Sr Manager, Account Management - California

FORWARD is a venture-backed company on a mission to build comprehensive solutions allowing governments to assist their communities at scale.

The FORWARD Platform is an Integrated Program Administration solution that incorporates all essential components, people, and technology into a single streamlined workflow to effectively, securely, and equitably administer critical resources to help communities thrive.

Municipalities nationwide are utilizing FORWARD to streamline the design, implementation, operations, communications, reporting, and compliance functions of their economic and community development assistance programs.

Our fully remote team works hard, but we fully embrace the advantages of this new paradigm. We work autonomously, collaborate asynchronously, and take ownership of our work. 

The Sr Manager, Customer Acquisitions Identifies, tracks, and responds to new opportunities in California by leveraging existing relationships, developing new relationships, and acting as a trusted business partner to public sector customers. In some cases, this role may independently manage an opportunity lifecycle (prospecting, qualifying, developing, and negotiating contracts to close), but this role is also responsible for mentoring a diverse team to achieve collaborative wins. 

This role ensures that prospect information is tracked and leads are generated. As a subject matter expert, this position guides the team in creating pitch decks and proposals for customers. The Growth team has two main categories for opportunities and the focus for each is as follows:

• Inbound Opportunities
  • Help identify ways FORWARD can administer newly funded or expanded programs from the legislative budget 
  • Connect with key stakeholders and department staff to understand their pain points and identify opportunities for FORWARD to support their work
• Expansion Opportunities
  • Maintain close ties with existing customers and be present during fulfillment conversations in order to be considered a trusted thought partner for customers
  • Continue strategic outreach to existing customers with the goal of identifying and proposing pilot programs and expansion opportunities
  • Identify and propose pilot programs for customers, stand up new pilot programs, design a playbook for successful programs, and facilitate a smooth handoff to the Operations Team

This position acts as a member of the Growth leadership team and oversees a team focused on growth of business in California. Therefore, this role is responsible for hiring, training, providing feedback and mentoring team members to support and grow customer acquisition activities. The California Growth team is responsible for conference attendance and customer site visits. This role supports those activities by helping to coordinate on-site meetings, plan networking or social events, and ensure that hotel or other accommodations for team members is secured.

Above all, the Sr Manager is committed to the growth of FORWARD’s mission by consistently achieving ambitious sales targets, collaborating closely with both the Growth and Operations teams, and thinking strategically about product use cases and potential customer needs. This role provides timely reporting to senior-level management on goals, metrics and lessons learned to ensure ongoing growth. Additionally, this role serves as a thought leader to customers and is seen as a trusted advisor on how to run assistance programs at-scale.

• Strong ties and relationships in California, especially amongst policymakers, city and county leaders, and/or other advocacy organizations
• Public sector experience preferred 
• 6+ years B2G sales and/or account management experience preferred
• Ability to build strong relationships and influence government agency partners 
• Strong discovery and presentation skills - ability to effectively identify and understand customer needs and connect needs to business opportunities
• Highly solution-oriented
• Creative problem solving 
• Ability to take the initiative and work both independently and as part of a team
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work well under pressure, multi-task, and prioritize workload
• Eager to be part of a team that puts a premium on assuming best intentions and giving one another grace
• Salesforce experience preferred but not required

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We offer a full range of employee benefits for our regular full-time employees including:

• Fully remote position
• Unlimited PTO
• 100% Employee paid medical and dental insurance
• Stock Options
• 401K Plan