About the Account Manager Role at Strava

This role sits on the Strava for Business (SfB) team, the group that partners with the world's leading brands and agencies to reach and inspire active communities through Strava's challenge platform, segments, and athlete data. As an Account Manager, you'll own a defined portfolio of brand and agency partners with clear retention and growth targets. This is explicitly a role for someone who has moved past execution into genuine ownership: leading renewals end-to-end (positioning, pricing, timing, stakeholder alignment), driving expansion within existing accounts alongside the Client Partner, and turning campaign performance into the case for what comes next.

Strava is looking for a proven B2B advertising sales account manager who can hit retention and growth numbers, lead (not just support) renewals and upsell conversations, and translate challenge data (joins, completions, audience quality) into strategic recommendations. Because APAC is a small regional team with limited in-person support, you'll need to operate with real autonomy, adapt global SfB playbooks to the local market, run QBRs, and navigate multi-stakeholder relationships spanning brand, agency, procurement, and planning contacts. A genuine interest in the active lifestyle space rounds out the profile.

Quick Stats

* Typical process: 4 to 5 rounds, roughly 3 to 5 weeks

* Format: Recruiter phone screen, then video interviews with a possible final on-site component in Sydney (flexible hybrid)

* Core focus: Commercial ownership, renewals and upsell, campaign data storytelling, multi-stakeholder management, QBRs, APAC autonomy

* Difficulty: Moderate to hard, because you must prove end-to-end commercial ownership and data-driven renewal storytelling, not just execution support

What Strava Looks For

* Proven B2B advertising sales account management with a track record of owning commercial relationships end-to-end

* Demonstrated success hitting retention and growth targets across a defined book of business, leading renewals and upsells

* Ability to turn campaign data (joins, completions, audience quality) into strategic recommendations, not just performance summaries

* Strong multi-stakeholder management and confidence in difficult commercial conversations, with autonomy in a small regional team

Round 1: Recruiter Screen (~30 minutes)

What to Expect

A talent partner will walk through your background, motivation for Strava for Business, and fit for a small APAC team. Expect questions about your book-of-business experience, your comfort operating with autonomy, and logistics like the Sydney hybrid model, availability, and salary expectations (the range is A$125K to A$135K plus equity). This is where you deliver a crisp pitch on why advertising sales account management at Strava, and why you.

Example Questions

* "Walk me through your current book of business: how many accounts, what revenue, and what your retention and growth targets look like."

* "Why Strava for Business, and why the active lifestyle space specifically?"

* "How comfortable are you operating with autonomy in a small regional team with limited in-person support?"

* "What are your salary expectations, and are you able to work a hybrid model based in Sydney?"

Tips

* Lead with concrete numbers: portfolio size, retention rate, and growth against target, so ownership is obvious from the first minute.

* Connect your motivation to Strava's mission and how brand partnerships work in an active-lifestyle context.

* Rehearse this quick pitch and the "why this company" answer with Nora's Standard Mode, which mirrors the classic phone-screen mix.

Round 2: Hiring Manager Interview (~45 to 60 minutes)

What to Expect

A conversation with the SfB hiring manager (likely a Client Partner or regional lead) focused on commercial ownership. Expect to go deep on how you lead renewals end-to-end, drive expansion, contribute to pricing discussions, and forecast accurately across a full book of business. This round tests whether you truly own commercial outcomes or have mainly supported them.

Example Questions

* "Tell me about a renewal you led end-to-end: how you handled positioning, pricing, timing, and stakeholder alignment."

* "Describe a time you identified an expansion opportunity inside an existing account and turned it into revenue."

* "How do you build an accurate forecast, and how have you addressed a pipeline gap before it hit revenue?"

* "Walk me through how deal structure affected account economics in a deal you shaped."

Tips

* Use STAR stories with real metrics: renewal value, uplift percentage, and how you held the commercial position.

* Show judgment on pricing, when you held firm and when you escalated, since the posting explicitly calls this out.

* Practice these ownership narratives with Nora's Behavioral Mode to tighten your STAR structure and quantify outcomes.

Round 3: Data, Measurement, and QBR Exercise (~60 minutes)

What to Expect

A working session or case discussion tied to the role's insight and measurement responsibilities. You may be asked to design a campaign measurement framework, analyze challenge performance (joins, completions, audience quality), and build a renewal narrative or QBR that connects results to a brand's business objectives. This is the round where "turn data into strategy, not summaries" gets tested directly.

Example Questions

* "Given challenge results showing high joins but low completions, how would you diagnose it and what would you recommend to the client?"

* "Design a measurement framework for a strategic brand partner: what metrics matter and why?"

* "Walk me through a QBR you would run: how do you connect campaign performance to the brand's business objectives?"

* "How would you adapt a global SfB playbook when APAC market nuances call for a different approach?"

Tips

* Frame every data point around the renewal case and future investment, not just what happened.

* Structure a QBR as a story: objective, result, insight, and the recommended next step.

* Run a mock case and QBR walk-through in Nora's Technical Mode to sharpen your framework design and data-to-recommendation logic.

Round 4: Stakeholder and Objection Role-Play (~45 minutes)

What to Expect

A behavioral and situational round focused on relationships and difficult conversations. Expect scenarios about navigating client objections, holding a commercial position while maintaining trust, and building multi-threaded relationships across brand, agency, procurement, and planning teams. Cross-functional delivery, escalating risks early, and mentoring junior teammates may also come up.

Example Questions

* "A client pushes back hard on renewal pricing. Walk me through how you hold the commercial position while keeping the relationship intact."

* "Tell me about a time a delivery risk threatened a renewal. How did you spot it early and escalate with the right context?"

* "How do you build relationships beyond the day-to-day buyer, reaching marketing leads, procurement, and planning?"

* "Describe how you have coached or mentored a junior team member."

Tips

* Show you can be firm and trusted at once: name the moment you held the line and the moment you escalated.

* Emphasize multi-threading and cross-functional delivery, since the posting stresses being seen as a partner, not a vendor.

* Rehearse objection-handling and stakeholder scenarios out loud with Nora's Behavioral Mode so your responses stay calm and structured under pressure.

Round 5: Final Conversation and Offer (~30 to 45 minutes)

What to Expect

A final round with a senior SfB or regional leader to confirm culture fit, autonomy, and long-term potential, followed by offer discussion. Given the A$125K to A$135K plus equity range, expect the recruiter to align on compensation, equity, and start details. This is where you reinforce that you can operate independently in APAC and grow the book.

Example Questions

* "What regional insights would you bring to help the broader SfB team grow smarter?"

* "Where do you see the biggest growth opportunity in an APAC brand-partnership portfolio?"

* "Given the compensation range and equity component, what are your expectations?"

* "How do you stay effective and self-directed with limited in-person support?"

Tips

* Come with a light 30-60-90 view of how you would own and grow your portfolio.

* Know your number and the value of the equity component before you discuss compensation.

* Practice the offer conversation with Nora's Salary Negotiation Mode so you can anchor confidently within the range without underselling yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1) How many rounds are there?

Expect roughly 4 to 5 rounds: a recruiter screen, a hiring manager interview on commercial ownership, a data/measurement or QBR exercise, a stakeholder and objection role-play, and a final conversation with offer discussion. Strava does not publish its exact process for this role, so treat this as a realistic structure for a role of this type and stage rather than a guaranteed sequence.

2) What topics are most common?

* End-to-end renewal ownership, upsell, pricing, and forecasting across a defined book of business

* Turning challenge data (joins, completions, audience quality) into QBRs, renewal narratives, and difficult commercial conversations

3) How long does the process take?

Typically about 3 to 5 weeks from recruiter screen to offer, depending on scheduling across a small APAC team and any on-site component in Sydney.

4) How should I prepare?

* Build 5 to 6 STAR stories with real numbers on renewals, expansion, forecasting, and holding pricing under pressure.

* Prepare a sample measurement framework and a QBR narrative that connects campaign performance to a brand's business objectives.

* Research Strava for Business, the challenge platform, and how brand partnerships work in the active-lifestyle space, plus the APAC market context.

* Use Nora AI to rehearse: Standard Mode for the recruiter screen, Behavioral Mode for ownership and objection stories, Technical Mode for the data and QBR case, and Salary Negotiation Mode for the offer.