Strategic Business Operations Lead, API

Apply; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a Strategic Business Operations Lead to manage a portfolio of API customers and lead post-sale programs. The role balances customer-facing work with strategic and operational initiatives, focusing on adoption, retention, and growth across the API business.

You will collaborate with API leadership, engineering, Sales, and Finance to design operating models, drive migrations, enablement, and renewals, and translate insights into actionable plans.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in business operations or related roles.
• Analytical skills with spreadsheets and business metrics.
• Strong relationship skills with customers.
• Curiosity about APIs and AI products.
• Clear business communication.

Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of API customer relationships, guiding conversations and coordinating next steps across teams.
• Build account plans focused on adoption, value, and growth; flag risks early.
• Design and improve post-sale operating models, including segmentation and ownership.
• Lead strategic projects for the API business, from scope to outcomes.
• Run customer programs like migrations, enablement, and rollout communications.
• Coordinate communications on product updates, pricing, deprecations, incidents.
• Analyze usage vs commitments to prioritize engagement and inform decisions.
• Create reporting and workflows; collaborate with Finance and Billing.
• Bring customer insights into API planning and initiatives.

Skills

5+ years experience in business ops

Analytical skills

Relationship-building

APIs & AI curiosity

Clear writing

Education

Bachelors or equivalent

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.