Manager, Customer Success

Automata•Cambridge, MA

36d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Automata, we're on a mission to transform how scientists work by making automation accessible to every lab in the world. We believe that by giving labs the power to automate, we can unlock discoveries that will shape the future of life sciences—from diagnostics and drug discovery to synthetic biology. Our LINQ platform combines hardware and software to streamline workflows, making lab automation fast, flexible, and affordable. This means our customers can focus on groundbreaking research, while we take care of the rest. Automata is a leading robotics and automation company powering the laboratories of the future. Our mission is to unlock labs’ space, people, and potential through automation hardware and software. Our lab automation technology is efficient, scalable and reliable and effectively carries out routine tasks, to free up scientists to work on innovative research. We meet labs where they are on their automation journey, and are the trusted partner to customers including trusts within the NHS, bit.bio and The Francis Crick Institute. We are also supporting advancements across Core Testing Labs, Academic Institutes, CDMOs, Pharma’s and Biotech’s. We are looking for a Customer Success Manager whose mission is to lead and grow a team of Customer Success Managers who deliver a best-in-class experience for our life sciences customers, while personally owning strategic account relationships and setting the standard for how Automata delivers integrated lab automation. You will sit at the centre of how our customers experience Automata. This is a player-coach role: you will own a book of strategic accounts end to end, from contract signature through design, build, testing, installation and handover, and you will line manage a team of Customer Success Managers who do the same. You will be the bridge between our customers' scientists and our internal solutions, product and engineering teams, making sure every account realizes the benefits of Automata's LINQ platform. You will live at the intersection of science, hardware, software and people leadership, and you will directly shape whether our mission of making automation a reality for every lab lands in practice.

Requirements

8+ years in customer-facing roles within life sciences or lab technology (customer success, account management, project or program management, field applications), with at least 2 years line managing a customer-facing team.
Proven track record delivering complex, multi-stakeholder hardware and software deployments into working laboratories (lab automation, analytical instruments, liquid handling, LIMS or ELN integrations).
Expert understanding of laboratory science and the lab automation landscape: vendors, product lines, limitations, and how instrument choice affects a customer's scientific workflow.
Strong program management skills: running multiple concurrent projects, proactively identifying and mitigating risk, allocating resources across projects, and reporting clearly to leadership. Fluent in Asana, Jira or similar tools.
Executive-level stakeholder management. Comfortable protecting both the customer's interests and Automata's in the same conversation, and able to handle delays, scope changes and technical issues with senior non-technical audiences.
Demonstrated ability to coach and develop people, with evidence of raising individual and team performance.
Experience in start-up or scale-up environments where process is still being built.
US based. Greater Boston preferred with hybrid working; strong remote candidates considered with regular travel to our UK or US HQ.
Willingness to travel to customer sites as needed (typically 20 to 30%).

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience with automated lab equipment, scheduling software, or scripting (Python, SDKs, JSON) used to configure and troubleshoot automated workflows.
Scientific depth in cell-based assays, genomics, proteomics or clinical diagnostics workflows.
Experience delivering into regulated or GxP environments and familiarity with lab automation compliance and safety standards.
Ownership of commercial outcomes on a book of business (renewals, expansions, reference customers).
Experience building or scaling a customer success or professional services function.
Prior experience as a Principal or Staff-level CSM, or equivalent, before moving into people leadership.

Responsibilities

Line manage a team of four to six Customer Success Managers. Run 1:1s, set clear expectations, coach against the Customer Success career progression framework, own development plans and performance reviews, and lead hiring and onboarding as the team grows. Set the standard for project management, customer communication and tooling discipline across the team.
Personally own a book of strategic accounts from contract signature through low-level design, procurement and build, in-house testing, shipping, installation, re-testing, training and handover to field services. Act as the trusted senior point of contact for customer scientists and leadership, including the difficult conversations on timelines, scope and technical trade-offs.
Maintain a clear, current view of timelines, risk and resourcing across every US account. Report status, risk and mitigation to Customer Success leadership early and clearly. Step into at-risk accounts alongside the account CSM to reset the path to success. Forecast resource needs across CSM, Success Engineering and Field Service teams and flag gaps.
Lead change initiatives that improve how the Customer Success organization delivers. Act as the voice of the customer into Product, communicating roadmap and platform gaps to customers and priorities back to the business. Build relationships with third-party instrument vendors that make our deployments smoother.