Head of Key Accounts

JR United Kingdom; Welwyn Garden City; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the retail sector is seeking a Head of Key Accounts to develop and manage high-impact partnerships with national grocery chains. This role involves strategic planning, operational efficiency, and leading a team to enhance account management practices, ensuring long-term growth and value creation.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in account management or commercial partnerships.
• Proven experience managing strategic commercial relationships.
• Strong capability in contract negotiation.

Responsibilities

• Lead PayPoint’s retail account strategy and manage partnerships.
• Define and execute strategic direction for national grocery accounts.
• Drive operational efficiency and lead commercial negotiations.

Skills

Account Management

Commercial Negotiation

Relationship Building

Strategic Planning

Data Analysis

Job description

Social network you want to login/join with:

Head of Key Accounts, welwyn garden city

col-narrow-left

Client:

Location:

Job Category:

Other

-

EU work permit required:

Yes

col-narrow-right

Job Views:

2

Posted:

23.05.2025

Expiry Date:

07.07.2025

col-wide

Job Description:

MAIN PURPOSE OF ROLE

To lead PayPoint’s retail account strategy by developing and managing long-term, high-impact partnerships with large national grocery chains. The role is focused on maximising the strategic and commercial value of these partnerships across PayPoint’s full suite of products and services. Success depends on the ability to strategically prioritise relationships and build broad, mutually valuable partnerships that evolve with retail partners’ needs.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

• Define and execute the strategic direction for managing national grocery accounts, ensuring alignment with commercial goals and long-term value creation.
• Build and embed structured, disciplined account management practices that enable consistency, scalability, and high-quality delivery across a diverse and complex retail partner base.
• Drive operational efficiency in how retail partnerships are managed — streamlining workflows, clarifying ownership, and ensuring robust handoffs across teams and touchpoints.
• Foster a culture of accountability in relationship management, including rigorous planning, clear performance tracking, and regular structured reviews.
• Prioritise account focus based on strategic alignment, commercial opportunity, and potential for partnership expansion across PayPoint’s product suite.
• Lead commercial negotiations and manage contracts with retail partners, ensuring that agreements are commercially sound, well-governed, and enable long-term growth.
• Maintain and oversee detailed account plans for key partners, covering commercial targets, service performance, risk, and relationship development strategies.
• Work cross-functionally with Product, Operations, Customer Service, and Legal to ensure cohesive delivery, issue resolution, and continuous service improvement across all accounts.
• Develop strong relationships with key stakeholders within retail organisations to support deep, integrated partnerships.
• Identify and progress upsell and cross-sell opportunities that broaden PayPoint’s value to each partner and deepen integration across services.
• Lead and develop a high-performing retail account team, ensuring team members are equipped with the structure, tools, and support needed to manage accounts effectively and professionally.
• Monitor and uphold service quality standards, ensuring proactive and transparent communication with retailers during change, incidents, or escalations.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS

• Proven experience managing strategic commercial relationships within complex, multi-product environments.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in account management, commercial partnerships, or client-facing roles.
• Demonstrated success in improving account management operations through structured processes and disciplined execution.
• Strong capability in contract negotiation and lifecycle management across multiple, high-value accounts.
• Experience managing multi-site retail accounts at scale.
• Experience within grocery or convenience retail is a strong advantage, though not essential.
• Proven experience in leading and developing commercially focused account teams.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Commercially strategic, with a strong understanding of how to build long-term value through partnerships.
• Process-oriented and disciplined in how relationships and account performance are managed.
• Excellent planning and prioritisation skills, able to balance scale with depth of relationship.
• Experienced in contract negotiation and commercial delivery.
• Strong communicator and relationship-builder, with the ability to influence across internal and external stakeholders.
• Data-literate and results-driven, with a focus on using insight to improve outcomes.
• Collaborative leader who promotes structure, clarity, and alignment across teams.
• Operates with integrity, professionalism, and a customer-centric mindset.