Staff Customer Success Manager

Buildkite

2d•$160,000 - $170,000•Remote

About The Position

The Staff Customer Success Manager is a senior individual contributor who operates as both a strategic owner of Buildkite's most complex and strategically critical Enterprise customers AND a leader within the Customer Success function. You set the bar for what excellence looks like in the role, develop the team through mentorship and playbook contribution, and drive cross-functional initiatives that shape how Buildkite delivers post-sale value at scale. This is a senior IC role with significant function-level responsibility. You operate on the most strategic accounts — typically multi-org, multi-business-unit, multi-million ARR — and your impact extends beyond your own book to the operating model, the team, and Buildkite's external CS posture. We're looking for someone who has done this work before at a top-tier B2B SaaS company and wants to bring that experience to a founding-team environment where their judgment shapes how the function scales. This is an Individual Contributor position.

Requirements

8+ years in Customer Success, Strategic Account Management, or post-sale strategic relationship roles at top-tier B2B SaaS companies — with at least 3 years operating at the Sr. CSM level or equivalent
A track record of owning Buildkite-scale strategic customer relationships — multi-million ARR, complex multi-stakeholder, multi-BU — as the person accountable for value, retention, and expansion
Exceptional executive presence and communication — C-suite, CTO, and board-level engagement is comfortable and well-practiced, and you translate technical work into the business outcomes their leadership cares about
Demonstrated impact on team and function — you've built playbooks, mentored teams, and driven cross-functional initiatives that outlasted your direct ownership of them
Direct experience in CI/CD, DevOps, or developer infrastructure SaaS — deep domain expertise and strong technical fluency, without trying to be the technical expert
Strong commercial fluency — you understand pricing, packaging, and the economics of named-account coverage, and you operate effectively alongside AEs and Renewals
Comfort operating as both an IC and a function-leader on the same day — owning a customer relationship in the morning and reshaping the operating model in the afternoon

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
Player/coach experience — formal or informal team leadership in an IC capacity, including line-of-sight responsibility for the development of less-senior CSMs
Experience leading or shaping a CS function from an early stage at a developer-infrastructure or B2B SaaS company — not just executing within an established one
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, ChartMogart, or equivalent)

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end relationships on Buildkite's most strategic accounts — multi-org, multi-BU, and reference-tier customers with significant ARR concentration — as the customer's single accountable partner at Buildkite.
Drive measurable business outcomes from the Buildkite investment at the scale and complexity that Buildkite's most strategic accounts require — aligning each account's success plan to enterprise-wide engineering and business goals.
Mobilize the full Buildkite organization — Account Executives, Technical Account Managers, Solutions, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Executive Leadership — across complex multi-stakeholder accounts so the customer experiences one cohesive Buildkite.
Right-size engagement on accounts where every stakeholder is senior and every interaction matters — calibrating cadence so the partnership earns its place on the customer's calendar without over-engineering it.
Contribute to the strategic direction of the Customer Success function in partnership with the Director of Customer Success — informing how Buildkite covers, supports, and grows its most important customers.
Drive C-suite, CTO, and board-level engagement on customer outcomes and strategic direction — comfortable as the Buildkite executive presence on the account.
Translate platform investment into board-level business outcomes, in the language the customer's executives use with their own leadership and board.
Lead the EBR cadence with the AE and TAM at the executive tier — bringing the value narrative, customer readiness, and forward-looking strategy that keeps the most strategic partnerships on track.
Amplify the voice of Buildkite's most strategic customers inside Buildkite — ensuring Product, Engineering, and Executive Leadership stay focused on what matters most to the accounts that shape the company's direction.
Navigate the most complex internal and customer organizations — driving consensus, surfacing blockers, and aligning stakeholders at every level to the outcomes the partnership depends on.
Set the bar for the function — help define the playbooks, KPIs, success-plan templates, and engagement standards the CS team operates on, and evolve them as the function scales.
Mentor and develop CSMs and Sr. CSMs across the team — raise the bar on judgment, executive engagement, and strategic ownership; help future hires ramp to full strategic ownership of their books.
Lead cross-functional initiatives across CS, Product, Sales, and Marketing that improve how Buildkite delivers post-sale value — initiatives that outlast your direct ownership of them.
Set the standard for risk identification, renewal strategy, and expansion sourcing across the team — informing how every CSM on the team thinks about the commercial health of their book.