Strategic Business Operations Lead, API

Perplexity; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a Strategic Business Operations Lead to manage API customer relationships and drive post‑sale excellence. You will oversee a portfolio, shaping adoption and retention strategies while collaborating with API leadership to optimize how we operate at scale.

You will lead projects across migrations, enablement, and account coverage, aligning technical and commercial teams to deliver measurable growth and customer value.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in business operations, strategy and operations, consulting, customer success, account management, or a related role.
• Track record of taking ambiguous business problems from analysis through implementation with cross-team coordination.
• Strong analytical skills: spreadsheets, usage data, and business metrics to identify problems and drive actions.
• Strong relationship skills and genuine interest in spending time with customers and leading conversations.
• Curiosity about APIs and AI products, with ability to learn technical concepts and work with engineering teams.
• Clear writing, commercial judgment, and ability to balance ongoing relationships with long‑term projects.

Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of API customer relationships and coordinate next steps across technical and commercial teams.
• Build account plans around adoption, value, and growth; identify risks and renewals/expansion opportunities.
• Design and improve the post-sale operating model, including segmentation, coverage, onboarding, and handoffs.
• Lead strategic projects across the API business; scope problems, develop recommendations, and track outcomes.
• Run customer programs such as migrations, enablement, and rollout communications with defined milestones.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Data analysis

Customer relationship management

Project leadership

Communication

Tools

SQL

CRM systems

BI tools

Job description

Perplexity's API Platform brings our work in AI, search, and agent orchestration to developers. Our customers range from AI-native startups to some of the world's largest technology companies. Working with them, alongside our own developments in building Perplexity’s core application gives our team direct exposure to how search, models, and tools are used to build and scale AI-native products and applications.

About this role

We are looking for a Strategic Business Operations Lead to manage customer relationships and lead projects that help grow the API business. The role is roughly half customer-facing and half strategic and operational work, with an initial focus on building and improving our post-sale programs.

You will own a portfolio of API customers, learning how AI-native companies and large enterprises evaluate, adopt, and scale AI infrastructure. Working closely with API leadership, you will help shape how the business operates and lead projects such as product migrations, customer enablement, and account coverage. You will put recommendations into practice, with results measured in customer adoption, retention, and growth.

Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of API customer relationships, leading account conversations, understanding business priorities, and coordinating next steps across technical and commercial teams.
• Build account plans around adoption, value, and growth. Identify risks early and partner with Sales and account owners on renewals and expansion.
• Design and improve the post-sale operating model, including customer segmentation, account coverage, onboarding, health signals, and handoffs between teams.
• Lead strategic projects across the API business, with an initial emphasis on customer adoption and retention. Scope the problem, develop a recommendation, coordinate execution, and track outcomes.
• Run customer programs such as product and endpoint migrations, enablement, and rollout communications. Establish the audience, milestones, internal responsibilities, and follow-up needed for each.
• Coordinate customer communications for product updates, pricing changes, deprecations, and incidents, working with Engineering, Support, and commercial teams on accurate messaging.
• Analyze usage, consumption against commitments, renewal risk, and expansion signals to prioritize customer engagement and inform business decisions.
• Build practical reporting, workflows, and automation that help the team manage a growing customer base. Partner with Finance and Billing Operations to improve the customer experience around credits, commitments, and billing.
• Bring insights from customers into API planning and take on additional strategic initiatives as business priorities evolve.

What we're looking for

• 5+ years of experience in business operations, strategy and operations, consulting, customer success, account management, or a related role.
• A track record of taking ambiguous business problems from analysis through implementation, including projects that require coordination across multiple teams.
• Strong analytical skills: comfortable working with spreadsheets, usage data, and business metrics to identify a problem, test a hypothesis, and recommend an action.
• Strong relationship skills and a genuine interest in spending a substantial part of your time with customers. You can lead a conversation, understand their priorities, and take responsibility for the follow-up.
• Curiosity about APIs and AI products, with the ability to learn technical concepts and work effectively with engineering teams.
• Clear writing, commercial judgment, and the ability to balance ongoing customer relationships with longer-term projects.

Nice to have

• Direct customer-facing experience in a B2B technology company, including account management, customer success, partnerships, or solutions work.
• Experience with API businesses, developer platforms, or consumption-based revenue models.
• Working knowledge of SQL, CRM systems, or BI tools, and experience automating recurring analysis or workflows.