoption, value realization, customer health, and retention • Experience working within a highly matrixed global organization What Success Looks Like Successful Account Managers at WK ELM operate as senior strategic commercial leaders. They are commercially accountable, customer-focused, data-informed, disciplined, and highly collaborative. They understand the customer's business and decision process, own the commercial plan, maintain an accurate view of revenue and risk, and lead renewal and expansion opportunities from strategy through signature. They engage throughout the customer lifecycle, use value and health insights from Customer Success to inform commercial decisions, and coordinate internal resources without blurring ownership. They create a consistent customer experience while ensuring that every renewal, expansion opportunity, commercial risk, and forecast commitment has a clear strategy and next action. Success is measured through renewal execution, contribution to Gross Revenue Retention and Net Revenue Retention, expansion ARR, forecast accuracy, pipeline creation and progression, multiyear renewals, competitive retention, and sustainable account growth. Our Interview Practices To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process. Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process. Compensation: $89,600.00 - $157,000.00 USD This role is eligible for Commission. Compensation range listed is based on primary location of the position. Actual base salary offer is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience and actual hiring location. Your recruiter can share more information about the specific offer for the job location during the hiring process. Additional Information : Wolters Kluwer offers a wide variety of competitive benefits and programs to help meet your needs and balance your work and personal life, including but not limited to: Medical, Dental, & Vision Plans, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Commuter Benefits, Tuition Assistance Plan, Vacation and Sick Time, and Paid Parental Leave. Full details of our benefits are available upon request.