Planning Portal Strategic Account Manager

PortalPlanQuest Limited

Role: Strategic Account Manager (X2)

Location: Preferably candidates will be based within the following regions: North-East England Yorkshire East of England or North-West England

If located close to our Birmingham HQ or Bristol candidates should be able to work from these offices 2 days per week in line with our Agile Working Policy.

Salary: Competitive

Who we are...
PortalPlanQuest is a joint venture between TerraQuest Solutions Ltd and the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government. The business delivers the Planning Portal the home of planning and building regulations information and the national planning and building control application services for England and Wales.

Our Vision is to be a successful energetic and ethical company that values its employees respects its customers and provides a first-class service to the built environment industry.

Planning Portal website receives over 1M visits a month and facilitates 95% of online applications to planning and building control authorities in England and Wales. A national website providing advice and guidance with an excellent reputation strong repeat business and partnerships across the built environment industry.

TerraQuest Solutions Ltd is an award-winning and market-leading specialist provider of planning land property and business solutions. We are an established and trusted organisation that is renowned for its expertise in providing innovative and cost-effective solutions to both public and private sectors. Our team delivers bespoke flexible and efficient services through a process-orientated delivery structure. We pride ourselves on strong customer relationships evidenced by the high proportion of referrals and repeat business.

Why work with us

We are a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer committed to supporting the well-being and development of all our people. With competitive salaries enhanced Family Friendly policies; a fabulous suite of benefits (including: Pension; Life Assurance; Employee Assistance Programme; option to buy additional annual leave in addition to 25 days plus Bank Holidays); true flexibility with our Agile Working approach and superb training and development opportunities we really care about our team!

What we need...

Due to a period of sustained growth and supporting the launch of new products and services we are looking to recruit two Strategic Account Managers to join our Planning Portal Team.

The Strategic Account Manager will be responsible for managing and deepening Planning Portals relationships with approximately 60 local authorities across England. This is not a conventional sales role. It is a senior relationship and change management position that sits at the intersection of local government digital transformation and commercial development.

The postholder will be embedded in their local authority patch understood by planning departments and building control teams as a trusted partner and expert. Their primary mission is to drive adoption and advocacy of Planning Portals AI-powered tools support councils through change and identify opportunities to expand the use of TerraQuest services (including PAVS/PACES and planning consultancy) where these genuinely meet council needs.

This role is central to Planning Portals strategy to grow its market share deepen its value to local government and build a defensible relationship-led commercial position.

The responsibilities of this role include:

• Managing and developing relationships with a portfolio of approximately 60 Local Authority accounts
• Acting as the primary point of contact for assigned councils ensuring high levels of engagement and satisfaction
• Protecting and growing Planning Portal market share within assigned accounts
• Driving adoption and usage of Building Control services
• Identifying and closing Planning services from TerraQuest.
• Supporting the introduction and adoption of AI-led planning solutions across Local Authorities
• Identifying risks to retention and proactively implementing mitigation strategies
• Capturing and sharing customer insights to inform product development and strategic direction
• Supporting councils in their digital transformation journeys positioning Planning Portal as a strategic partner

Qualities and Skills Required

The essential qualities and skills required include:

• 410 years experience in local government GovTech or a closely adjacent sector
• Direct experience working within or alongside planning departments (development management validation building control) or planning systems teams
• Strong stakeholder management skills able to build credibility and trust with senior officers and operational teams alike
• Demonstrable ability to lead change or drive adoption of new systems/services within local government settings
• Comfortable operating in a commercially-informed capacity identifying opportunities progressing proposals and managing expectations
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; confident presenting to groups and facilitating workshops
• Self-directed and organised able to manage a large patch with minimal supervision
• Proficient in CRM systems and comfortable with pipeline reporting

The desirable qualities and skills required include:

• Experience working within or with Local Authorities or the public sector
• Knowledge of planning building control or property-related services
• Experience in digital transformation or service improvement programmes
• Exposure to software SaaS or digital product environments
• Additional Information

Please apply for more information and do not be put off if you do not have all of the experience and skills required. If you have the majority of skills and relevant experience we would still like to hear from you!

TerraQuest Solutions Ltd is committed to promoting equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and to creating an inclusive working environment in which individuals are treated with dignity and respect.

We ensure that no job applicant employee or worker receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of age disability gender reassignment marital or civil partnership status pregnancy or maternity race (including colour nationality ethnic or national origin) religion or belief political opinion sex or sexual orientation.

TerraQuest Solutions Ltd operates in compliance with the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998. We monitor the composition of our workforce in accordance with the Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 and where applicable submit annual monitoring returns to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI). All monitoring information is held securely and processed under the legal basis of compliance with a statutory obligation in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. We do not rely on employee consent and ensure all personal data is treated with the utmost confidentiality and integrity.

TerraQuest aims to use this data to help identify and address any patterns of underrepresentation and to inform positive action measures where appropriate fostering a workplace culture that embraces diversity and fair participation.