Strategic Account Manager

Protege

21d

About The Position

The Strategic Account Manager owns one of the most consequential commercial relationships at Protege: the Foundation labs and Frontier AI builders — organizations like OpenAI, Meta, Google, Apple, and Anthropic — that are defining what AI becomes. This is not a conventional sales role. A SAM's job is not to simply to close a series of unrelated deals. A SAM's job is to engineer high-value relationships and drive unimpeachable value, en route to driving significant GMV for Protege. You are the primary commercial owner of a small number of accounts that represent tens of millions of dollars of annual revenue potential — and the relationships that make Protege's broader business possible. You will work in close partnership with DataLab researchers, Product Success, and Partnerships to translate complex, multi-modal data needs into real solutions — often before our customers fully know what they need. You understand how foundation models are built, what researchers care about, and how to show up as a trusted partner rather than a vendor. You think in multi-year relationship arcs, not quarterly close dates.

Requirements

Proven track record managing and growing large, complex enterprise accounts — preferably with foundation labs, hyperscalers, or frontier AI organizations. You have closed multi-million dollar deals and know what it takes to sustain them.
Technical fluency sufficient to earn the trust of AI researchers and data scientists. You do not need to be an ML engineer, but you need to understand how models are trained, why data quality and provenance matter, and what de-identification means in practice.
Demonstrated ability to build relationships at multiple levels of a single organization simultaneously — from working-level researchers to VP and executive sponsors — and to advance deals through complex, multi-stakeholder procurement processes.
Strong deal architecture skills: you know how to structure agreements that create long-term value, not just close quarters. Experience with multi-year licensing, data access frameworks, or platform agreements is a genuine plus.
Operational discipline: you run clean pipeline, forecast accurately, and hand off to delivery teams in ways that set them up to succeed rather than scramble.
High emotional intelligence and judgment in relationship-sensitive situations. Foundation lab accounts require a long game — you know when to push and when to listen, and you never sacrifice trust for a transaction.
Comfort with ambiguity and fast-moving deal environments. Scope changes, new requirements, and compressed timelines are the norm. You stay organized and calm when others don't.

Nice To Haves

Experience with multi-year licensing, data access frameworks, or platform agreements is a genuine plus.

Responsibilities

Own a portfolio of 2–4 foundation lab or frontier AI accounts end-to-end — from relationship development and deal structuring through contracting, delivery handoff, and expansion.
Map the full account landscape: identify key researchers, data science leads, procurement stakeholders, and executive sponsors. Understand who influences decisions and who makes them.
Lead business-level discovery across departments and functions to identify projects and opportunities for Protege to broaden and deepen our penetration of each account
Coordinate the teams who interact technically with our customer research teams -You’ll work closely with our Solutions and DataLab teams to do so
Build and maintain a living account plan for each strategic account, including deal chronology, relationship health, 12-month GMV potential, open opportunities, and known risks.
Orchestrate internal resources — DataLab, Solutions, Partnerships, Legal, Customer Success Manger (CSM) — to deliver on commitments and protect relationship equity. You are the single point of commercial accountability.
Drive multi-year, multi-modal deal strategy: structure agreements that deepen account relationships over time rather than optimizing for individual transaction size.
Surface patterns across your accounts that inform Protege's data supply strategy, product roadmap, and go-to-market — you are on the frontier of what the world's best AI labs need next.
Maintain rigorous deal hygiene: accurate forecasting, clean Deal Desk submissions, documented handoffs to CSM and Product Success at close.
Represent Protege at field events, research dinners, and conferences where foundation lab relationships are built and deepened.