Strategic Account Director, (Financial Markets)

Lab49 is seeking a dynamic, entrepreneurial Account Director to reignite and grow a major strategic account that has gone cold. This is not a maintenance role - it’s a chance to rebuild from the ground up, unlock new lines of business, and reposition Lab49 as a trusted innovation partner across the front, middle, and back office.

The Opportunity
Lab49 is known for building cutting-edge digital products and platforms for the world’s leading financial institutions. We’ve had deep success selling into technology organizations - but now we’re expanding our reach to business and functional leaders across trading, operations, and procurement. We need a confident, well-connected individual who thrives on opening doors, building new relationships, and uncovering opportunities others can’t see.

You’ll be the catalyst who changes the conversation - helping clients see Lab49 not as staff augmentation, but as a strategic partner delivering differentiated business and technology outcomes.

What You’ll Do::
• Hunt and open new opportunities
• Rebuild relationships across a complex, tier-1 financial institution — from tech and operations to trading, data, and digital transformation teams.
• Identify and penetrate new business units, using creativity, persistence, and your professional network to get in the room.
• Lead proactive outreach campaigns, attend industry events, and leverage introductions to generate qualified leads and meetings.

Drive account growth and repositioning
• Redefine how the client perceives Lab49 — crafting compelling narratives and proposals that showcase our strategic value, innovation capabilities, and delivery excellence.
• Work hand-in-hand with Lab49’s leadership, delivery, and product teams to develop offerings tailored to client pain points.
• Lead pitches, shape SOWs, and negotiate commercial terms that create mutual success.

Build trust and momentum
• Establish credibility with senior executives, building relationships based on insight, follow-through, and value creation.
• Coordinate with delivery teams to ensure excellent execution and client satisfaction, turning early wins into long-term growth.
• Track and manage activity rigorously through CRM tools to ensure full visibility and collaboration across the firm.

Who You Are:
• A hunter at heart – you thrive on opening doors, finding paths in, and converting interest into meaningful opportunities.
• Charismatic, energetic, and credible with senior decision-makers in capital markets and financial services.
• Deeply networked and confident navigating large, matrixed financial institutions.
• Able to build relationships quickly and pivot when needed — comfortable with ambiguity and complexity.
• Commercially minded, with a track record of growing multi-million-dollar accounts or transforming cold accounts into active clients.
• Consultative and creative – able to translate Lab49’s multidisciplinary capabilities (design, product, engineering, data, and AI) into compelling solutions for business and technology leaders.

Qualifications
• 7–10 years’ experience in enterprise account development or business development within financial services, capital markets, or fintech.
• Proven success in hunting and growing accounts within large global banks, asset managers, or trading firms.
• Strong understanding of financial markets, digital transformation, and product development.
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or relevant advanced degree preferred.
• Strong communication, presentation, and storytelling skills.

The base salary range for this role is $180,000 - $220,000. The base salary range may vary depending on the individual's job-related knowledge, skills and experience. Base salary is only one component of our total compensation package. which depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long-term incentive packages.
Salary range disclosure as required by S9427A when hiring in New York.

Lab49/ION is committed to maintaining a supportive and inclusive environment for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We respect the varied identities, abilities, cultures, and traditions of the individuals who comprise our organization and recognize the value that different backgrounds and points of view bring to our business.
Lab49/ION adheres to an equal employment opportunity policy that prohibits discriminatory practices or harassment against applicants or employees based on any legally impermissible factor.