Customer Success Lead

Instant; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee equity

Generous PTO

Medical insurance

Vision coverage

Dental coverage

Daily team lunch

Hybrid or remote work (NYC)

Job summary

Instant is seeking a Customer Success Lead to shape and scale our global CS function. This is ideal for a senior CSM ready to lead, own a broader customer journey, and help build the CS function from the ground up.

You’ll own strategic customers from day one and collaborate with Product, Sales and Engineering to improve retention and unlock expansion across our growing ecommerce base.

Qualifications

• Senior CSM or team lead with B2B SaaS experience.
• Strong ecommerce/retail experience.
• Proven ability to own customer relationships and drive retention, adoption and expansion.
• Commercially minded with metrics like NRR, churn and health.
• Mentor others and help grow the CS function.

Responsibilities

• Manage and grow a portfolio of ecommerce customers, driving adoption, retention and expansion.
• Own key customer health, retention and expansion metrics for your portfolio.
• Identify risks early and turn customer challenges into action plans.
• Create and improve onboarding, adoption, engagement, renewal and expansion playbooks.
• Develop processes and operating rhythms to make the team proactive and scalable.
• Define what great CS looks like at Instant—from engagement to product adoption and outcomes.
• Use data to identify trends, diagnose problems and improve the customer experience.
• Mentor and coach other CSMs, onboarding new team members.
• Partner with SLT and founders to shape hiring, structure and priorities.
• Be the voice of the customer with Product, Sales, Marketing and Engineering.

Skills

Ecommerce experience

B2B SaaS experience

Customer relationship management

Mentoring others

Job description

Instant is looking for a Customer Success Lead to help shape and scale our global Customer Success function. This is an exciting opportunity for a high-performing Senior CSM or team lead who has mastered the individual contributor role and is ready to step into leadership, own a bigger piece of the customer journey, and help build the CS function from the ground up.

You’ll be hands-on from day one - owning a portfolio of strategic customers while building the processes, playbooks and standards that enable the wider team to succeed. You’ll work closely with leadership, Product, Sales and Engineering to improve retention, drive adoption and unlock expansion across our growing customer base.

Ecommerce or ESP experience is essential. You’ll need to understand how ecommerce brands operate, what drives their growth, and the challenges they face across acquisition, conversion and retention.

Why Instant

Instant is the world’s first AI-powered marketing manager built for ecommerce. Today, we’re quickly becoming the most important piece of technology to help the fastest growing brands on the planet to significantly scale their revenue — on autopilot. We're reinventing how brands bring their lost shoppers back to purchase through AI-powered email and SMS retention marketing. Our ambition is to be just as important and essential as Meta when it comes to helping an ecommerce brand scale.

This is a rare chance to help build a generational company at a true inflection point. Today, we service over 1,000+ of the worlds fastest growing brands like ThirdLove, David Protein, July Luggage and Meshki, with Instant’s products generating over 30% of our customers annualised revenue. We have strong product-market fit, adding more than $1M in ARR every month, 100M’s of shoppers interacting with Instant everyday, and the backing of world-class investors with over $35M raised from Blackbird, Hummingbird and Hubspot. We’re scaling fast.

The work is ambitious, the talent bar is high, and the opportunity for growth - personal, professional, and financial - is unmatched. Instant would be the fastest moving company you’d ever be apart of in your career. So, if you consider yourself ambitious, we invite you to join us!

What you’ll do:

Own Customer Success:

• Manage and grow a portfolio of ecommerce customers, becoming a trusted partner and driving adoption, retention and expansion.
• Own key customer health, retention and expansion metrics and understand the numbers behind your portfolio.
• Identify risks early and turn customer challenges into clear action plans.

Help Build the CS Function:

• Create and improve playbooks across onboarding, adoption, engagement, renewal and expansion.
• Develop processes and operating rhythms that make the team more proactive and scalable.
• Help define what great Customer Success looks like at Instant - from customer engagement to product adoption and commercial outcomes.
• Use data to identify trends, diagnose problems and continuously improve the customer experience.
• Mentor and coach other CSMs, raising the bar on customer management and commercial thinking.
• Help onboard and develop new team members as the function grows.
• Partner closely with SLT & founders to shape hiring, team structure and priorities.
• Become a key voice for the customer internally, working closely with Product, Sales, Marketing and Engineering.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong ecommerce / retail experience - you understand the industry, its commercial drivers and the challenges ecommerce brands face.
• Proven experience as a Senior CSM, Strategic CSM or similar within B2B SaaS.
• A strong track record of owning customer relationships and driving retention, adoption and expansion.
• You're commercially minded and comfortable with metrics such as NRR, churn, expansion and customer health.
• You're naturally proactive - you spot problems, diagnose them and come with a plan to solve them.
• You're excited by the opportunity to build, not just maintain. You want more ownership and responsibility than your current role gives you.
• You enjoy mentoring others and are ready to take your first (or next) step into formal CS leadership.
• You're comfortable working in a fast-moving environment where priorities change quickly and there's plenty to build.

What success looks like:

In your first 3 months, you will have:

• Built the "happy customer machine." From trial to full adoption, customers get an incredible experience with Instant, and we hit world class retention and expansion along the way.
• Own activation and onboarding for every new customer in the US.
• 80% of customers reach full price after their one month trial of Instant AI.
• 80% of customers reach full adoption of Instant AI's products.
• 98% monthly gross revenue retention across our North American customers.
• Built real relationships across our key customer portfolio, covering renewals, annual contracts and case studies.
• Turned customer success into a revenue machine. Instant has a huge expansion play, and you will drive the team to surpass 110% NRR.

The comp range for this role is $135,000 - $150,000 + uncapped OTE.

• We offer a comprehensive benefits package including employee equity, competitive compensation, generous PTO, Medical, Vision, Dental coverage and daily team lunch. This role is hybrid or remote, from NYC.