Merit is an Australian-based, privately-owned software company established in 1996, serving a client base of International Governments with Border Management Software Solutions (BMS). Merit's reputation has been built on developing long term trusted relationships with its clients through the delivery of exceptional service and reliable and stable. Merit is well positioned to pursue significant growth in its Border Management platform.
Through its strategic relationship with the Federal Government Department of Home Affairs, Merit has significant opportunity to grow its client base within the Pacific Region and to deliver new solutions to existing clients.
With an experienced Advisory Board in place to guide commercial and strategic decision making and the recent appointment of a highly experienced Chief Technology Officer, Merit is well positioned to become the dominant player in the market.
About the role
Reporting to the Chair of the Advisory Board and Owner, the CEO will be responsible for developing and executing a strategy to ensure the long-term sustainability and growth of the business. The CEO will be the primary relationship with Merit's key customers and will put in place practices to ensure Merit becomes a key partner to its clients, engaging in long term business planning to ensure close alignment with client's and to cement Merit as a strategic partner for today and the future, through proactive product and service development in line with emerging client needs. Leading a small collaborative team,
the CEO is responsible for ensuring delivery against Merit's strategic priorities and customer project commitments, whilst reinforcing Merit's tight knit culture and creating an accountable and disciplined operating environment through the introduction of fit for purpose project management and performance coaching disciplines.
Key responsibilities
- Develop a growth strategy for Merit that focuses on Merits key areas of competence and expertise based on deep customer insight, market and technology trends
- Demonstrate strong knowledge of technology trends and issues and prepare Merit to leverage these as appropriate
- Manage strategic threats through maintaining a strong knowledge of competitors, future customer needs and market trends
- Identify new client opportunities and engage to build relationships, understand needs and validate opportunities
- Establish a sales pipeline including opportunities from new and existing customers
- Build a strong culture of cross selling to existing customers to expand revenue opportunities and strategic client relevance
- Grow revenues in line with the budget and forecast
- Develop and implement a strategy to diversity client concentration risk
- Negotiate client contracts to maximise value to Merit over the long term and to mitigate legal risk
- Implement 'fit for purpose' practices to ensure effective project management and governance
About you
- Strong people leadership capabilities with the demonstrated ability to build high performing teams
- Experience in building deep client relationships, understanding their needs and presenting solutions that deliver client value
- Experience in the provision of software solutions to governments of smaller nations and ideally, experience in dealing with clients within the Pacific region
- Experience in developing a business growth strategy that delivers long term results
- Experience in project management and delivery of complex systems
- Robust commercial acumen with the ability to design product pricing that delivers sustainable growth in revenues and margins
- Self-starter/self-driven with the ability to work independently and remotely whilst collaborating with team members
- Strong verbal and written communication skills with a natural empathy for customers and their challenges and the ability to explain technical solutions to non-technical people
- Bachelor's degree, ideally in Business/Commerce, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field. and an MBA would be highly regarded
- Deep understanding of the evolving technology landscape and how this is influencing client needs and systems development practices