Senior Manager, Customer Success (R5273)

The role

Lead and build the Aircraft Division Customer Success team that supports V-BAT and X-BAT customers. Manage a team of Customer Success Managers and lead the Aircraft Division Critical Accounts Program for at-risk and high-priority customers.

What you will do

• Establish and lead the Aircraft Division Customer Success function for V-BAT and X-BAT customers
• Manage, coach and develop Customer Success Managers
• Define team structure, roles, account assignments and performance expectations
• Recruit and onboard Customer Success talent
• Build a scalable Customer Success operating model with account segmentation, health scoring and success plans
• Lead the Aircraft Division Critical Accounts Program and cross-functional recovery reviews
• Serve as senior customer advocate and translate customer feedback into product and service requirements
• Build trusted relationships with senior military, government and enterprise stakeholders
• Own Customer Success dashboards, metrics and executive reporting
• Support strategic customer engagements, demonstrations, deployments and business reviews

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in customer success, customer operations, account management, program management, field operations, professional services, aviation operations, defense technology, aerospace or
• 5+ years of experience leading customer-facing, account management, support, field operations, program management or Customer Success teams
• Demonstrated experience hiring, managing, coaching and developing high-performing teams
• Experience building or scaling a Customer Success, customer operations, account management or similar customer-facing function
• Demonstrated success managing escalated, at-risk, executive-level or mission-critical customer accounts
• Experience operating structured escalation, customer-health, critical-account, executive-governance or customer-recovery processes
• Strong executive presence and ability to communicate with senior military, government, enterprise and internal executive stakeholders
• Ability to set strategy while remaining actively engaged in customer execution and issue resolution
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams through ambiguity, urgency, conflict and high operational stakes
• Strong understanding of customer lifecycle management, adoption, operational readiness, sustainment, support, renewals and expansion
• Experience defining performance metrics, operating cadences, team objectives and executive reporting
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive briefings, account plans and recovery plans

Nice to have

• Experience in defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, aviation, unmanned aircraft systems, software-defined systems, military operations or operational technology deployed in austere environments
• Experience supporting the Department of Defense, U.S. military services, allied defense organizations or government customers
• Experience with vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft systems, aviation operations, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mission systems, autonomy, deployed operations, aircraft sus
• Prior military service or direct experience working with operational military units
• Experience designing or operating Critical Accounts Programs, enterprise escalation frameworks, technical account management programs, Customer Success operations or executive sponsor programs
• Experience managing customer-facing organizations supporting both hardware and software products
• Experience with Salesforce, Gainsight, Jira, Confluence, Tableau, Power BI or similar customer success, support and reporting systems
• Active Secret or Top Secret security clearance

Benefits

• Bonus for full-time regular employees
• Benefits for full-time regular employees
• Equity for full-time regular employees
• Temporary benefits package for temporary employees, applicable after 60 days of employment

Before you apply

• All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance is required
• Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits

About the company

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company that protects service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies.