Associate Strategic Account Manager - Mission Critical Segments

Associate Strategic Account Manager – Mission Critical SegmentsLocation: Remote USBase Salary Rate: $99,412 - $116,955 per yearJob type: Full-time position About This Role Edwards / Kidde Commercial, business brands of Kidde Global Solutions Strategic Accounts organization, is currently searching for a motivated Associate Strategic Account Manager to support the development and growth of strategic accounts, client relationships, and project opportunities across the United States. The role's primary vertical focus will be on Mission Critical applications such as Energy and Data Centers. This role will also support the Strategic Account Management (SAM) organization’s global initiatives for Energy/Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Data Centers by helping coordinate account intelligence, project activity, customer standards, regional engagement needs, and cross-functional follow-up between U.S. and global SAM team members. This associate strategic account role will work under the direction of the Strategic Account Management team. The Associate will help execute account and vertical plans, build stakeholder relationships, develop qualified opportunities, coordinate internal and channel resources, and increase demand for Edwards and Kidde Commercial fire alarm, aspirating smoke detection, emergency communication and mass notification solutions. Success in this role requires the ability to pivot across verticals, learn distinct customer buying processes and technical requirements, and communicate effectively with owners, engineering firms, contractors, channel partners, internal sales, technical, regional, and product management teams. The position is intended to build the commercial, technical and strategic account capabilities required for progression into a Strategic Account Manager role. Key Responsibilities Account, Vertical and Global SAM Initiative Support: Support execution of strategic account and vertical plans for Energy/BESS and Data Centers while also contributing to the Global SAM initiative for these mission-critical segments. Maintain account research, stakeholder maps, opportunity priorities, regional engagement updates and follow-up actions in alignment with the lead SAMs. Energy/BESS: Support engagement with owners, developers, engineering firms, Engineering Procurement and Construction organizations, contractors and project stakeholders in the energy/BESS segment. Help identify new construction, modernization and customer standardization opportunities across assigned accounts and projects while sharing relevant insights that support global Energy/BESS account alignment. Data Centers: Support relationships with colocation, edge, and modular data center owners/operators, engineering firms, general contractors and senior design, construction, project and operations stakeholders. Coordinate activities with the Data Center SAM to position solutions for new and replacement projects and help connect U.S. customer requirements, project standards and account intelligence to broader global data center initiatives. Global Account Intelligence and Coordination: Help gather, organize and communicate account intelligence, project activity, customer standards, regional opportunities, and stakeholder engagement needs that support the Global SAM organization’s Energy/BESS and Data Center initiatives. Opportunity Generation: Research target accounts and projects, identify prospective stakeholders, qualify leads and help progress opportunities through the sales process. Account Planning and Execution: Maintain assigned portions of strategic account plans, document actions and milestones, and provide concise progress updates to lead SAMs and other internal stakeholders supporting global initiative alignment. Client Needs Analysis: Use consultative discovery and active listening to understand customer priorities, project requirements, buying criteria and definitions of value. Solution Coordination: Assist with needs assessments and coordinate internal technical resources to develop tailored solution concepts, specifications, presentations and other customer-facing materials. Channel, Field and Regional Collaboration: Partner with Edwards and Kidde Commercial channel partners, Regional Directors, Business Development Managers, District Managers, regional sales leaders and technical teams to align account strategies, end-client needs, and life safety goals across client portfolios, projects and global SAM initiatives. Stakeholder Engagement: Develop and maintain professional relationships across ownership, design, construction, operations and procurement organizations, while supporting senior-level engagement led by the responsible SAM. Salesforce Management: Create and maintain accurate Salesforce records for accounts, contacts, activities, projects and opportunities, including timely next steps, forecast information, customer standards, and activity updates that support Global SAM visibility. Market Insight: Monitor assigned vertical trends, major projects, codes, standards, customer priorities, and global market developments in Energy/BESS and Data Centers sharing actionable insights with Strategic Account team members. Professional Development: Participate in customer meetings, professional organizations, industry events, workshops, seminars, training and trade shows to strengthen vertical knowledge, expand relationships and build strategic selling capability to support knowledge development in becoming an SME across the assigned mission-critical vertical segments. Execute up to 70% annual travel across the United States, based on account, project, event and development needs. Basic Qualifications Associate's degree or technical certification 5+ years of relevant experience in business development, account support, client and/or technical sales / project sales or the fire/life safety, security, electrical, construction or building technology industries Valid driver's license Preferred Qualifications Bachelor's degree Demonstrated interest in, exposure to or working knowledge of at least one target vertical: Energy/BESS and Data Centers Ability to support strategic account activity in a matrixed environment involving lead SAMs, regional sales teams, channel partners, technical resources, product teams and global initiatives Ability to develop professional relationships with owners, engineers, contractors, channel partners and internal stakeholders, and confidence supporting meetings with senior decision makers Strong consultative communication and active-listening skills, with the ability to translate customer needs into clear internal actions and solution requirements Ability to manage multiple accounts, projects and priorities while following direction from a direct manager and coordinating effectively through dotted-line and global initiative relationships Strong research, analytical, organizational and follow-through skills, with attention to detail and accountability for action items Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare concise presentations, account updates, customer communications and global initiative summaries Proficiency with Microsoft 365, CoPilot, Microsoft Teams and webinar/collaboration tools; experience with Salesforce or another CRM Experience with commercial fire alarm, aspirating smoke detection, emergency communications, mass notification, security or related building systems Experience supporting value-added solutions through an indirect, channel-based or bid-specification sales model Understanding construction project lifecycles, specifications, bid opportunities, proposal support and contractor or end-client engagement Ability to learn applicable fire and life safety codes, standards, product applications and customer standardization strategies Experience working with or supporting cross-regional teams, multinational customers, global account programs or corporate standardization initiatives Motivation to develop toward independent ownership of strategic accounts, vertical market responsibilities and global initiative support activities