Strategic Business Operations Lead (API)

Perplexity AI; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI in the United States is seeking a Strategic Business Operations Lead to manage customer relationships and drive cross-team projects that grow the API business. You will split time between deep customer engagement and strategic optimization, building post-sale programs, account plans, and scalable processes that improve adoption, retention, and expansion.

Collaborating with API leadership, you will shape operating models and coordinate efforts across engineering, sales, and finance

Qualifications

• 5+ years in business operations, strategy and operations, consulting, customer success, or related role.
• Proven ability to translate complex problems into actionable plans.
• Strong communication and commercial judgment for ongoing customer relationships.

Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of API customers and lead account conversations.
• Coordinate next steps across engineering, support, and commercial teams.
• Design and improve post-sale operating models and health signals.
• Lead strategic projects across the API business with measurable outcomes.
• Develop adoption, value, and growth plans and monitor renewals.

Skills

Relationship building

Customer facing

Strategic planning

Analytical thinking

APIs & AI familiarity

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

SQL

CRM systems

BI tools

Job description

Responsibilities

• 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
• 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

Requirements

• 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-up5+ 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
• 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
• 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