Senior Relationship Manager (French Speaking)

Handshake; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading education platform in the UK is looking for a Senior Customer Success Manager to oversee strategic partnerships and ensure partner satisfaction. The role involves managing relationships, driving product adoption, and collaborating with internal teams. Ideal candidates will have over 5 years in customer success, experience in SaaS, and strong communication skills. The company offers equitable benefits and a collaborative culture that supports professional growth.

Benefits

Equity and ownership in a growing company

16 weeks paid parental leave

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies

Home office stipend of £360

Annual learning stipend of £1,500

Monthly commuter stipend

Free lunch twice a week

Discounts with various retailers

Qualifications

• 5+ years in customer success, managing strategic partnerships.
• Experience with SaaS in tech environments.
• Fluent in written and spoken English and French.

Responsibilities

• Manage core relationships with strategic partners.
• Drive partner retention through trust and advocacy.
• Act as main contact throughout the partner lifecycle.
• Communicate key updates and collaborate with teams.

Skills

Customer Success

Relationship Management

Data Reporting

Communication

Process Improvement

Problem Solving

Collaboration

Job description

Overview

Everyone is welcome at Handshake. We know diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive culture built on a foundation of respect for all individuals. We strongly encourage candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, historically marginalized or underrepresented groups to apply.

Your impact

As a Senior Customer Success Manager at Handshake, you are responsible for ensuring our education partners are healthy, happy, successful, and retained. You will create repeatable and reusable tactics for driving engagement across our university partners' teams.

In this critical role, we are seeking an individual with a wealth of experience as a customer success manager to manage our most strategic partnerships. Given the rapid pace of our expansion, we require someone who not only possesses a deep understanding of how to create and maintain strong partnerships but has a proven track record of successful market growth in tech.

To succeed in this role, you must be prepared to set a high bar for yourself and those around you. There is always a way to contribute: acting with autonomy on the opportunities you come across, having accountability and being open to new challenges are essential to our continued success. There is an opportunity to make a real impact here. If you are driven and hungry for a challenge to help us on our mission to help students fulfil their career dreams, then we can’t wait to meet you!

Your role

• Relationship Management - Owning the core and executive relationships for our key strategic partners. Maintaining a proactive approach with partners and regularly meeting them to understand their current state and how to help them achieve their goals through Handshake.
• Renewals and expansions - Building trust and advocacy with partners which ultimately leads to driving retention. Driving the plan of action internally and externally for key partners.
• Owning Customer Journey - Act as the main point of contact for your partners, accountable for the entire partner lifecycle from onboarding and implementation to adoption and optimization, including knowing when to bring other team members in and working with the support team on improving processes for day-to-day questions.
• Internal Collaboration - Communicate key updates to the wider team, secure opportunities for success stories, and collaborate with sales and product teams for effective partnership differentiation and enhancement.
• Product Knowledge - Demonstrate a deep understanding of the Handshake product and the ability to consult using best practices and learnings from managing university partners. Expand product adoption and drive value for university partners. Stay on top of the roadmap and identify opportunities to excite partners about our vision.
• Product Adoption and Best Practices - Expand and deepen product adoption, creating strong action plans with university partners on leveraging our platform to drive student and employer engagement. Learn about the career services space and adapt workflows to achieve success with the Handshake product.
• Partner Health and Retention - Track health assessments and collaborate with Handshake’s Product Teams to address partner needs promptly and escalate key product developments. Use data reporting and dashboards to understand trends and maintain account health. Own a region by providing insights to internal teams and sharing partner insights as we scale.
• Mentorship - Provide coaching and guidance to junior colleagues and act as a role model. As the senior CSM, you will be the go-to person for escalations and internal initiatives.
• Customer On-sites - Travel to universities to run partner on-sites for milestone meetings and relationship-building with the wider team and students to demonstrate Handshake impact.

Your experience

• An established Customer Success professional (5+ years) who helps partners achieve goals and supports team growth.
• Proven experience with SaaS; startup experience is a bonus and helpful as we scale.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable presenting to key decision makers.
• Energetic in high-pressure, fast-growth environments with the ability to build repeatable, scalable processes.
• Ability to prioritize workload with high attention to detail.
• Confident with data reporting and analysis to tell stories and spot trends.
• High level of curiosity and initiative; you see opportunities and act on them.
• Ability to think critically and empathetically about customer needs.
• Collaborative spirit and ability to add value to a team environment.
• Adaptable to evolving business needs and willing to contribute to process improvement.
• Fluent in written and spoken French and English (German is a big plus).

For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. In order to be compliant with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share salary ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

About us

Handshake is the #1 place to launch a career with no connections, experience, or luck required. The platform connects up-and-coming talent with 750,000+ employers - from Fortune 500 companies like Google, Nike, and Target to thousands of public school districts, healthcare systems, and nonprofits. This Series F fundraise and valuation of $3.5B will fuel Handshake’s next phase of growth and propel our mission to help more people start, restart, and jumpstart their careers.

When it comes to our workforce strategy, we’ve thought deeply about how work-life should look here at Handshake. With our Hub-Based Remote Working strategy, employees can enjoy the flexibility of remote work, whilst ensuring collaboration and team experiences in a shared space remains possible. Handshake is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Denver, New York, London, and Berlin and teammates working globally.

Check out our careers site to find a hub near you!

What we offer

At Handshake, we’ll give you the tools to feel healthy, happy and secure.

Benefits below apply to employees in full-time positions.

• 💰 Equity and ownership in a fast-growing company.
• 🍼 16 Weeks of paid parental leave for birth giving parents & 10 weeks of paid parental leave for non-birth giving parents.
• 💝 Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies including LGBTQ+ Coverage. We also provide resources for Mental Health Assistance, Employee Assistance Programs and counseling support.
• 💻 Handshake offers $500 / £360 home office stipend for you to spend during your first 3 months to create a productive and comfortable workspace at home.
• 📚 Generous learning & development opportunities and an annual $2,000 / £1,500 / €1,850 stipend for you to grow your skills and career.
• 💰 Financial coaching through Origin to help you through your financial journey.
• 🛜 Monthly internet stipend and a brand new MacBook to allow you to do your best work.
• 🚃 Monthly commuter stipend for you to expense your travel to the office (for office-based employees).
• 🥗 Free lunch provided twice a week across all offices.
• 🤝 Referral bonus to reward you when you bring great talent to Handshake.

(US-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)

• 🏦 401k Match: Handshake offers a dollar-for-dollar match on 1% of deferred salary, up to a maximum of $1,200 per year.
• 🏝 All full-time US-based Handshakers are eligible for our flexible time off policy to get out and see the world. In addition, we offer 8 standardized holidays, and 2 additional days of flexible holiday time off. Lastly, we have a Winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off.
• 🍼 Lactation support: Handshake partners with Milk Stork to provide a comprehensive 100% employer-sponsored lactation support to traveling parents and guardians.

(UK-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)

• 🏦 Pension Scheme: Handshake will provide you with a workplace pension, where you will make contributions based on 5% of your salary. Handshake will pay the equivalent of 3% towards your pension plan, subject to qualifying earnings limits.
• 🏝 Up to 25 days of vacation to encourage people to reset, recharge, and refresh, in addition to 8 bank holidays throughout the year.
• 🤝 Regular offsites each year to bring the team together + opportunity to travel to our HQ in San Francisco.
• 🛍️ Discounts across various high street retailers, cinemas and other social activities exclusively for Handshake UK employees.

(Germany-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)

• 🏝 25 days of annual leave + we have a Winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off across the company.
• 🤝 Regular offsites each year to bring the team together + opportunity to travel to our HQ in San Francisco once a year.
• 🧘 Urban sports club membership offering access to a diverse network of fitness and wellness facilities.
• 🛍️ Discounts across various high street retailers, cinemas and other social activities exclusively for Handshake Germany employees.

For roles based in Romania: Please ask your recruiter about region-specific benefits.

Looking for more? Explore our mission, values and comprehensive US benefits at

What we offer

At Handshake, we’ll give you the tools to feel healthy, happy and secure.