Strategic Account Manager, North America

About the Company 

Enterprise AI is a category of software that harnesses advanced artificial intelligence techniques to drive digital transformation. Building an AI model that acts like a human requires large volumes of training data – data that must be properly categorized and annotated for a specific use case. With high-quality, human-powered data annotation, companies can build and improve AI implementations. The result is an enhanced customer experience, such as more accurate and relevant product recommendations, search engine results, computer vision, speech recognition, chatbots, and more. 

Founded in 2008, Sama is a recognized leader in data annotation, having the longest, proven track record of guiding enterprises to build and scale some of the most impactful AI applications from transportation and navigation, to consumer and media, to retail and e-commerce, and robotics and manufacturing. Sama is the only company with its own experienced data annotation workforce supported by a custom collaborative workspace platform – a platform that allows us to work in real-time with our customers to deliver the most accurate, scalable, and advanced training data pipeline that fuels AI engines. Today’s most innovative enterprises like Walmart, GM, Ford, Google, NASA, iRobot, and many others trust us to help them deliver AI models that actually work.

Driven by a mission to expand opportunities for underserved individuals through the digital economy, Sama is a certified B-Corp (a designation reserved for companies that balance purpose and profit).  MIT has validated our business model by conducting a Randomized Control Trial over the course of 3 years. The study concluded that Sama was responsible for lifting 60,000 people out of poverty, increasing wages by 4x, and women earned 60% more than those who weren’t trained or employed by Sama.

About the Job

As the Strategic Account Manager - North America, you will own a portfolio of strategic, dynamic, and complex customers ranging from multiple sizable accounts to smaller but strategically significant and directly related, ensuring their successful outcomes. You are a responsible tech-oriented and operationally-minded contributor driving you to excel by working across teams to solve problems and develop a deep understanding of both the managed services and solutions that Sama provides its customers. You have a proven track record of formulating long-term account strategies and driving execution, both as an individual contributor and across teams.

As an individual contributor, you will provide executive-level program oversight by partnering closely with a large operations team in East Africa, and lead all strategic discussions with the client. You will work effectively cross-functionally and engage and influence executive stakeholders from Sales, Operations, Product, and other teams. You will focus on engaging, growing, and retaining these large and strategic customers, and related accounts as required, through the entire customer journey, by taking a consultative approach to drive the adoption of Sama services and solutions and growth. 

The ideal candidate would have a strong interest in both business and technology and must be comfortable in a very customer-facing position with up to 25% domestic and international travel.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Actively manage high-value accounts and be responsible for associated client retention, account growth, and value-based metrics.
• Own the scoping, contracting, and negotiation of commercial terms for renewals and new SOWs, at times paired with a member of the Sales team
• Drive the strategy, plan, and execution of the account with the goal of retention through operational excellence, organic expansion of current solutions, and create net new growth as part of your core responsibilities and KPIs
• Be the main point of contact for high-level client contacts and the main point of contact for escalations 
• Improve customer engagement and showcase Sama’s platform and services to key client personnel responsible for starting new projects
• Actively consult with and coach internal teams in client engagement strategy, operational maturity, and organizational development, working with an array of internal functional teams. 
• Provide consultative guidance to customers, product managers, applied research scientists, etc around best practices on how to leverage the client’s technology as well as Sama’s suite of services - this may include anything from business case development to solution approaches
• Deeply understand the customer’s organizational structure, goals, culture, blockers, and priorities. Drive Sama’s account strategy to align with the customer’s needs to achieve mutual success.
• Drive ongoing engagement with customers including active participation in weekly check-ins, driving value-driven conversations and facilitating/presenting in QBRs, etc.
• Cultivate and nurture relationships and generate new leads within current accounts to expand Sama’s scope of engagement into new business. 
• Work with the customer to identify/resolve all issues that could impact customer satisfaction.
• Drive effective collaboration with internal sales, product, engineering, global delivery, solutions engineering, and other teams to resolve cross-functional issues and seize opportunities 
• Identify Sama process deficiencies and recommend how they can be improved in a positive, constructive fashion.
• Proactively network with key contacts outside own area of expertise
• Coordinate Sama resources as they pertain to the support of assigned customers
• When needed, analyze project and performance data to support Global Delivery teams
• Actively coach Sama team members to master the necessary skills to become the best-in-class

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience
• 10+ years of customer-facing experience in account management or customer success roles, at least 5+ for Fortune 200 accounts
• Experience leading change management and process improvement initiatives
• Thrives in a highly dynamic environment, comfortable prioritizing competing priorities
• You see obstacles as opportunities and are highly motivated by difficult challenges
• Passionate about providing a world-class customer experience
• Deep commitment to building an ethical, world-class company with technology at its core - supporting Sama’s mission
• Proven experience leading critical and sometimes complex customer engagements with excellent negotiation, influencing, collaboration, communication, and presentation skills required
• Experience working in consulting or professional services as the core offering
• Experience working in tech environments and familiar with technical concepts
• Outstanding organizational & time management skills, able to effectively prioritize and problem-solve in a fast-paced, global environment
• Ability to adapt information & style to different cultures, explain difficult concepts concisely, establish consensus, and ultimately gain agreement
• Available outside of standard business hours to provide additional support to our team in East Africa as needed
• Highly curious and willing to stretch, learn, develop, and (at times) be uncomfortable and manage through ambiguity
• Experienced at setting KPI’s and OKR’s that drive desired customer and organizational outcomes
• Self-driven and self-motivated leader - likes to have fun, and can motivate others with their positive attitude

Preferred Qualifications:

• Majority of customer-facing experience in post-sales roles and within the Technology vertical
• 5+ years project or operations management experience
• Significant experience in the managed services industry and with managing workers with limited traditional work experience
• Experience in that AI/ML annotation industry, specifically focused on computer vision
• Experience working with internationally distributed teams
• You embody our Sama values, exemplifying Grit, Integrity, Get things done (GTD), and Humanity
• Genuine interest in learning about new forward-thinking technologies - including machine learning & artificial intelligence and how we deliver value to clients