Manager, Strategic Accounts - GM Defense

Job Description

Remote: This role is based remotely from the United States. Must be available and able to travel worldwide, including to Washington DC, Warren, Milford, Michigan and other customer locations as needed.
The Role:

GM Defense (GMD) is building and expanding strategic relationships with traditional Defense Primes and government customers across the Department of War (DoW) and the broader defense industrial base.The Manager, Strategic Accounts is accountable for developing and executing customer account strategies that create durable growth across manufacturing, engineering and supply chain opportunities. The role combines senior customer engagement, business development, program management and organizational leadership to move opportunities from early concept and gate development through executable program plans and business cases.

Reporting to the Vice President, Strategy and Transformation, this leader will serve as a senior representative of GM Defense with Defense Primes, DoW stakeholders and internal GM leaders. The role will establish the conditions for winning business by applying the “Real, Win, Worth” framework, aligning customer need with GM Defense capabilities, and ensuring that opportunities are strategically attractive, executable and economically sound.

The successful candidate must be highly self-directed, exceptionally organized and effective in building trust across distributed teams, customer organizations and partner ecosystems. The role will lead a small team of individuals and mobilize cross-functional resources to support a portfolio of defense-prime accounts and opportunities.
What You’ll Do:

- Own and execute strategic account plans for traditional Defense Primes, including relationship maps, customer priorities, whitespace opportunities, engagement strategies, pipeline objectives and executive action plans.

- Build and maintain trusted relationships with Defense Prime executives, business-unit leaders, program managers, capture leaders, engineering organizations, manufacturing leaders, supply chain teams and procurement stakeholders.

- Identify, qualify and shape new business opportunities across manufacturing, engineering and supply chain support for DoW programs and Defense Prime customers.

- Lead opportunity development through early gates by applying the “Real, Win, Worth” framework: validate the customer need and addressable market, define the path to win, and establish the strategic, operational and financial value for GM Defense.

- Develop integrated program plans and business cases that define scope, customer requirements, solution approach, milestones, resources, investment, risks, dependencies, pricing inputs, expected returns and decision points.

- Translate customer requirements and Defense Prime program needs into actionable internal workstreams with clear owners, timelines, deliverables and escalation paths.

- Lead a small team of account, business development and program professionals; set priorities, coach performance, establish operating cadence and ensure consistent execution across the portfolio.

- Mobilize and lead cross-functional teams across strategy, business development, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, finance, legal, contracts, security and operations.

- Brief the Vice President of Strategy and Transformation, GM Defense senior leaders and other executive stakeholders on account health, opportunity status, program plans, business cases, risks, decisions required and recommended actions.

- Prepare concise, decision-quality executive materials and customer-facing content, including account reviews, opportunity reviews, gate packages, capture strategies, program plans and business cases.

- Establish disciplined operating rhythms for account reviews, opportunity tracking, customer engagement, action-item closure, risk management and executive escalation.

- Partner with government-facing and capture organizations to align Defense