Leader, Account Manager

ROLE OVERVIEW

 Benchling is seeking an Account Management Leader with a background in Life Sciences and enterprise SaaS. This role is an exciting blend of team management and strategic leadership.

• You're a hands-on leader who enjoys working closely with your team and with customers to drive world-class renewal rates and expansion outcomes. You must be able to think and act strategically as well as get into the details with our seasoned Account Managers with experience in Life Sciences, who can help grow the organization, develop our processes, and drive execution.

• You will develop a deep understanding of Benchling's solutions and demonstrate your experience to guide our teams in building strategic renewal plans, proactively identifying and mitigating risk, and uncovering upsell and expansion opportunities across the portfolio.

• To be successful in this role, you are comfortable with R&D processes and scientific concepts, and able to speak confidently and build relationships with Scientific, IT, and procurement leaders at leading Pharma and Biotech organizations. You have experience leading customer-facing, commercially-oriented teams in a high growth enterprise SaaS environment. And you are a proven leader who can drive a renewals business from hiring and staffing, to managing and mentoring your team, to leading through change.

RESPONSIBILITIES

 Lead and Develop the AM Team

• Manage, mentor, and grow a team of AMs, including hiring as needed.

• Foster a collaborative, commercially-minded culture that drives measurable renewal and retention outcomes for the business.

• Ensure the team is highly enabled on Benchling's renewal playbook and can execute consistently across the portfolio.

• Coach AMs on building strategic renewal plans and delivering renewal-focused business reviews that reinforce value, address risk, and secure executive buy-in ahead of contract end dates.

Drive Key Metrics and Program Success

• Lead the team in achieving renewal, retention, and net revenue retention targets through strategic guidance and operational excellence. Particular focus on identifying contraction and churn risk early, and on surfacing expansion and upsell opportunities within the existing book.

• Use data to identify at-risk accounts, renewal timing, and expansion signals across the customer portfolio, and develop account-specific plans to address them alongside the sales organization.

• Provide the business with a predictable renewal forecast backed by leading indicators, ensuring risk and expansion signals are surfaced early enough to inform accurate, defensible projections rather than late-stage surprises.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (CS, Sales, finance, Legal, Deal Desk) to ensure alignment on renewal strategy, pricing, and deal structure.

Adapt and Optimize Processes

• Implement best practices for tracking renewal pipeline, standardizing risk and mitigation processes, and ensuring consistent, proactive coverage across the book.

• Partner with CX Operations to identify and eliminate sources of AM toil, leveraging AI tools, automation, and improved workflows so AMs can focus on high-value renewal and expansion conversations.

Customer Advocacy and Support

• Serves as a senior point of contact for complex or high-stakes renewal negotiations, supporting AMs in navigating contraction requests, pricing pushback, and competitive threats.

• Champions the voice of the customer within Benchling, providing feedback to internal teams to inform pricing, packaging, and product decisions that affect renewal outcomes.

• Guides AMs in navigating complex customer organizations to build multi-threaded relationships, identify economic buyers, and drive consensus around renewal and expansion decisions.

QUALIFICATIONS

 Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences, Business, or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience in Account Management, Renewals, Sales, or a related commercial function within SaaS.

• 3+ years in a management role.

• Strong understanding of Life Sciences R&D, process development, or related scientific domains.

• Proven ability to lead and develop a high-performing commercial team.

• Excellent negotiation and communication skills, able to build relationships across technical, commercial, and executive stakeholders.

• Self-motivated, adaptable, and thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

• Experience leveraging a modern CS/Sales tech stack, including CRM (e.g., Salesforce), customer success platforms (e.g., Gainsight), data/analytics tools (e.g., Mode, Sigma), and AI-assisted productivity tools (e.g., Claude).

• Ability to travel up to 20% based on team and customer needs.

Preferred:

• Experience working with or supporting the Benchling platform.

• Demonstrated ability to lead teams through complex renewal negotiations, contraction mitigation, and expansion/upsell motions.