Head of Customer Success

Lightning AI; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 235,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Health Coverage

Meaningful Equity

401(k) matching

Unlimited PTO

Winter Break

Parental & Family Leave

Learning & Development allowance

Wellness stipend

Sabbatical program

Flexible work

In-office meals

Job summary

Lightning AI is seeking a Customer Success Director to build and lead a customer success motion that helps customers adopt faster, expand with confidence, and renew as the product becomes mission-critical. This role is strategic and hands-on: you will lead people, own outcomes, create durable systems, and partner across Revenue, Product, Engineering, and Support to make success repeatable.

You will lead a team of CS Managers or Technical Account Managers, own health and renewal readiness, and

Qualifications

• 8+ years in customer success, account management, or post-sales leadership.
• 3+ years managing teams.
• Experience leading CS motions for technical, enterprise, or consumption-based products.
• Strong communication and executive presence with customers and internal leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of Customer Success Managers and/or Technical Account Managers.
• Own customer health, adoption, retention, expansion, renewal readiness, and executive relationships.
• Build scalable CS operating rhythms: onboarding, success planning, health scoring, renewal forecasting, escalations.
• Partner with Sales to create a post-sale motion driving retention and early expansion.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to translate customer patterns into roadmap feedback.
• Create a proactive, technically curious, commercially aware customer success culture.
• Coach teams through escalations to strengthen long-term relationships.
• Develop repeatable onboarding, use-case expansion, renewal prep, and adoption acceleration playbooks.

Skills

Customer success leadership

Team leadership

Executive presence

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Communication

Job description

We Are

Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.

Who We Are

Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.

Through our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.

We serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.

The Way We Work

The People Who Thrive Here Are Builders Who Move Fast, Communicate Openly, Take Ownership, And Continuously Improve Themselves, Their Teams, And Our Company. Here's What That Looks Like In Practice

• Move with Urgency: We move quickly, make thoughtful decisions, and keep momentum. We value action over perfection and learn by shipping.
• Take Ownership: We own outcomes, not just our individual work. We make decisions that move the company forward and follow through.
• Communicate Openly: We communicate directly, seek to understand, and create clarity for others. Honest conversations help us move faster together.
• Build Great Teams: We lead by example, empower others, and create healthy teams where people can do their best work.
• Raise the Bar: We're always improving ourselves. We learn from feedback, consistently challenge ourselves to grow, and focus on the work that matters most.
• Think Long-Term: We design for what's next. We create scalable systems, simplify complexity, and use AI and automation to amplify our impact.

Head of Customer Success

Team: Customer Success

Location: [NYC] - Hybrid

Reports to: CRO

About Lightning AI

Lightning AI is building the platform and infrastructure that make it dramatically easier for teams to develop, train, deploy, and scale AI systems. As the company behind PyTorch Lightning, and following our merger with Voltage Park, we bring together developer-first AI tooling with high-performance compute infrastructure for researchers, startups, and enterprises building at the frontier of AI.

We operate with a simple set of values: Move Fast, Focus, Balance, Craftsmanship, and Minimal. We care about people who can operate with urgency, solve hard problems directly, and build with high standards without creating unnecessary complexity.

About The Role

We are looking for a Customer Success Director to build and lead a customer success motion that helps Lightning AI customers adopt faster, expand with confidence, and renew because the product has become mission-critical. This role is both strategic and hands‑on: you will lead people, own customer outcomes, create durable systems, and partner across Revenue, Product, Engineering, and Support to make success repeatable.

What You'll Do

• Lead and develop a team of Customer Success Managers and/or Technical Account Managers supporting strategic and growth customers.
• Own customer health, adoption, gross retention, expansion influence, renewal readiness, and executive relationship quality across your segment.
• Build scalable CS operating rhythms, including onboarding, success planning, EBRs, health scoring, renewal forecasting, escalation management, and expansion handoffs.
• Partner with Sales leadership to create a strong post‑sale commercial motion that drives retention and identifies expansion opportunities early.
• Work closely with Product and Engineering to translate customer patterns into roadmap feedback, prioritization signals, and product improvements.
• Create a customer success culture that is proactive, technically curious, commercially aware, and highly accountable.
• Inspect at‑risk accounts, coach customer‑facing teams through difficult situations, and help turn escalations into stronger long‑term relationships.
• Develop repeatable playbooks for technical onboarding, use‑case expansion, executive engagement, renewal preparation, and adoption acceleration.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years in customer success, account management, technical account management, or post‑sales leadership, including 3+ years managing teams.
• Experience leading CS motions for technical, enterprise, or consumption‑based products.
• Strong understanding of retention, expansion, adoption, health scoring, renewal forecasting, and executive stakeholder management.
• Ability to operate strategically while staying close to customers, account details, and team execution.
• Experience working cross‑functionally with Sales, Product, Engineering, Support, Marketing, and Revenue Operations.
• Strong communication and executive presence with customers and internal leadership.
• Comfort building systems from scratch in a company that is scaling quickly.

Nice‑to‑Haves

• Experience in AI, cloud infrastructure, developer platforms, MLOps, data infrastructure, or enterprise SaaS.
• Experience with usage‑based revenue, cloud consumption, or complex technical onboarding.
• Experience building a CS function through a high‑growth stage.
• Familiarity with ML teams, research organizations, platform engineering teams, or infrastructure buying centers.

Why Lightning AI

• You will help define how companies build and scale real AI systems, not just sell another generic software product.
• You will work with technical customers and teammates who care about speed, clarity, craft, and direct problem‑solving.
• You will join a company with developer credibility, infrastructure ambition, and a GTM motion that is still early enough to shape.

We are committed to offering competitive compensation that reflects the value each team member brings to our mission. Final offers are based on factors such as experience, skills, geographic location, and role expectations. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package for eligible roles includes a discretionary bonus, a meaningful equity component, and comprehensive benefits.

The anticipated annual base salary range for this role is:

$235,000 - $270,000 USD

Benefits And Perks

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents.
• Meaningful Equity: RSUs that give employees a stake in the company's long‑term success.
• Retirement Savings: 401(k) matching (U.S.) and pension contributions (U.K.).
• Flexible Time Off: Unlimited PTO, company holidays, and floating holidays to support work‑life balance.
• Company-Wide Winter Break: Two weeks of company closure each winter to disconnect and recharge.
• Paid Parental & Family Leave: Paid leave to support you and your family through life's important moments.
• Professional Development: Annual learning and development allowance to support your professional growth.
• Wellness Benefits: Wellness and work‑from‑home stipends to support your physical and mental well‑being.
• Sabbatical Program: Four weeks of paid sabbatical leave after four years of service.
• Flexible Work: Flexible schedules and a hybrid work model for our office‑based teams.
• In‑Office Meals: Complimentary meals at our office hubs.

Benefits may vary by location, team, and role.

At Lightning AI, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We believe that diverse teams drive innovation and create better products. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We are dedicated to building a culture where everyone can thrive and contribute to their fullest potential.