Client Relationship Director

The exciting world of scientific research is fueled by people with a passion for solving complex problems. At Cayuse, we are committed to our customers’ success by empowering organizations to conduct globally connected research that advances their impact on science, discovery and society. We build on that commitment with proven, integrated and easy-to-use technology that delivers exceptional value, and world class service and support that accelerates outcomes.

But we are more than just an empowering platform powered by advanced technologies. We are a collaboration of exceptional, highly skilled people with multi-disciplinary expertise, and are building our team to support our ambitious growth plans. Cayuse’s foundational strength comes from our customer and employee focused values and commitment to industry-leading solutions. It’s an exciting time to become a key member of our growing team.

Cayuse is seeking a Client Relationship Director to lead strategic enterprise account relationships across our client base. This high-impact, player-coach role owns a portfolio of high-value accounts and leads two Strategic Account Managers. The Client Relationship Director is the customer's ultimate advocate and strategic advisor, guiding clients through platform optimization, expansion, and multi-year adoption lifecycles while protecting and growing retention (GRR/NRR).

The ideal candidate is an executive-level relationship builder who can influence C-suite stakeholders, orchestrate a broad internal matrix, and coach a small team to deliver measurable client outcomes. This role requires equal parts strategic thinking, commercial discipline, and hands-on leadership.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Account & Relationship Governance
• Serve as the primary strategic point of contact for a portfolio of high-value enterprise accounts, building trusted relationships with executive sponsors in Enterprise Research Administration.
• Lead high-profile Customer Business Reviews (CBRs), Steering Committees, and multi-year technology roadmap sessions focused on business outcomes and ROI.
• Guide enterprise customers through platform and landscape updates, ensuring their corporate strategy maps to Cayuse's product roadmap.
• Act as a player-coach: lead and develop two Strategic Account Managers while maintaining a high-value book of business.
• Value Realization & Platform Adoption
• Partner with client business units post-implementation to maximize feature adoption and subscription value.
• Advise clients on operational readiness, change management, and governance best practices to sustain high user engagement.
• Establish, track, and interpret adoption and engagement metrics to address customer friction points proactively.
• Commercial Growth & Risk Mitigation
• Own the ongoing strategy for protecting the active client base, mitigating customer health risks, and managing Business-at-Risk (BAR) accounts.
• Coach the two Strategic Account Managers to identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities and build compelling business cases for license expansion.
• Oversee contract lifecycle alignment, partnering with the Strategic Account Managers to secure Net Retention Rate (NRR) milestones and provide reliable forecasts to leadership.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Mobilize and orchestrate teams across Product Management, Delivery Consultants, Customer Success Managers, and Elite Support to resolve escalations.
• Capture client feedback, telemetry, and capability gaps and surface them to Product and Engineering to influence the roadmap.
• Partner with Revenue Operations to maintain accurate CRM data, pipeline health, and reporting.

Qualifications

• 7–10+ years of experience in enterprise software sales, customer success, strategic client delivery, or key account management.
• 3–5+ years leading direct or cross-functional, highly matrixed enterprise account teams, including coaching and developing account managers.
• Proven experience steering Tier 1 SaaS/cloud deployments (e.g., enterprise research administration, ERP, HCM, SCM, or financial suites).
• Demonstrated track record of meeting or exceeding retention (GRR/NRR) and expansion targets.
• Advanced executive presence, with masterful negotiation, critical thinking, and communication skills and a record of influencing C-suite decisions under pressure.
• Understanding of global IT ecosystems, implementation lifecycles, global system integrators (SIs), and enterprise governance models.
• Financial data literacy: comfort with SaaS financial metrics, forecasting, data analytics, and performance KPIs.
• Experience selling into higher education, healthcare, research organizations, or similarly complex enterprise environments strongly preferred.
• Willingness to travel 30–50% for customer on-sites and executive reviews.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities, opportunities, and resource needs can shift.
• Proficiency with CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred) and familiarity with modern sales methodologies (e.g., MEDDPICC, Challenger, GAP Selling).
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline; MBA or equivalent advanced degree highly preferred.
• Certifications such as MEDDPICC, Challenger, GAP Selling, PMP, or Workday Deployment Methodologies are a major asset.

How You'll Be Measured

Gross and net revenue retention: GRR and NRR across your portfolio and the two-person Strategic Account Manager team, against quarterly and annual targets.

Expansion: size, quality, and velocity of the cross-sell and upsell pipeline, including forecast accuracy.

Risk management: early identification and resolution of Business-at-Risk accounts.

Value realization: adoption and engagement KPIs, plus client satisfaction (NPS and CSAT).

Executive engagement: depth of C-suite relationship coverage and quality of CBRs and Steering Committees.

Team leadership: performance, development, and retention of the Strategic Account Managers.

Cross-functional impact: effectiveness in resolving escalations and the quality of client feedback surfaced to Product.