Job details

Higher Ed Account Executive

What does Packback do?

Packback’s mission is to help every student develop their unique voice, and the writing skills to express it.

We are a social learning and writing development platform powered by a proprietary A.I. that college professors use to help their students fall in love with the subject matter, drive personalized learning, and most importantly, quantify and improve critical thinking skills. Packback is used by more than 10,000 educators and 1.7 million students, who collectively author more than 10 million posts a year.

Packback is an award-winning company, and was just recognized as a 2024 Time Magazine “World’s Top Education Company”, as well as an INC 5000 Fastest Growing Organization for 3 consecutive years. Packback’s founders were recognized on the Forbes “30 under 30” list in 2020. Packback has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post.

How will you add value to the team?

As an Account Executive you will be responsible for new business development and revenue growth, both setting appointments and driving appointments to deal closure in an assigned territory. Territory will include Universities in which Packback already has usage, and your responsibility is to drive usage from new faculty adopters. Additionally, territory will include a small pool of Universities with no Packback usage, and your responsibility is to drive adoptions with faculty users.

This individual contributor will possess a strong competitive drive, a resiliency that allows them to learn from failure while always looking forward, a positive attitude and outlook that focuses on enjoying the journey and living the values of our organization, and a keen sense of curiosity to uncover every opportunity to drive growth for Packback.

This role is a full cycle sales role that requires daily outreach (outbound email and calling when necessary), running product demonstrations, and closing new faculty users at assigned accounts (Universities). You will work closely with our Customer Success team to onboard new faculty, and from there our customer success representatives account manage, renew, and upsell current faculty. While this role doesn’t entail any retention/renewal/upsell activities with current users, we find the most successful Account Executives work collaboratively with Customer Success managers to generate referrals and departmental activities.

This role may require travel to College Campuses up to 2-3 weeks per month.

This role has a ~30 training plan into a shortened “Fall 2024” Campaign with a “ramp” quota that is realized by ~September 2024 (the fall semester)

The pay range for this position is between $65,000- $85,000 annually, however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. A sales commission plan will be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical and/or other benefits.

Typical responsibilities include:

Daily outbound calls (as needed)
Daily outbound emails (as needed)
Utilization of LinkedIn to foster lead engagement
Plan, organize, and prioritize engagements/opportunities to achieve sales targets and goals
Utilize database tools to develop and maintain engagements/opportunities for each institution in your assigned territory
Create and implement strategic plans for engagements/opportunities through resource management and internal collaboration
Develop product knowledge and digital skills for sales calls, presentations, and delivery of our digital solutions
Provide support for instructors on their implementation of Packback’s learning technologies/solutions
Achieve and/or exceed sales targets and goals by promoting Packback’s learning technologies/solutions.
Schedule engagements with decision makers (faculty) to identify needs, propose solutions, and establish relationships.
Partner with institutions and faculty to ensure successful implementation of Packback’s learning technologies/solutions.

The intention of this role:

Our intention is for you to become an expert on the Packback purpose, product, and build the foundations of professor relationships for our Revenue team as a whole. You will be a crucial part of Packback’s growth.

What you bring to the table:

You have 1-4 years of experience in a full-cycle education sales role, ideally within the Higher Ed Publishing industry
You have experience selling directly to Professors
A strong understanding of technology use and implementation in an educational environment, particularly with Learning Management Systems and curricula
A competitive drive and a track record of consistently achieving/surpassing sales goals
You’re resilient - you take calculated risks and fail forward, always learning and growing from your setbacks
A positive attitude and outlook on your work, and are a strong contributor to sustaining the culture of Packback
You’re fearlessly curious - willing to dive into problems, to be curious enough to discover the right opportunities to pursue, and pursue them with competitiveness, resiliency, and positivity
Passionate about education and providing research-backed, equitable, and accessible learning experiences for every learner
Strong communication and presentation skills, you are able to network and consult with all stakeholders of a higher education institution
You have the ability to travel with some overnight commitments on campus and in our Packback offices; must be able to travel by both automobile and plane

Values fit - the individual must be aligned with all our company values, but especially as it relates to:

We are fearlessly curious
We are radically kind
We do what we say we will do
We never stop moving forward (no matter how small the step)
We earn leadership through humility, optimism, and ownership
We employ an investor’s mindset

Perks of working at Packback:

A culture that you can be proud to build: We work hard at building an inclusive culture of curiosity and continuous learning at Packback. In any role at Packback, being a good steward of our values and using them to inform decisions and communication can make an enormous impact on the business.

Benefits and Perks:

Health & Wellness
Medical Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
May be eligible for a generous tech stipend
401K: Packback offers 50% matching up to 4% of employee contributions.
Stock options
Disability Insurance
Life Insurance
Commuter Benefits
Generous Paid Parental Leave up to 12 weeks
Family Medical Leave
Unlimited Time Off

Additional Perks:

Access to premium membership to One Medical
Calm subscription
Monthly Dashpass subscription by DoorDash
For Chicago-based employees - a convenient Loop office (Clark & Monroe). The building offers a food hall, coffee bar, gym, outdoor space, and shared co-working floor

Our commitment to diversity:

Working in the Education Technology space, Packback believes it is an ethical necessity for us to work to build a diverse and inclusive team, to help us better consider the needs of our diverse audience of students with a wide range of educational backgrounds and educational needs.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity in our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Please note:

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S without the need for sponsorship. Packback does not offer visa sponsorship for this role.