Senior Engagement Manager

Senior Engagement Manager

At Shakudo, we're building the world's first operating system for data and AI. We use the term "operating system" in the truest sense: just like iOS, Windows, or Linux, Shakudo's end-to-end OS provides ever-evolving, fully automated, best-in-class open-source components tailored to each business's unique needs.

We are seeking a seasoned Senior Engagement Manager to join our team and play a critical role in driving customer success while shaping the future of AI adoption in the enterprise. This is a highly cross-functional, customer-facing role for someone who excels at program delivery, executive communication, and turning ambiguity into structured execution. The ideal candidate has a strong background in enterprise delivery, customer management, or technical consulting, and knows how to partner with customers to prioritize work in a way that delivers clear business value.

In this role, you will own customer engagements from kickoff through delivery and expansion, working closely with Shakudo's technical teams while serving as a trusted advisor to senior customer stakeholders. You will keep projects organized, ensure the right work is prioritized at the right time, proactively communicate progress and risks, and maintain strong alignment across customer and internal teams. At Shakudo, our culture is proactive, collaborative, and supportive, we succeed together by building strong partnerships and solving complex challenges.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end customer engagements, including kickoff, planning, governance, execution, and delivery.
• Partner with customer executives and technical teams to understand priorities, identify critical pain points, and focus delivery on the highest-value outcomes.
• Translate customer goals into clear workstreams, milestones, timelines, and deliverables, and keep both customer and internal teams aligned against them.
• Drive prioritization decisions with customers to ensure near-term deliverables create meaningful business value while supporting longer-term strategic goals.
• Coordinate internal cross-functional resources across product, engineering, machine learning, and go-to-market teams to keep work organized, dependencies managed, and blockers removed.
• Establish strong stakeholder communication cadences, including regular status updates, steering committee discussions, executive readouts, and risk/escalation management.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders on the customer side, including technical leaders, business sponsors, and executive decision-makers.
• Partner with top-tier machine learning, product, engineering, and business teams across industries to design and refine AI and data applications that drive measurable business value.
• Oversee project delivery to ensure high-quality outputs, strong follow-through, and clear accountability across all parties.
• Present progress, recommendations, and results to audiences ranging from engineers to C-suite executives.
• Safeguard long-term customer relationships by proactively identifying risks, navigating trade-offs, and addressing concerns before they become blockers.
• Establish effective feedback loops between customers and Shakudo's product, engineering, and go-to-market teams.
• Develop and improve repeatable engagement processes, playbooks, and operating rhythms that help Shakudo scale customer delivery effectively.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in management consulting, customer engagement, program management, or similar customer-facing delivery roles.
• Demonstrated experience owning complex enterprise engagements with multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and cross-functional teams.
• Strong project and program management skills, including scoping, planning, prioritization, dependency management, and risk mitigation.
• Strong leadership, communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels, including senior customer executives.
• 2+ years of direct technical experience or close collaboration with engineering teams on technical projects.
• Deep understanding of data and AI technologies and their applications in enterprise contexts.
• Proven ability to create structure in fast-paced, ambiguous, and unstructured environments.
• Executive presence and sound judgment in managing customer relationships, expectations, and escalations.
• Adaptive, curious, and collaborative, willing to learn, lead, guide, and follow as needed.

A Plus

• Experience with programming, scripting, or statistical packages (e.g. Python, R, Matlab, SQL)
• Experience working with enterprise customers in regulated or security-conscious environments
• Experience building operating cadences, governance processes, or PMO-style structures for complex technical engagements

Why Shakudo Stands Out

• Work with cutting-edge technologies in machine learning and high-performance computing.
• Contribute to a platform that transforms how organizations leverage data and AI.
• Join a dynamic team that values innovation, efficiency, and diversity.
• Thrive in an inclusive environment—Shakudo is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes candidates from all backgrounds and experiences.

Shakudo offers a high-impact package: competitive salary, meaningful equity so you share in the upside of transformational technology, and top-tier health benefits that have you fully covered. We provide 16+ weeks of pregnancy leave top-up and a flexible vacation policy—because building transformational technology requires supporting the people who build it. More importantly, you'll work on technology that matters.

This role is based onsite to support the high security requirements of our clients and enable effective collaboration. We have a welcoming office environment, fully stocked with snacks, regular team outings (summer boat cruise, escape room, etc.), and a strong focus on maintaining a healthy work-life balance while doing meaningful, impactful work together.

Shakudo is an equal opportunity employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply. We foster diversity and inclusivity and welcome applications from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.