US Account Manager (SaaS, Higher Ed)

Build Partnerships That Universities Wouldn’t Want to Lose

Help universities get more from Gecko by building trusted relationships, delivering real value and driving long-term growth!

Make Every Account Matter

Great Customer Success is not about keeping people happy on a quarterly call.

It is about understanding what matters to a partner, earning trust across the institution, proving value, spotting risk early and knowing when there is a genuine opportunity to grow the relationship.

That is what this role is.

As an Account Manager at Gecko, you will own a portfolio of university and college partners across the US. You will be responsible for their success, retention and growth, from day-to-day relationship management through to renewals, expansion and senior stakeholder conversations.

You will spend time with partners on campus, represent Gecko at sector events and build the kind of relationships that are difficult to create through a screen alone. You will also carry commercial responsibility, with clear ownership of renewal and expansion targets.

This is not a support-led Customer Success role. You will make sure your partners get what they need and bring in the right people when issues arise, but your focus is proactive account management, retention and growth.

We are looking for someone who can combine strong account management with commercial confidence. Someone who understands complex organisations, can navigate multiple stakeholders and is comfortable moving from a success conversation into a commercial one when the opportunity is right.

What You’ll Actually be Doing

• Take full ownership of a portfolio of university and college partners.

• Understand their goals, priorities, challenges, usage and future plans.

• Build trusted relationships with everyone from day-to-day users to senior sponsors.

• Create strong, multi-threaded relationships across departments and teams.

• Develop success plans and account strategies that connect Gecko to meaningful outcomes.

• Keep a clear view of partner health, risk and opportunity at all times.

• Own renewals from early planning through to agreement.

• Make sure partners can clearly see the value they are getting from Gecko.

• Identify opportunities to expand into new teams, departments and use cases.

• Lead expansion opportunities from discovery through to negotiation and close.

• Carry renewal and expansion targets and maintain an accurate pipeline.

• Run account reviews that connect partner outcomes to future opportunities.

• Keep Salesforce useful, current and honest.

• Visit partners regularly on campus across the US.

• Use face-to-face time to deepen relationships and uncover what is really happening inside an account.

• Represent Gecko at Higher Education conferences, exhibitions and partner events.

• Balance in-person and remote engagement in a way that works for each partner.

• Act as the strategic owner of your partner relationships, bringing in Support, Product or other teams when specialist help is needed and making sure nothing falls between the cracks.

• Work closely with Commercial, Product, Support and Enablement.

• Deliver confident demos, account reviews, presentations and commercial conversations.

• Follow through. If you say you will do something, it gets done.

What Success Looks Like

In your first year, we would love to see:

• Strong retention and renewals completed on time.

• Expansion targets met or exceeded.

• A healthy, credible pipeline across your portfolio.

• Clear, well-managed account plans with no hidden surprises.

• Strong relationships across multiple levels within each institution.

• Partners using Gecko well and achieving meaningful outcomes.

• Regular, valuable face-to-face engagement.

• Confident account reviews that lead to clear decisions and next steps.

• Partners who trust your judgement and see you as someone who gets things moving.

Who You Are

• You have experience owning a portfolio of accounts in a B2B SaaS business, with direct responsibility for retention, renewals and expansion.

• You are comfortable managing complex or strategic accounts with multiple stakeholders and longer decision cycles.

• You can build genuine relationships without losing commercial focus.

• You can point to commercial outcomes you have personally influenced, whether through renewals, expansion, upsell or growth within existing accounts.

• You are confident talking about pricing, value, revenue and next steps.

• You know how to uncover an opportunity and progress it properly.

• You can lead meetings, demos, executive reviews and negotiations.

• You are organised, proactive and comfortable managing a portfolio, pipeline and regular travel.

• You ask good questions, listen properly and do not wait to be told what to do.

• You care about the wider team and will share what you know.

Experience in Higher Education or EdTech would be useful, but it is not essential. We care more about your ability to manage complex relationships, deliver commercial growth and understand what matters to our partners.

Travel is a regular part of this role. You’ll visit university and college partners across the US where face-to-face time adds value, attend Higher Education conferences and events, and occasionally travel internationally, including to the UK.

We are a remote-first company, but this is not a remote-only relationship role. You need to enjoy getting out, meeting people and building trust face-to-face.

Working Pattern

This role works broadly in line with East Coast hours, so we’re looking for someone based in the Eastern or Central time zones.

And Why Gecko?

We build software that helps universities connect with and support students in ways that actually work.

More than 150 institutions around the world use Gecko across student recruitment, communications, events and engagement. We are a team of around 40 people, so your work will be visible, your decisions will matter and good ideas will not disappear into layers of approval.

You will get:

• Real ownership: You will be trusted to run your accounts and make decisions.

• Commercial impact: Your work will directly influence retention, expansion and growth.

• Work-life balance: 33 days’ holiday, flexible working and the opportunity to work from another location through our Workation policy.

• Remote-first working: With a brilliant home office set-up, MacBook Pro and headphones of your choice.

• Comprehensive benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401(k), and perks via Perkbox.

• A small, ambitious team: Good people who are collaborative, direct and low on bureaucracy.

• Room to shape things: Customer Success at Gecko is evolving, and you will help influence what comes next.

• Connected virtual culture: We’re fully remote, but collaborative by default. Our virtual office is a big part of how we stay connected, solve problems quickly, and keep work feeling human.

Ready to Join the Gecko Team?

We’re looking for someone who can build trust, lead commercial conversations and take real ownership of partner growth.

You’ll care deeply about partner outcomes, but you won’t shy away from targets, negotiation or asking where Gecko could add more value.

If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you!

You can find out more about working with us here ⬅️

A quick note on the title: internally at Gecko, this role sits within our Customer Success team and is known as a Customer Success Executive (CSE). We use Account Manager externally in the US because it better reflects the commercial account ownership of the role.

At Gecko, we encourage thoughtful use of AI tools to strengthen your application, but authenticity matters.

Use AI to help organise or refine your thinking, not to invent experience or replace your own voice. We want to understand what you have actually done, how you think and what you could bring to Gecko.

For more on responsible AI use in job applications, visit our AI guidance page 👈

*Please note that we can only accept applications from US-based applicants who already have a valid right to work in the US.

**Agencies, we kindly ask that you read this Hiring Notice before getting in touch.