Vice President, Account Management and Business Development

Job Description

Forward Air is hiring a Vice President, Account Management & Business Development to build and lead our Account Management organization while driving strategic revenue growth within our existing customer base. This executive is accountable for customer retention, revenue realization, account expansion, and strategic business development, ensuring long‑term customer value and sustainable growth.

This role is designed to protect and grow existing revenue, stop churn, and drive post‑sale expansion—while partnering closely with Sales to support complex commercial opportunities, renewal strategy, and customer‑led growth initiatives. The VP will enable Sales to focus on net‑new acquisition while Account Management owns expansion, penetration, and long‑term customer success.

You will lead a cross‑functional team spanning onboarding, contract realization, customer health, renewals, and expansion strategy—ensuring every dollar sold is earned, retained, and grown. You will also support the VP of Sales with sales collateral, executive presentations, and customer‑specific growth strategies that position Forward Air competitively in the market.

Core Responsibilities & Duties

• Build and scale a high‑performing Account Management and Expansion team aligned by customer segment and Sales hunters.
• Design an operating model that enables hunters to hunt, with Account Managers owning customer health, renewal, expansion, and upsell strategy.
• Define KPIs and scorecards to track account health, realization, churn risk, expansion pipeline, and business development opportunities within the base.
• Own all revenue tied to existing accounts, including retention, renewal, realization, and expansion growth.
• Lead GAP plans with Sales to recover revenue at risk, stop volume leakage, and identify incremental growth opportunities.
• Drive structured upsell and cross‑sell motions in partnership with Sales, Pricing, and Operations.
• Ensure onboarding and award management are executed cleanly so value is delivered from day one.
• Partner with Sales to track closed‑won vs. realized vs. expanded revenue on a weekly basis.
• Drive proactive engagement models that maintain high customer sentiment and executive alignment.
• Lead QBRs, executive reviews, and growth planning sessions focused on performance, value creation, and expansion opportunities.
• Develop value‑add programs such as operational insights, network optimization recommendations, and cost‑avoidance initiatives.
• Lead and create customer presentations, ensuring confidence, continuity, and a clear growth roadmap.
• Design and deploy customer surveys to capture sentiment, needs, and expansion signals.
• Actively support business development efforts within the existing customer base, including contract expansions, service extensions, and network growth initiatives.
• Partner with Sales on complex commercial pursuits, renewals, and strategic account growth opportunities.
• Support VP of Sales with sales collateral, executive presentations, and customer‑specific value propositions.
• Participate in select executive‑level customer discussions where expansion or long‑term commercial strategy is being shaped.
• Partner with Pricing to protect CM% through better contract realization, mix management, and expansion pricing strategies.
• Collaborate with Operations and Sales to identify lane declines, growth opportunities, and network optimization actions.
• Serve as executive escalation point for customer experience gaps and ensure systemic issues are resolved.
• Partner with Customer Service to identify trends, sentiment risks, and proactive engagement needs.
• Share customer scorecards and insights with Sales hunters to support coordinated account strategy.
• Deploy and manage scorecards to track pipeline KPIs, customer health, engagement, and expansion activity.
• Build and maintain a churn and expansion dashboard highlighting at‑risk and high‑growth accounts.
• Report with VP of Sales on net revenue retention, expansion performance, lane health, and customer feedback.
• Create customer scorecards that highlight wins, losses, realization, key lanes, growth trends, and service metrics.
• Manage high‑value clients to create an environment of investment, partnership, and high sentiment.
• Provide market and territory intelligence to Sales to strengthen positioning and value differentiation.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in logistics, freight forwarding, or supply chain, with leadership experience in Account Management, Customer Success, or Business Development.
• Proven ability to manage large revenue portfolios and complex, multi‑stakeholder customer relationships.
• Track record of reducing churn, growing share of wallet, and driving expansion within existing accounts.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience supporting renewals, expansions, and strategic deals.
• Data‑driven mindset with strong experience in Salesforce, Tableau, or similar platforms.
• High EQ with strong executive presence, presentation skills, and ability to partner effectively with Sales hunters.

Forward Air is an Equal Opportunity Employer

#LI-Hybrid #LI-LA1

Since 1990, Forward Air has been a leading provider of ground transportation and related logistics services to the North American air freight and expedited LTL market. We offer surface shipping on an accelerated –time-definite– basis, delivering cargo at a specific time, but under less time-sensitive situations – supplying you with a cost effective, reliable alternative to air transportation. We work with companies of all sizes to develop tangible advantages and build the best products to meet your specific needs. Forward Air presents to the wholesale transportation community (logistics companies, freight forwarders, integrated air cargo carriers, passenger/ cargo airlines, and non-traditional shippers), a single-source provider that can deliver more supply chain services and a superior menu of choices. Throughout the years we have added supplementary lines to our linehaul service, such as full truckload operations (Truckload Services), final-mile coverage (Complete® Cartage), and an Airline Logistics program, and we will continue to expand our services to meet the changing needs and growth of our customer base.

Forward Air is structured to optimize both savings and service to our customers. Direct partnerships with owner-operators and other surface transportation providers, enable us to remain cost-competitive. The Forward Air network is designed with over 90 facilities located at or near major U.S. and Canadian airports, 12 regional sort centers and over 300 beyond points (secondary airports provided through our Complete Cartage service), creating one of the most comprehensive linehaul networks in the industry.

Ranked 3rd in Newsweeks 2022 "Americas Most Trustworthy Companies" publication