Senior Strategic Account Executive

Skillsoft is seeking an experienced Senior Strategic Account Executive to drive top‑line revenue growth through the expansion of our platform and solution portfolio within existing Strategic Accounts. In this role, you will have the opportunity to lead complex, enterprise sales motions focused on expanding platform adoption, increasing solution penetration, and delivering measurable business outcomes. You will regularly engage executive decision‑makers across multiple buying centers, positioning Skillsoft as a strategic, long‑term partner. 

Responsibilities

• Responsible for partnering with Sales Leaders and positioning all Skillsoft solutions to corporate decision makers to meet and exceed revenue goals and representing a solution line(s) with key competitive differentiators.
• Collaborate with sales leaders on strategic plans and objectives to drive desired business growth within current Strategic Accounts, collaborating with functional teams in the successful advancement of critical opportunities and market penetration.
• Engage wider account teams on short/long-term strategy with a focus on maintaining and growing revenue within existing customers.
• Owning the business relationship to drive the wider account team to deliver measurable and defined business objectives and goals with timelines related to revenue and growth of whitespace.
• Ensure that the company's total resource is delivered and leveraged in a way that satisfies customer requirements and supports the objectives of the account strategy.
• Demonstrate Skillsoft solutions with confidence, connecting product capabilities to business outcomes and speaking the language of enterprise and C‑level buyers.
• Lead value‑based negotiations across complex deals, clearly articulating ROI, total business impact, and time‑to‑value to advance and close opportunities.
• Network and influence at the C‑suite level, building deep relationships across complex organizations to uncover enterprise‑wide challenges where Skillsoft’s solutions deliver differentiated value
• Operate with urgency and accountability, bringing creativity, curiosity, and competitive drive to building and closing a high‑quality, multi‑solution pipeline. 

Required Skills & Qualifications 

• 8+ years of professional direct sales experience, selling SaaS, PaaS, B2B, and/or enterprise software to VP, SVP, and C-Level Executives with outstanding quota attainment history. 
• A strong track record of exceeding quota though expansion, cross-sell, and upsell strategies.
• Proven success navigating complex, multi‑stakeholder sales cycles, including selling across multiple functions, buying groups, and executive audiences. 
• Demonstrated ability to prospect with a structured activity model to maximize revenue growth, as well as collaborate and leverage subject matter expertise in a matrixed sales environment.  
• Strong understanding of solution and value-based selling, including building business cases that align platform capabilities to strategic customer initiatives. 
• Skilled at demonstrating solutions and speaking the language of corporate buyers and respectfully challenge their thinking. 
• Ability to collaborate and leverage subject matter expertise in a matrixed sales environment. 
• Experience operating with a sense of urgency, have a competitive spirit, demonstrate a positive, winning attitude & adaptive, agile mindset. 
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite & Salesforce.com. 

Preferred Skills & Experience 

• Experience selling into the learning, human capital, human capital technology space 

• Demonstrate deep Salesforce proficiency by preparing a short “playbook” of your most complex sales pipelines built in Salesforce (e.g., custom objects, automated opportunity stages, territory dashboards). Bring screenshots or a PDF walkthrough to the interview and be ready to explain how you used data insights to upsell existing enterprise accounts—Skillsoft will expect you to replicate that rigor on their strategic accounts.
• Build a one‑page “Strategic Account Expansion” case study from your last role: identify the account, the baseline ARR, the specific platform‑oriented solutions you introduced, the cross‑sell/upsell tactics used, and the measurable ROI (e.g., 32 % revenue lift in 12 months). Tie each step to Skillsoft’s mission of “turning change into growth” to show you can translate skills gaps into measurable performance outcomes.
• Highlight remote‑first collaboration by sharing concrete tools and routines you use to keep large, distributed buying teams aligned (e.g., weekly Zoom “opportunity health” huddles, shared Salesforce Chatter channels, Miro roadmaps, and Slack bots for automated follow‑ups). Provide a brief KPI sheet showing how these practices improved sales cycle time or forecast accuracy in your recent remote roles.
• Prepare for scenario‑based questions that test your ability to expand platform adoption within a “strategic” account. Practice a STAR story where you mapped a client’s skill‑gap analysis, pitched a multi‑module learning solution, secured executive sponsorship, and delivered a joint ROI model. Skillsoft interviewers look for a clear link between skill‑assessment data and revenue expansion.
• When discussing compensation, research Skillsoft’s typical senior AE total‑target‑earnings (TTE) in Germany (≈ €150‑180 k + variable). Present a data‑backed range and justify the higher end with your proven 2‑digit quota‑over‑achievement and Salesforce‑driven pipeline velocity. Emphasize your remote‑work cost savings (e.g., no relocation) as a negotiation lever for a higher variable component.