Manager Strategic Accounts | The Hague

Want to make your mark on our time? Join TNO as Strategic Accounts Manager for the DSS Unit in The Hague!

About this position

Contributing to a safe world and helping to lead the growth of one of TNO's most challenging locations. Envision it. For our strategic accounts, we’re looking for experienced and driven Strategic Accounts Manager at TNO for the Hague location. Driven project managers are always welcome at TNO – especially if you want to use your leadership skills for innovations in the defence and security domain. Respond to this vacancy and find out how you can contribute to a safe world.

What will be your role?

In this versatile position, the manager knows how to shape stable support for the decision-making processes within the unit's management, acting as a sparring partner for both administrative and strategic issues and dossiers – the focus here is on external orientation and corresponding relations with the outside world.

The manager of the strategic accounts staff office is also the manager of the 5 full-time account managers, the CDR Secretary, and the Portal Office Manager, each with their own functional line to the Managing Director. This management of the staff office in general, and these managers in particular, is therefore mainly facilitative.

You work in a constantly changing, political playing field, one that matters within and outside of TNO. The DSS Team of Directors needs you and the staff office personnel to be up to date on important issues and to make quick, sound decisions. Impact through focus and mass and a system-level approach are key principles here.

Your activities:

• You operationalise multi-level account management within the DSS Unit in a way that fosters connection and collaboration within the Unit divisions and also contributes effectively to where we as a Unit want to achieve impact in the outside world. In doing so, you also involve other staff with account management roles in the Unit. If necessary, you’ll make organisational changes within the Strategic Accounts staff office to ensure better connectivity both externally and internally.
• As account manager, you’re the point of contact for the top-level contacts of the Policy Board and possibly – in the future – of the COMMIT Defence account. In this role, you’ll be responsible for deploying strategic collaboration and supporting the DSS Unit Team of Directors.
• You identify current events and respond accordingly. You also gather information for decisions to be made and prepare papers where necessary. You proactively look at opportunities and threats. Regarding account management, you identify key challenges for the DSS Unit and focus on the right things. You quickly assess value and translate this to the relevant stakeholders.
• You have an important role in the strategically positioning of the DSS MD for external relations and also the associated effective deployment of the account managers.

• Together with the DSS MD, you ensure a proactive external agenda.
• You organise and prepare the DSS MD's (external) working visits, meetings, speeches, and presentations, including the possible recording of decisions; you participate in these meetings where appropriate and in some cases you represent DSS on behalf of the DSS MD in meetings.
• In the case of overseas visits, you fully prepare the trip in terms of process and content. To this end, you proactively make proposals to the DSS MD. If necessary in relation to the objectives, you’ll travel with them to the relevant location to follow up on the spot.

• You’re responsible for communicating the strengths and added value of the DSS unit. In doing so, you work closely with the Strategic Account team and the Marketing & Communications Business Partner to develop an external communication strategy that both strengthens the unit's image with clients and creates new business opportunities. You also regularly attend (inter)national events and deploy the appropriate media to increase the unit's visibility and impact.
• You lead the strategic accounts staff office with a focus on the HR portfolio. In doing so, you ensure that staff in the staff office feel interconnected as a team and with the market teams of the various divisions.
• You participate in the management meetings of the DSS unit.

What we expect from you

• You’re the collective conscience of the organisation and have a connecting role in complex processes. You actively contribute to a joint result and are able to adapt where necessary through style flexibility to achieve the desired goal.
• You’re entrepreneurial, identify strategic opportunities, and are able to convert them into a concrete business plan for the DSS Unit or parts thereof.
• The issues you work on are on a social, managerial, and strategic level and often have a major impact on the organisation and beyond. Confidentiality and integrity are keywords.
• You can negotiate, influence, motivate, translate, and share knowledge between all domains and levels, such as management, MT, DSS and Corporate staff, professionals, external stakeholders in the boardroom and political and social context. This role requires tact and political-administrative sensitivity.
• You have good communication skills; you’re a skilled writer with excellent command of the Dutch and English languages.

About the department

The various DDS staff units are clustered under the Staff Office. The DSS Unit Staff Office’s main task is to offer unit-wide support to create coherence and enhance the Unit's manageability, allowing the Managing Director and Team of Directors to focus more on strategic matters. The staff office consists of two parts, one focused on operations and the other on strategic accounts. The staff office is a group of approximately 20 DSS employees with a variety of strategic, advisory, operational, and/or executive duties that contribute both to the day-to-day running of the unit and its relationship with the outside world.

The primary focus of the Strategic Accounts section of the Staff Office is on efficiently managing the strategic accounts of the DSS Unit at multiple levels. The accounts within this component are National Security, Army, Air Force, Navy, and International (NATO/EDA). The account manager functions in the role of director for these accounts for the DSS Unit. This means account managers are responsible for creating a coherent and efficient approach in which all aspects of the customer relationship are well managed and any bottlenecks are identified and resolved in a timely manner. As Strategic Accounts Manager, you’ll also take on account management duties for the team as a co-working foreman/woman. In addition, the Secretary for the Council for Defence Research (CDR) and the Portal Office Manager fall under this part of the staff office.

The duties of the Strategic Account team include: strengthening strategic collaboration with the outside world; ensuring mutual collaboration within the DSS divisions in the area of commercial activities; setting up and implementing strategic and operational multi-level account management; identifying and developing the added value of the Strategic Accounts function for the DSS Unit; and promoting economies of scale by converting the mind-set from project-based thinking to overseeing the entire system and the impact to be achieved within it.

What you'll get in return

Challenging and varied work with a real impact. And plenty of opportunities as, at TNO, you are in charge of shaping your career. We offer a gross yearly salary between € 110.000 and € 140.000 (based on your knowledge and experience), 8% holiday pay, a 13th month bonus of 8.33% and a flex budget (5.58% + € 180). In addition, you will be given every opportunity to develop yourself.

TNO offers optional employee benefits, enabling you to tailor your benefits package to match your personal situation. You may also expect:

• An extremely professional, innovative working environment where colleagues are leading experts in their field.
• The opportunity to attend courses, workshops and conferences, and to receive training and coaching based on your needs.
• 33 days annual leave on a full-time basis.
• An employer that values and encourages diverse talent, with initiatives like the Female Leadership Program, our Rainbow Community and round tables on inclusion topics.
• We offer a comprehensive and flexible mobility plan that also includes full compensation for public transportation for commuting and business travel or a leased car.
• Great social events with your team and other TNO colleagues. That’s how you will get to know a lot of people really quickly.
• Flexible working hours, the possibility to work parttime (32 of 36 hours) and the possibility of working from home.
• A good pension scheme.

TNO as an employer

At TNO, we innovate for a healthier, safer and more sustainable life. And for a strong economy. Since 1932, we have been making knowledge and technology available for the common good. We find each other in wonder and ingenuity. We are driven to push boundaries. There is all the space and support for your talent and ambition. You work with people who will challenge you: who inspire you and want to learn from you. Our state-of-the-art facilities are there to realize your vision. What you do at TNO matters: impact makes the difference. Because with every innovation you contribute to tomorrow’s world.

At TNO we encourage an inclusive work environment, where you can be yourself. Whatever your story and whatever unique qualities you bring to the table. It is by combining our unique strengths and perspectives that we are able to develop innovations that make a real difference in society.

We are TNO: This is our time

This is the time for us to find innovative solutions that will make an impact. The time to lead the world in safety and security, make our lives healthier, and take sustainability to the next level.