Strategic Account Specialist

Amphenol Fiber Optic Products is looking for a Strategic Account Specialist based in Downers Grove, IL to be the driving force behind a small portfolio of key accounts. This isn't a reactive order-taking role — you'll be the customer's advocate inside our organization, working cross-functionally with purchasing, planning, warehouse, sales, and manufacturing to make sure our customers get an exceptional experience from order entry all the way through delivery.

About the Role

As the Strategic Account Specialist, you'll manage every aspect of customer service account management: PO processing and order management, expediting and escalation, credit and pricing issues, reporting, and supporting demand planning alongside our operations team. You'll act as the connective tissue between the customer and every department that touches their business.

Because our manufacturing sites are located in Mexico, Vietnam, and China, some calls, meetings, and email communication will occasionally fall outside typical work hours.

What You'll Do

• Coordinate all aspects of your accounts related to order fulfillment.
• Serve as the guardian of the customer experience — proactively assessing, clarifying, and validating customer needs, monitoring reports, and partnering with internal teams to deliver.
• Act as the liaison between the customer and all company departments, driving escalations, solution development, and continuous process improvement, while providing structured feedback to management.
• Deliver superior day-to-day service, from order entry and expediting to backlog monitoring, delivery coordination, and complaint resolution.
• Provide responsive, accurate, and proactive communication — including basic technical support via email or phone.
• Handle order entry of manual POs and access POs via EDI to update headers and manufacturing locations as directed by the planning team.
• Own material delivery performance: gather lead-time expectations and forecast information, analyze recurring delays, and initiate discussions with Sales, Management, Supply Chain, and Product Management.
• Track sales activities and build relationships within the account to drive revenue, in collaboration with the Sales team and Industry Segment.
• Support pricing, forecasting, operational needs, and delivery — identifying trends and driving corrective actions.
• Identify risks to meeting customer demand, resolve where possible, and escalate appropriately.
• Independently generate reports for daily transactions, service-level monitoring, and sales tracking; escalate dates outside committed lead times; and build custom reports based on account needs.
• Lead and participate in strategic discussions and conference calls to enhance the business and customer experience.
• Monitor and update customer portals as directed.

What You Bring

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a proactive, timely approach — even in challenging situations and escalations.
• Strong customer focus and relationship-building ability.
• A structured, organized, detail-oriented mindset with the ability to juggle multiple large projects at once.
• Self-driven and independent, while thriving in a team environment.
• The initiative to take ownership of strategic accounts and drive improvements.
• Strong problem-solving instincts — the ability to spot issues, propose solutions, and escalate.
• Comfort presenting independently to senior management.
• Adaptability to support strategic accounts amid fast company growth.
• Analytical and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts to both internal and external audiences.
• The ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment.
• Proficiency in MS Office — Excel (pivots, charts, formulas), Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• Experience with ERP and EDI systems for order entry and maintenance.

Core Competencies

Impact and Influence · Contingency Thinking · Flexibility · Critical Thinking · Collaboration · Strategic Planning