Job Description

If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.

About The Role

You will be working at a hectic and fast-paced startup as the Senior Manager of the Customer Experience team. This organization has roles that are responsible for interfacing with our customers across the pre and post-sales lifecycle, and you will be responsible for those teams with direct reporting and P&L responsibility. Our CX teams are looking to lead the way in the industry and shape how companies in our space engage with customers.

As the leader of the team, you will act as a trusted partner and lead our global team of Customer Success and Professional Services function based in India.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to interface with everyone in the customer environment from Developers to Executives and represent Kong culture and values every day. You will also be responsible for ensuring alignment with regional CX teams to execute the theatre-specific goals and customer needs.

Working at Kong presents a unique opportunity to combine those operational and people challenges with helping to modernize enterprise software and learn about how businesses are running in the digital age.

Above all, you’ll be acting as a stellar leader and mentor for the rest of Kong.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own India CS and PS execution including hiring, staffing, growth and day-to-day operations.
• Define and build a playbook strategy to align effective solutions for our customers' connectivity problems.
• Define and build the execution approach for our growing Customer Success Function.
• Collaborate with regional CS and PS leadership to build global, regional and local strategies to effectively drive value realization to our customers.
• Hire, lead and collaborate with a diverse team of people.
• Deliver insights and assistance on process, reporting and strategy elements.
• Accurately and consistently provide revenue and utilization forecasts for post-sales teams.
• Ensure successful execution of all projects and post-sales events.
• Manage escalations without supervision.
• Act as a technical mentor for the team, while this is a managerial role you should have some relevant insight and experience to provide the team with authentic mentorship.
• Understand how to effectively present executives (internal and external) with data and business cases/justification.
• And any additional tasks required by the manager.

What You'll Bring

• Above all - a leader who loves growing their team.
• Show passion and determination about technology.
• Enjoy working with others and collaborating.
• Operate with the utmost transparency and authenticity both internally and externally.
• Self-awareness and strong communication skills are a must.
• 10+ years of relevant experience required and ability to work in a matrix organization.
• Familiarity with modern software constructs and architectural patterns and how to discuss them with humans - but know your limits and hand them off to the team when necessary.
• Proven ability in managing customer success and professional services functions.
• Proven ability to write and present on complex topics.
• Proven track record of exceeding key business goals including bookings, revenue, margin, NDR and similar.
• Prior experience in Open Source, DevOps, Cloud companies is highly preferred.
• Prior experience managing customer-facing teams with financial goals is highly preferred.
• Ability to travel to customer and Kong locations as-needed.

About Kong
Kong is THE cloud native API platform with the fastest, most adopted API gateway in the world (over 300m downloads!). Loved by developers and trusted with enterprises’ most critical traffic volumes, Kong helps startups and Fortune 500 companies build with confidence – allowing them to bring solutions to market faster with API and service connectivity that scales easily and securely.