Strategic Account Manager
About The Position
Polysciences develops and manufactures custom and specialty chemicals for medical device, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, and life science companies. Our monomers, polymers, microspheres, and other specialized chemical components are incorporated into customers’ products and technologies, including medical devices, diagnostic applications, and other regulated life science products. We are building a dedicated Strategic Account Management function and seeking a scientist-commercial leader to manage and grow a portfolio of important Specialty Products customers. The Strategic Account Manager will be the primary commercial owner of assigned customer relationships. You will apply advanced chemistry knowledge to understand customer applications, anticipate risks, navigate technical and commercial challenges, and identify opportunities for growth. This is a hands-on role in a small-company environment. You will work directly with customers and bring together the appropriate people from Quality, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and other functions to address problems and move opportunities forward.
Requirements
- Master’s degree in Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related scientific discipline.
- Customer-facing commercial experience involving technically complex specialty chemicals, custom chemical products, or product development.
- Experience in strategic account management, key account management, technical sales, or a comparable customer-facing scientific role.
- Ability to communicate credibly with scientists, engineers, quality and procurement professionals, and business leaders.
- Experience navigating complex technical, quality, operational, supply, or commercial issues involving important customer relationships.
- Commercial experience with pricing, negotiations, contracts, forecasting, revenue growth, or account profitability.
- Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive decisions and follow-through without direct authority.
- Experience using Salesforce or another CRM.
- Ability to work full-time on-site in Warrington, Pennsylvania when not traveling.
- Ability to travel at least 30%, predominantly US based travel.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with monomers, polymers, microspheres, particles, biomaterials, functional polymers, or related specialty chemistries used in medical devices, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, or life science applications.
- Experience with custom chemical development, scale-up, and technology transfer processes.
- Experience in a small or midsized technical manufacturing company where employees must be resourceful, hands-on, and personally accountable for results.
Responsibilities
- Own and grow a portfolio of strategic Specialty Products accounts, with responsibility for customer retention, revenue growth, profitability, and relationship health.
- Develop a deep understanding of each customer’s business, applications, technical requirements, product pipeline, priorities, and risks.
- Build relationships with customer stakeholders across scientific, engineering, quality, regulatory, procurement, operations, and leadership functions.
- Apply chemistry expertise to participate meaningfully in technical discussions, clarify problems, challenge assumptions, and help customers and internal teams evaluate potential solutions.
- Anticipate technical, quality, supply, manufacturing, and communication issues before they affect customer confidence.
- Bring the right internal experts together, establish clear next steps, and drive accountability and follow-through.
- Develop proactive, fact-based communication strategies, particularly when technical problems, delays, quality concerns, or supply issues arise.
- Lead pricing discussions, quotations, price increases, forecasts, development fees, minimum-order requirements, supply commitments, and other commercial negotiations.
- Identify opportunities to expand accounts into additional custom chemical products, applications, development programs, or manufacturing services.
- Partner with Business Development on significant new opportunities within existing accounts.
- Work with the assigned Project Manager, who will maintain detailed project plans and milestones, while you own the customer relationship, commercial alignment, communication, and escalation.
- Maintain accurate account plans, opportunities, forecasts, customer activity, commitments, and risks in Salesforce.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Entry Level
