Staff Customer Success Manager

Openkrill; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc. is seeking a Staff Customer Success Manager in the United States to set the standard for CS excellence. You will execute the post-sales process, drive adoption, expansion, and risk mitigation while blending technical know-how with an executive mindset.

You'll develop strategic success plans, lead value-based engagements, and map customer organizations to identify champions. Expect cross-functional collaboration, data-driven health monitoring, and high-impact QBRs that demonstrate

Qualifications

• Experience driving strategic customer success initiatives and value realization.
• Ability to map complex organizations and identify champions and decision-makers.
• Proven track record of renewals, expansions, and cross-sell opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Develop comprehensive success plans with use cases, roadmaps, and outcomes.
• Lead value-based engagements and demonstrate Kong's impact on the business.
• Collaborate across teams to target renewal timelines and opportunities.
• Run QBRs/EBRs with executive stakeholders and articulate Kong's value.

Skills

Customer Success

Strategic Planning

Executive Communication

Cross-functional Collaboration

Relationship Management

Data-driven Decision Making

Tools

Tableau

SFDC

Clari

Hex

Job description

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 Kong'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 Kong platform in alignment with the customer’s business needs.
• Command the Platform: Confidently articulate the unique value of Kong'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.

#LI-TR1

About Kong:

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong'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 http://www.konghq.com.