Key Accounts Lead – 7181 Full Time

Salary: £29,700 – £38,550

Location: Cambridge -The Triangle Building, UK (Hybrid – 2 to 3 days on site minimum)

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full Time (35 hours per week)

We are looking for a Key Accounts Lead who will be part of our UK Credit Management Team. Credit & Collections plays a critical role in supporting the organisation’s financial sustainability and long-term success, by means of on time collections and credit risk assessment.

We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.

About The Role

The Key Accounts Lead plays a critical role in supporting the organisation’s financial sustainability and long-term success. Managing a portfolio of high-value, complex key accounts with limits typically ranging £300k to over £50m, ensuring collections to drive down debtors to minimize bad debt.

Additional responsibilities and accountabilities include:

• Build strong, trusted partnerships with Sales and Operational teams to deliver tailored, customer-focused solutions while protecting the organisation’s financial interests.
• Develop a deep understanding of contractual terms, billing structures and payment obligations to support timely collections and dispute resolution.
• Assess and monitor credit risk, enforce credit limits and payment terms, and escalate issues appropriately to minimise exposure to bad debt.
• Provide accurate and timely reports on aged debt, collections performance, and credit risk to support strategic decision-making.

About You

We’re looking for motivated team member who combines strong technical capability with excellent relationship-building skills and a collaborative mindset. You’ll be comfortable operating in a complex, global environment and confident taking ownership of high-value decisions that have a direct impact on business performance.

You will collaborate with leadership and transformation teams to drive and implement change, including the integration of the Press and Assessment’s legacy finance operations, processes, and systems, with the objective of achieving a cohesive and streamlined finance function. Additionally, you will ensure compliance with audit requirements, credit insurance, GDPR, legal obligations, and operational standards while consistently upholding your department’s reputation when interacting with both internal and external stakeholders.

Essential Skills/Qualities:

• Excellent communication skills, with an ability to build trusted relationships with customers and across internal teams and seniority levels.
• Strong systems capability, with experience of SAP (or similar ERP systems) and Excel skills for reporting and analysis.
• High level of organisation and prioritisation, with the ability to manage end-to-end processes and deliver to deadlines.
• Curious and improvement-focused, motivated to challenge existing ways of working and contribute to continuous improvement.
• Accountable and empowered, taking ownership of outcomes and acting decisively while knowing when to escalate.

If you meet the above minimum requirements, we encourage you to apply. Your application will be even stronger if you can also demonstrate the following desirable criteria:

• Working towards or holding AAT or CICM qualification

For a detailed job description, please refer to the link at the bottom of the advert on our careers site.

We are a Disability Confident (DC) employer that is committed to equality and inclusion ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to all. The DC scheme’s Offer of an Interview commitment applies to applicants who opt in, and disclose a disability or a long-term health condition, and best meet the minimum criteria for the role. In instances where interviewing all qualifying candidates is not practicable, we prioritise those who best meet the minimum criteria, as we would for applicants who do not have a disability or long-term health condition.

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is an approved UK employer for the sponsorship of eligible roles and applicants under the Skilled Worker visa route. Please refer to the gov.uk website for guidance to understand your own eligibility based on the role you are applying for

Rewards And Benefits

We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:

• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Group personal pension scheme
• Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
• Green travel schemes

Ready to pursue your potential? Apply now.

We aim to support candidates by making our interview process clear and transparent. The closing date for all applications will be 22nd May. We will review applications on an ongoing basis, and shortlisted candidates can expect interviews to take place from week commencing 18th May onwards.

If you are shortlisted and progressed through the stages, you can expect:

• First stage in-person interview at our offices in Cambridge
• Second interview (in-person or virtual), if necessary, for further assessment of shortlisted candidates

If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process due to a disability or a long-term health condition, there will be an opportunity for you to inform us via the online application form. We will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.

We are committed to an equitable recruitment process. As such, applications must be submitted via our official online application procedure. Please refrain from sending your CV directly to our recruiters. If you experience technical difficulties or require additional support with submitting your online application, contact the Recruiter.

Why join us

Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You’ll belong to a collaborative team that’s exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where it’s safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background.

We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.