Contract Sales Account Executive

Society for College and University Planning; Auburn (ME); Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Thos. Moser Contract is seeking a Contract Sales Account Executive to establish and grow regional field coverage outside the Northeast.

The role is based in Maine with travel, building relationships with A&D firms, institutions, and dealers to drive design-led contract sales for university and library projects. You will manage a long lead time capital cycle, present CEUs, and coordinate with in-house design and engineering teams to deliver customized joinery and fabrication for institutional

Qualifications

• Specification Selling: Five or more years selling custom or made-to-order product into institutional projects.
• Regional Relationships: An established network among A&D firms and institutional clients in your territory.
• Design Fluency: Credibility with design principals on materials, detailing, and fabrication.
• Thought Leadership: Carry Thos. Moser’s point of view into the institutional design conversation through CEUs, speaking, and panels.
• Complex Project Cycles: 12–36 month capital projects, FF&E budgets, and buyers involved.
• Self-Directed Ownership: Build territory and manage long sales cycles.

Responsibilities

• Own the annual revenue target and pipeline development goals for your region.
• Generate and close new business with A&D firms and institutions, partnering with commercial dealers when needed.
• Build and deepen relationships with architects and interior designers driving institutional work.
• Grow institutional base and open new ground in adjacent segments like premium hospitality.
• Consultative selling—be the design and fabrication expert for customized projects.
• Run a cadence of designer presentations, CEUs, campus visits, and showroom tours.
• Prospect new firms, reactivate dormant relationships, and expand in existing accounts.
• Develop new business through associations like SCUP, TABS, ASID, NAIS, AUID, AIA.
• Drive specification activity; get written in as basis of design early and defend spec through value engineering.
• Shepherd complex custom projects from inquiry through install with in-house team support.
• Maintain a disciplined pipeline, forecast accurately, and build strategic account plans.

Skills

Specification selling

Regional relationships

Design fluency

Thought leadership

Complex project cycles

Self-directed ownership

Job description

Posted: 9/10/26
Deadline: 11/30/26
Salary: Compensation may vary across region and experience but will consist of a base plus commission.

About This Organization

Thos. Moser Contract

Job Duties

The Opportunity
Thos. Moser has been making furniture by hand in Maine since 1972, and our contract work sits in some of the most architecturally significant rooms in the country, including the University of Virginia’s Shannon Library, SMU’s Fondren Library , the University of Georgia, the Hotchkiss School, the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and the New York Public Library. We are looking for someone to establish and deepen Thos. Moser’s field presence outside the Northeast.

We rarely sell from a catalog. Much of what we build is designed in collaboration with specifiers and users. Our customers describe the result in terms that have little to do with furniture: identity, permanence, work that belongs to the building. At NC State and UVA the furniture is part of the campus tour. That kind of relationship is central to the role. It calls for someone who can work credibly with a design principal, understand the intent of a space, and carry that intent through a twelve- to thirty-six-month capital cycle.

We’re looking for that capability as much as a sales record. Our strongest candidate may be an interior designer who has specified this kind of work on institutional projects and wants to move to the other side of the table, or a seller who came up in custom fabrication and thinks like a designer. Either way, the work is the same: establish Thos. Moser as a design partner early in the specification process. You would be responsible for continuing Thos. Moser’s voice in the institutional design conversation, through CEUs, speaking, and the design collaborations that produce our next products.

The segments are higher-ed libraries and reading rooms, independent school dining halls and chapels, student centers, and donor-funded spaces, with room to develop opportunities in adjacent segments like premium hospitality. Good judgement about project fit is especially important; we’re at our best as a collaborative design partner working from our own capabilities, and at our worst as an outsourced shop building someone else’s finished drawing; knowing that difference early protects both margin and reputation.

What success looks like. Year one is primarily about establishing coverage and building a qualified pipeline. Success will include getting in front of the A&D firms in your region that drive this work, running a consistent cadence of presentations and CEUs, and building a pipeline of qualified opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Own the annual revenue target and pipeline development goals for your region.
• Generate and close new business with A&D firms and institutions, partnering with commercial dealers when the project calls for it
• Build and deepen relationships with the architects and interior designers driving institutional work — higher-ed libraries, independent school dining halls and chapels, student centers, donor-funded spaces, executive offices
• Grow that institutional base and open new ground in adjacent segments like premium hospitality, where our work fits naturally but our track record is still young
• Consultative selling – become the trusted resource designers turn to when a project calls for custom work made by skilled makers and developed for the needs of a particular project. Be the expert in design, joinery, materials, and custom fabrication.
• Run a consistent cadence of designer presentations, lunch-and-learns, CEUs, institutional/campus visits, and showroom/workshop tours
• Prospect new firms, reactivate dormant relationships, and expand within existing accounts.
• Develop new business through active involvement with associations like SCUP, TABS, ASID, NAIS, AUID, AIA
• Drive specification activity. Get written in as basis of design early and defend the spec through value engineering
• Shepherd complex custom projects from inquiry through install, supported by our in-house design and project engineering team in Auburn
• Maintain a disciplined pipeline, forecast accurately, and build strategic account plans for your priority firms
• Negotiate profitably, balancing margin against long-term relationships and honoring Thos. Moser’s promise of quality and longevity
• Spend time in Maine — the workshop, the materials, and the people behind the work are your strongest selling tool
• Help shape how Thos. Moser builds contract sales beyond the Northeast, and the systems that support it

Required Qualifications

Requirements:

• Specification Selling: Five or more years selling custom or made-to-order product into institutional projects — contract furnishings, architectural products, millwork, or allied categories. You’ve priced work from a drawing that didn’t exist yet and carried it through submittals, samples, and approvals. If you haven’t sold this work, you have experience specifying it from the design side.
• Regional Relationships: An established network among A&D firms and institutional clients in your territory. You know which firms are doing campus, library, and independent school work, and they know you.
• Design Fluency: Credibility with design principals on materials, detailing, and fabrication. You can explain why a decision costs what it costs and hold the specification when a project enters value engineering.
• Thought Leadership: Carry Thos. Moser’s point of view into the institutional design conversation through CEUs, speaking, and panels, and help shape the design collaborations that produce our next contract products
• Complex Project Cycles: Comfort with twelve- to thirty-six-month capital projects, construction schedules, FF&E budgets, and the range of buyers involved — architects and interior designers first, then institutional decision-makers, facilities, and dealer partners.
• Self-Directed Ownership: A record of building territory rather than working an inherited book. You set your own week, and you’re disciplined about the long cycle.

Location & Travel:

• We are hiring a Contract Sales Account Executive to establish and grow one region, with current opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Texas. We already have installed work and relationships in these markets; what we have not had is dedicated field coverage. The experience and network of the right person will help determine the territory.
• You’d be based in your territory, working remotely, with regular travel across your region and periodic trips to our workshop in Auburn, Maine. Our craftspeople, designers, and project engineers are all there, and the strongest sellers on our team bring architects and clients to see the shop – it’s the most persuasive sales tool we have. We also have showrooms in Freeport, Maine, Washington DC, Boston, and San Francisco, each of which works well for client meetings and presentations closer to home.