Regional Sales Lead, North America

Frontiers; Virginia; On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing days

Volunteer days

Employee Assistance Programme

Job summary

Frontiers is seeking a Regional Sales Lead to drive the growth of Institutional Partnerships across North America. You will lead a high-performing team of Account Specialists and build strategic partnerships with leading universities, libraries, consortia, and research organizations.

This highly autonomous role combines strategic sales, team leadership, relationship building, and industry expertise to expand Frontiers' presence across the region. Expect 25–50% travel to customers and events.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in sales or business development, ideally in scholarly publishing or higher education.
• Proven record of meeting/exceeding targets and developing new business opportunities.
• Experience leading and coaching high-performing sales teams.
• Strong relationships with senior stakeholders in academia and research.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of Account Specialists with clear targets.
• Shape and execute the North America regional sales strategy for institutions.
• Lead complex institutional and consortia negotiations to drive revenue growth.
• Build strategic partnerships with universities, libraries, consortia, and research organizations.
• Own regional revenue targets, forecasting, pipeline management, and reporting.
• Analyze market and competitive intelligence to inform strategy and product development.
• Collaborate across Sales, Marketing, Public Affairs, Product, and Publishing teams.
• Represent Frontiers at conferences, workshops, and academic events.
• Identify opportunities to improve account strategies and cross-functional processes.

Skills

Sales leadership

Strategic accounts

B2B negotiations

Stakeholder management

CRM (Salesforce)

Market insight

Team leadership

Tools

Salesforce CRM

Job description

About Frontiers

At Frontiers, our purpose is simple yet ambitious: to make science open. We believe open science empowers the global scientific community to accelerate discovery and develop the solutions needed for healthy lives on a healthy planet.

We are one of the world's largest and most influential open-access research publishers. Every article we publish is peer-reviewed and quality-certified, ensuring research is accessible to everyone, everywhere. To date, Frontiers research has been viewed over 4 billion times, demonstrating the real-world impact of science without barriers.

Joining Frontiers means being part of a global, mission-driven organization at the intersection of science, technology, and innovation — working alongside passionate colleagues who care deeply about advancing knowledge for the benefit of society. To learn more about our impact and culture, please watch this video.

About The Role

We're looking for a Regional Sales Lead to drive the growth of Frontiers' Institutional Partnerships across the region. You'll lead and develop a high-performing team of Account Specialists while building strategic partnerships with leading universities, academic libraries, consortia, and research organizations.

In this role, you'll shape and execute the regional sales strategy, lead complex institutional negotiations, drive new business and revenue growth, and bring valuable market insights into our wider global strategy. You'll work closely with teams across Sales, Account Development, Marketing, Public Affairs, Product, Customer Experience, and Publishing to strengthen partnerships and deliver long-term value for our customers.

This is a highly autonomous leadership role where you'll combine strategic sales, team leadership, relationship building, and industry expertise to expand Frontiers' presence across North America.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the team: Recruit, coach, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Account Specialists, setting clear targets and supporting their professional growth
• Shape regional strategy: Lead the execution and refinement of Frontiers' North America sales strategy, with a focus on strategic accounts, territory management, and sustainable revenue growth
• Drive strategic sales: Identify and develop new business opportunities and personally lead complex, high-value institutional and consortia negotiations
• Build strategic partnerships: Develop strong relationships with universities, academic libraries, consortia, research organizations, funders, and senior academic stakeholders
• Own performance: Drive regional revenue targets, sales forecasting, pipeline management, reporting, and progress against organizational goals
• Use market insight: Analyse customer, market, and competitive intelligence to identify opportunities and inform sales, product, and strategic development
• Collaborate across Frontiers: Partner with Account Development, Marketing, Public Affairs, Product, Customer Experience, and Publishing teams to maximize customer value, retention, and long-term growth
• Represent Frontiers: Act as a senior representative at conferences, workshops, industry events, and within the academic and library communities
• Drive continuous improvement: Identify opportunities to improve account strategies, sales processes, and ways of working across the region

Requirements

• 5+ years of relevant experience in sales, business development, or a similar commercial environment, ideally within scholarly publishing, higher education, edtech, or research services
• A proven track record of achieving or exceeding sales targets and developing significant new business opportunities
• Experience leading, coaching, and developing high-performing sales teams
• Strong experience building relationships with senior stakeholders, including academic leaders, universities, libraries, consortia, and research organizations
• Demonstrated experience leading complex B2B negotiations and institutional agreements
• Strong understanding of the scholarly publishing and Open Access landscape and its key stakeholders
• Experience with strategic account planning, consultative selling, and developing long-term institutional partnerships. LAMP experience is an advantage
• Strong commercial, analytical, and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to turn market insights and data into action
• Experience using CRM platforms such as Salesforce for account and pipeline management
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills
• A proactive, collaborative, and solution-oriented approach, with the autonomy to make decisions and drive initiatives forward
• Willingness to travel approximately 25-50%, including customer visits, conferences, and company events across North America and internationally
• Fluent English, both written and verbal

Benefits

• We prioritise office presence and emphasise in-person collaboration, but also offer appropriate adjustments where needed, in line with company policy
• Extra wellbeing days on top of your annual leave allowance
• Up to 3 paid volunteering days each year
• 24/7 confidential Employee Assistance Programme (wellbeing, mental health, legal & financial support)
• Learning & development support via the Frontiers Learning Hub

Equal opportunity statement

Frontiers actively embraces diversity and is a safe and welcoming workplace. Recruitment is free from discrimination - including based on race, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. With employees from more than 50 different nations, our diversity creates vibrant teams and constantly challenges us to appreciate multiple perspectives.