Sales Account Manager

Yazaki International Corporation • Canton, MI

11d • Hybrid

About The Position

Yazaki is seeking an Account Manager to join its Ford team in Canton, Michigan. The role leads commercial activities for Ford North America business, including pricing negotiations, agreement interpretation, recoveries, commercial statement-of-work elements, and commercial metric tracking. The Account Manager serves as the lead interface with customer purchasing, product development, and program teams for assigned projects, participates in program teams, and works closely with cross-functional groups to ensure commercial deliverables are completed on time.

The position focuses on customer satisfaction, accounts receivable support, productivity and profitability, program support, customer quotations, and advanced business development. It includes maintaining customer relationships, tracking commercial and financial items, supporting accurate quotations and purchase orders, negotiating commercial issues, identifying risks and opportunities, and contributing to regional and global new-business activity. The role is based in Canton, MI, with a hybrid work schedule and travel as required for customer and internal needs.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 3–5 years of Sales Account Management experience.
• Ability to travel for customer visits, including occasional domestic and international travel as required.
• Ability to be on call as required by customer or internal deliverables.
• Excellent financial, analytical, negotiation, communication, and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Define customer needs, wants, and expectations and communicate customer requirements throughout the organization.
• Build and maintain relationships with key customer contacts; understand and report changes to customer processes, structure, and decision makers.
• Provide data for sales metric tracking and compile it for presentations as needed.
• Ensure commercial requirements are in place before launch and stay informed about Yazaki products and trends and the competitive environment.
• Support Finance with customer purchasing-related collection issues and follow up with customers to resolve open items and support accounts receivable targets.
• Ensure pricing is accurate and updated in internal systems and communicate insights to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Notify the Sales Manager or Finance to initiate accruals and support profit-enhancement objectives and sales strategies.
• Assess impacts on current program profitability, determine whether corrective actions are needed, and develop mitigation plans for potential risks and obstacles.
• Serve as the central contact for commercial and strategic customer issues, including buyer, program team, and finance matters.
• Schedule regular open-issues meetings with buyers and monitor outcomes of customer program, finance, and change-control meetings.
• Maintain, track, and report Permanent Resolutions in BEAMS and support program financial tracking with the Program Manager.
• Receive customer purchase orders and verify their accuracy through contract review.
• Maintain visibility with customer assembly plants during launch and support customer visits to manufacturing affiliates as required.
• Support Monthly Program Reviews, GPMS Functional Reviews, Financial Reviews, and other program-related meetings.
• Lead timely, accurate customer quotation and RFQ submissions; ensure quote accuracy and receipt of correct purchase orders for existing business.
• Coordinate with relevant departments and manufacturing to obtain pricing, packaging, and tooling information.
• Lead negotiations on commercial issues, including design changes, target-related issues, sequencing, Engineering Resource Payment, and commercial statement-of-work items, through timely closure.
• Maintain accurate commercial data in required tracking tools.
• Submit and negotiate customer-responsible extraordinary expense claims, Engineering Resource Payment, and tooling costs, and receive purchase orders for submission to Finance.
• Support technical and commercial reviews of quote packages and kick-off meetings, and prepare quote responses.
• Analyze market conditions, develop business cases, and evaluate risks and opportunities using data-driven methods.
• Identify new business opportunities within electrical distribution systems or vehicle information products in coordination with the Sales Manager.
• Lead or support regional and global new-business activities, including presenting business cases and timing to US OEM BU management for strategic approval.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits package, including incentive compensation.
• 401(k) match.
• Tuition assistance.
• Generous holiday schedule.
• Hybrid work schedule.
• Collaborative learning environment and opportunities to develop professionally and build a professional network.
• Diverse team of experts and supportive leadership and team members.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level