Customer Success Manager

Buildkite

6d•$140,000 - $155,000•Remote

About The Position

The Customer Success Manager is a highly strategic, senior individual contributor responsible for driving quantifiable business impact across a focused portfolio of Buildkite’s highest-impact Enterprise customers. As the Strategic Customer Partner on those named accounts, you are the primary owner of the customer relationship — accountable for the adoption of Buildkite, the value the customer realizes from it, and the long-term health of the partnership across renewal and expansion. This is a founding role on a small, senior team. You will operate autonomously across complex Enterprise accounts, integrate every Buildkite motion that touches the customer — commercial, technical, and executive — into a coherent experience, and help shape the operating model of a CS function still being built. We’re looking for someone who wants to define the role, not just fill it. This is an Individual Contributor position.

Requirements

5+ years in Customer Success, strategic account management, or a senior post-sale role at a B2B SaaS company, owning Enterprise accounts end-to-end as the person accountable for value, retention, and expansion
Direct experience at a CI/CD, DevOps, developer tools, or technical infrastructure SaaS company — enough domain fluency to navigate engineering conversations and the CI/CD problem space credibly, without trying to be the technical expert
A demonstrable track record of driving retention and expansion outcomes on a named Enterprise book
Exceptional executive communication and presence — comfortable engaging VP, CTO, and C-suite stakeholders, and translating technical work into the business outcomes their leadership cares about
The ability to handle objections, navigate complicated discussions, and drive alignment across customer and internal stakeholders — with persistence in the face of adversity
Experience orchestrating across Sales, Solutions, Support, Product, and Marketing to deliver a coherent customer experience across complex, multi-stakeholder accounts
Strong commercial instincts — you understand how your work connects to renewal health, churn risk, and expansion, and you operate effectively alongside AEs and Renewals
A strong autonomous operator who wants to define the role, not just fill it — comfortable building in a founding-team environment, shaping the playbook as you run the play, and contributing directly to the operating model of a new function

Nice To Haves

Hands-on familiarity with Buildkite or comparable CI/CD platforms (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Harness, GitLab CI) — enough to navigate a customer’s CI/CD architecture conversation without needing translation
Experience partnering with Technical Account Managers or Solutions Architects in a model where the technical and relationship roles are explicitly separated
Familiarity with CS platforms (Vitally, Catalyst, Gainsight, Totango, or similar) and modern revenue stacks (Salesforce, Avoma, ChartMogul, or equivalent)
Background contributing to or building out a CS function from an early stage — not just executing within an established one

Responsibilities

Own the post-sale state of a portfolio of named Enterprise accounts as the customer’s single accountable partner at Buildkite — across health, adoption, retention, and expansion identification.
Drive measurable business outcomes from the Buildkite investment by aligning each account’s success plan to the customer’s core engineering and business goals.
Act as the central Buildkite resource on the account — mobilizing Account Executives, Technical Account Managers, Solutions, Product, and Support so the customer experiences one cohesive Buildkite.
Determine when and how to engage each account based on the value it returns to the customer — right-sizing engagement so every interaction earns its place on the customer’s calendar.
Shape the playbooks, processes, and operating model of a founding CS function — and mentor future hires as the team scales.
Cultivate and maintain trusted relationships with customer C-suite, VP, Director, and program-owner stakeholders — including the executive sponsor accountable for the Buildkite investment.
Translate technical adoption and platform health into the business outcomes that matter to executive sponsors, and into the language they use with their own leadership.
Lead the EBR cadence with the AE and TAM — bringing the value narrative, customer readiness, and forward-looking strategy that keeps the partnership on track.
Amplify the voice of the customer inside Buildkite, ensuring Product, Engineering, and Support stay focused on what matters most to the accounts you own.
Navigate complex internal and customer organizations to drive consensus, surface blockers, and align stakeholders to the outcomes the partnership depends on.
Maintain a live view of technical, commercial, support, and relationship signals across your portfolio — surface risk early, mobilize the right Buildkite resources, and prevent escalation through proactive partnership.
Partner with the Account Executive on renewal strategy by driving the value narrative, customer readiness, and account health that underpin every commercial conversation.
Identify and source expansion opportunities through the Customer-Sourced Qualified Lead (CSQL) process — turning customer outcomes into growth.
Partner with the Technical Account Manager on the first 90 days, and sustain the joint CSM/TAM cadence that drives customers from go-live to long-term value.