What are the responsibilities and job description for the Key Account Manager, North America position at Frontiers?
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
Requirements
At Frontiers, our Institutional Partnerships team plays a pivotal role in expanding access to open research by building and strengthening relationships with universities, libraries, consortia, and research organizations across North America. The team is central to the growth of Frontiers' Institutional Partnerships Program, operating at the intersection of sales, strategy, and scholarly communications.
We work in a fast-evolving open-access landscape, combining data-driven decision-making with strong relationship management. As a collaborative, mission-driven group, we actively contribute insights from the field to shape strategy, refine playbooks, and support large-scale institutional and national agreements—while empowering individuals to work autonomously and lead initiatives end to end.
Your Key Responsibilities:
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.
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
Requirements
At Frontiers, our Institutional Partnerships team plays a pivotal role in expanding access to open research by building and strengthening relationships with universities, libraries, consortia, and research organizations across North America. The team is central to the growth of Frontiers' Institutional Partnerships Program, operating at the intersection of sales, strategy, and scholarly communications.
We work in a fast-evolving open-access landscape, combining data-driven decision-making with strong relationship management. As a collaborative, mission-driven group, we actively contribute insights from the field to shape strategy, refine playbooks, and support large-scale institutional and national agreements—while empowering individuals to work autonomously and lead initiatives end to end.
Your Key Responsibilities:
- Manage and grow a portfolio of institutional partners (universities, libraries, research organizations), acting as a key point of contact within the Open Access publishing space across North America
- Execute regional sales and account strategies, adapting global plans to your territory and identifying opportunities within key accounts and consortia
- Drive end-to-end sales activities: from outreach (email, calls, conferences, meetings) to proposal development and contract negotiations.
- Build strong, long-term relationships with institutional stakeholders (libraries, research offices, consortia), supporting their publishing and Open Access goals
- Deliver clear and engaging presentations on Frontiers' Open Access solutions and value proposition, tailored to institutional needs and research priorities
- Work towards revenue targets, actively managing your pipeline and contributing to overall territory performance
- Capture and translate market intelligence (customer needs, competitor activity, regional dynamics) into actionable insights that inform sales strategy and product development
- Collaborate cross-functionally with account development, public affairs, and analytics teams to drive retention, renewals, and long-term account growth
- Contribute to OKRs, sales playbooks, and process improvements, using real-world feedback to enhance how we engage institutional partners
- Operate with autonomy and accountability, identifying opportunities, solving complex challenges, and continuously improving your approach to institutional sales
- Experience working with institutional clients such as universities, libraries, or research organizations
- Experience in B2B sales or account management within scholarly publishing, Open Access, academic services, library or research-related environments
- A track record of contributing to sales targets and pipeline development, with exposure to institutional or multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
- Confidence in building relationships, presenting, and supporting negotiations with a range of stakeholders
- Comfortable with outreach and business development activities (email, calls, events, conferences)
- Good understanding of the research lifecycle and scholarly communication, with interest in Open Access and Open Science
- Familiarity with Salesforce (or similar CRM) and Excel for tracking activity and performance
- Ability to work independently in a target-driven environment, with good organization and time management
- A collaborative, proactive mindset and interest in working in an international, mission-driven environment
- 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
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.