Staff Customer Success Manager

Kong Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

KongHQ is seeking a Staff Customer Success Manager to elevate our post-sales discipline and drive adoption, expansion, and risk mitigation. The role blends technical acumen with executive storytelling to deliver measurable business value for customers.

You will build strategic success plans, leverage data to monitor health, and coordinate with partners to expand stakeholder alignment. This is a high-impact, cross-functional leadership position within the CS org.

Qualifications

• Customer-focused with ability to drive adoption and renewals.
• Experience managing multiple customers across initiatives.
• Strong analytical skills using metrics and dashboards.
• Ability to articulate value and align with customer needs.

Responsibilities

• Drive Strategic Customer Success with comprehensive success plans and business outcomes.
• Lead value realization engagements and map to customer ROI.
• Navigate complex organizations to identify champions and decision-makers.
• Leverage partner ecosystems to expand stakeholder alignment.
• Monitor health using utilization metrics and dashboards (Tableau/SFDC/Clari/Hex).
• Run executive QBRs/EBRs to articulate platform value.
• Communicate platform value and scope (Dedicated Cloud Gateway, API Gateway, AI Gateway, Mesh Manager).
• Collaborate with the account team to manage renewals and forecasting.

Skills

Customer obsession

Curiosity

Team collaboration

Prioritization

Tools

Tableau

SFDC

Clari

Hex

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.

About the Role:

As a Staff Customer Success Manager, you will set the standard of what great looks like in our CS organization. You will master your craft by focusing on the disciplined execution of the Customer Post-Sales Process, directly driving adoption, expansion, and risk mitigation. This role is strategic, requiring you to blend technical knowledge with an executive mindset to deliver exceptional business value.

What You'll Do:

Drive Strategic Customer Success: Develop comprehensive success plans covering use cases, roadmaps, and positive business outcomes.Value realization: Take customers through a value-based engagement model, and gain a clear understanding of the company's impact on their business.Navigate Complex Organizations: Map customer organizations by building power and influence charts to identify key champions and decision-makers.Leverage Partner Ecosystems: Utilize partners to uncover new personas within the customer organization and expand stakeholder alignment.Harness Data & Analytics: Use utilization metrics, Leading Indicators, and tools like Tableau, SFDC, Clari, and Hex to monitor health, identify risks, and extract actionable insights.Master the Message: Run impactful QBRs/EBRs by adopting an executive mindset, clearly articulating the value of the the company platform in alignment with the customer's business needs.Command the Platform: Confidently articulate the unique value of the company's components (Dedicated Cloud Gateway, API Gateway, AI Gateway, Mesh Manager, etc.).Manage Renewals & Forecasting: Collaborate closely with the broader account team to validate renewal timelines, surface cross-sell opportunities, and maintain strong SFDC hygiene.

What You'll Bring:

Grit & Determination: Customer obsession and the resilience to bounce back from setbacks, relentlessly pursuing customer goals and overcoming issues.Curiosity: An inquisitive mindset paired with active listening and probing skills to ask layered, open-ended questions that uncover root causes.Team-Oriented Mindset: A deeply collaborative approach to achieving shared company goals, rather than focusing solely on individual wins.Prioritization: Experience managing multiple customers at a time while focusing on attention to detail and delivering results across multiple initiatives, such as driving expansion, customer satisfaction, feature adoption, and retention.

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About the company:

the company, the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, the company’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.