Regional Director, Strategic Accounts (Higher Ed SaaS)

Cengage Group; Billings (MT); Remote; USD 117,000 - 152,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage Group is seeking a Regional Director, Strategic Accounts in San Diego, CA, a senior sales leader responsible for driving approximately $90M in annual revenue. You will guide account strategy, forecast accuracy, and cross‑functional collaboration to accelerate growth across higher education institutions.

Lead a team of Strategic Account Directors, shaping high‑impact plans and managing complex deals with executive stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, education, or related field.
• 7–10+ years of progressive sales experience in B2B, higher‑education, publishing, SaaS, or enterprise‑level account management roles.
• 3–5+ years of direct sales leadership experience, managing quota‑carrying Account Executives/Strategic Account Directors with full revenue accountability.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multi‑stakeholder institutional sales cycles, including executive‑level customer engagement.

Responsibilities

• Own regional revenue performance and overall account strategy, ensuring growth, retention, and execution of strategic priorities across the assigned territory.
• Translate the VP, Strategic Accounts’ vision into regional operating plans with clear goals, expectations, and processes for consistent execution.
• Drive forecast accuracy and pipeline rigor through regular inspection, strong operating cadence, and data-validated forecasting for operational viability.
• Lead development and execution of strategic account plans that leverage analytics, market trends and program performance to prioritize high‑value department, cohort, and institution‑level opportunities.
• Guide complex deal strategy; align cross‑functional resources and assist in high‑value negotiations to accelerate growth.
• Coach Strategic Account Directors on negotiation excellence and commercial rigor—including pricing strategy, discount/approval guardrails, executive‑level contracting, and close‑plan quality ensuring consistent, high‑standard execution across the region.
• Advance Inclusive Access (IA), Equitable Access (EA), and Cengage Unlimited (CU) execution and data fluency (enrollment, usage, pricing, adoption, renewals) and require these insights in planning, risk mitigation, and forecasting.
• Cultivate channel and bookstore partnerships for IA, EA and CU accounts, ensuring alignment on pricing, process, implementation, and program performance.
• Build strong partnerships with Solutions Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success leadership to ensure cohesive pre‑sale strategy and post‑sale execution.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Executive communication

Salesforce proficiency

Commercial acumen

Talent development

Higher education knowledge

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, education, or related field

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

Cengage Group is seeking a Regional Director, Strategic Accounts in San Diego, CA, a senior sales leader responsible for driving approximately $90M in annual revenue. You will guide account strategy, forecast accuracy, and cross‑functional collaboration to accelerate growth across higher education institutions.

Lead a team of Strategic Account Directors, shaping high‑impact plans and managing complex deals with executive stakeholders.