VP Global Key Account Manager

Lead the relationship with our largest global customers

About Life Couriers

Life Couriers is one of the world’s most trusted healthcare logistics partners. For more than forty years we have moved the shipments that cannot be late and cannot fail: radiopharmaceuticals with a half-life measured in hours, stem cells travelling from a donor to a waiting patient, investigational product for clinical trials, and therapies delivered directly into the home.

Today we operate in more than thirteen countries, employ around 750 people and handle approximately nine million shipments a year. We are backed by JLL Partners and headquartered in Munich under SLS Group GmbH.

We are organised around four global business units Radiopharma, Point of Care, Emergency and Life Sciences. Each is led globally, each is building at pace, and each is supported by a single international operating model rather than a collection of country businesses. This is a company with four decades of operating credibility and the ambition and ownership structure to move quickly.

Our CARE Values

Our CARE values are at the heart of how we work and how we lead. Customer Excellence, Accountability, Respect and Enthusiasm shape the way we treat our people, our clients and the patients who ultimately depend on the services we provide.

For this role, living our CARE values means putting each global customer at the centre of a single Life Couriers relationship, taking ownership of retention and growth, leading colleagues across business units with respect and without formal authority, and continuously raising the standard of account management. We are looking for a leader who not only delivers commercial results but does so in a way that reflects our values, strengthens our culture, and builds confidence with colleagues, customers and partners.

The opportunity

We are appointing a Global Key Account Manager to own a portfolio of Life Couriers’ largest global customers, whose business spans several business units and regions.

Working at Vice President level and reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer, you will be the single point of accountability for each customer’s retention, growth and profitability, and own one global account plan per customer, so the customer experiences one Life Couriers, not separate regions or services.

You will build executive relationships, lead a virtual account team across Sales, Customer Success, Operations and Pricing, and turn customer insight into profitable growth.

What the role covers

• Global accounts. A portfolio of our largest multi-region customers, across all four business units: Radiopharma, Point of Care, Emergency and Life Sciences.
• One account plan. A single global plan per customer covering retention, growth, service and pricing.
• One relationship. The primary executive contact for each customer, from operations to the C-suite.

What you will do

• Lead the relationship. Act as the primary executive contact for each global account, understand each customer’s strategy, product pipeline and supply chain, and run regular business reviews.
• Anticipate needs. Anticipate requirements across regions so Life Couriers is in the room before new business is tendered.
• Own the numbers. Own the global account plan, revenue and gross profit targets and the retention of every account, keeping forecasts and opportunities accurate in Salesforce.
• Negotiate and protect. Lead contract renewals and negotiations within agreed gross profit floors, drive recovery plans for any account at risk, and report account health to the Chief Commercial Officer.
• Lead without authority. Lead a virtual team across business units, regional sales, Customer Success, Operations, Pricing and Finance through clear communication, fair escalation and shared goals.
• Grow across business units. Use data, customer feedback and service performance to find cross-sell and new-lane opportunities, turn strong accounts into reference cases and share best practice.

How success is measured

• Retention of all accounts in the portfolio, with no unplanned losses.
• Gross profit growth against the annual plan for each global account.
• A current global account plan for every assigned customer, reviewed quarterly.
• A credible pipeline of cross-sell and new-lane opportunities across business units.
• Executive relationships in place at each account, with business reviews held on schedule.
• Service levels and customer satisfaction targets achieved; at‑risk accounts recovered to green.
• Pricing and contract terms within agreed gross profit floors.

What you will bring

• At least 10 years’ experience in key or global account management, including multi-region accounts of significant value.
• A proven record of growing and retaining large, complex customers in a matrix organisation.
• Strong executive presence and experience building C‑level customer relationships.
• Commercial and financial judgement: contract negotiation, pricing to gross profit and account P&L.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams without direct line authority.
• Proficiency with Salesforce or a similar CRM and Microsoft Office.
• A degree in Business, Supply Chain or a related field; an MBA is an advantage.
• Experience in healthcare, radiopharmaceutical, life sciences or time‑critical logistics.
• Knowledge of GDP and regulated transport, including ADR and IATA Dangerous Goods.

The kind of leader we are looking for

This role is for a relationship builder who thinks like an owner. Our largest customers should experience one Life Couriers, and you will be the person who makes that true.

You will have direct access to the Chief Commercial Officer and the backing of an executive team with deep healthcare and transportation experience.

Reporting and team

• Reports to: Chief Commercial Officer.
• Leads: Virtual account teams across business units, regional sales and Customer Success (no direct reports at launch).
• In absence: Duties transfer to the Chief Commercial Officer or a designated Global Key Account Manager.

Location

Hybrid or remote, based near a major international airport. Frequent domestic and international travel, up to 40%, for customer meetings, business reviews, site visits and internal leadership sessions. The role may need to support critical customer escalations outside normal working hours. Candidates must be authorised to work in their country of residence without sponsorship, now or in the future.

What we offer

A competitive package, including base salary and a performance incentive, benchmarked to the market for the successful candidate’s location, and a leading role in one of the most significant growth agendas in healthcare logistics.

Equal Opportunity and Applicant Data Privacy

Life Couriers is committed to providing a fair, inclusive and transparent recruitment process across all locations in which we operate. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and make employment decisions based on merit, skills, qualifications and business needs, without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law.

If you require a reasonable adjustment or accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know.

As part of the recruitment process, Life Couriers collects and processes personal information for legitimate recruitment‑related purposes. Applicant data is handled in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, EU GDPR and applicable United States privacy laws. Personal information is accessible to authorised individuals and is retained only for as long as necessary to support recruitment activities and comply with legal obligations.

For questions relating to recruitment, equal opportunities, or the processing of applicant data, candidates may contact Life Couriers Human Resources team using the contact details provided within the recruitment process.