Founding Customer Success Manager

Founding Customer Success Manager

Location: San Francisco (Redwood City – office based)

Salary: up to $165,000

AI-Native SaaS Startup | Founding Customer Success Hire

Most Customer Success roles ask you to manage accounts.

This one asks you to build the function.

We're working with an ambitious early-stage AI startup that is transforming how businesses operate with AI-powered workflows and automation. Having achieved strong early traction, they're now looking for their first dedicated Customer Success Manager to take ownership of customer relationships from onboarding through to renewal and expansion.

This is a unique opportunity to step into a highly visible role where you'll work directly with the founders, shape the customer journey, and play a key part in the company's next stage of growth.

The Opportunity

Today, customer relationships sit largely with the founder. Your mission will be to take ownership of a growing portfolio of customers, ensuring they achieve value quickly, adopt the platform successfully, and continue to expand their usage over time.

You'll be the trusted advisor, problem solver, commercial partner, and internal advocate for your customers.

This is not a traditional Customer Success role focused solely on relationship management. You'll own renewals, identify expansion opportunities, influence product direction, and leverage AI to create scale long before additional headcount is added.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own customer relationships from onboarding through to renewal and expansion
• Lead implementation and onboarding projects, defining success metrics and clear paths to value
• Drive adoption and engagement across multiple stakeholders, including executive-level decision makers
• Manage challenging conversations, overcome objections, and build consensus within customer organisations
• Own commercial renewal discussions and identify opportunities for growth and expansion
• Use AI tools, automation, and agents to create leverage and deliver exceptional customer experiences at scale
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering teams, surfacing customer insights and usage trends
• Build repeatable playbooks, processes, and systems that will form the foundation of the Customer Success function

What We're Looking For

• 6+ years of experience in Customer Success, Account Management, Consulting, or a similar customer-facing role within SaaS
• Experience managing complex customer relationships involving multiple stakeholders
• Proven track record of driving customer adoption, retention, and expansion
• Commercially minded and comfortable owning renewal conversations
• Highly autonomous and comfortable operating in startup environments with minimal structure
• Naturally curious, resourceful, and proactive
• Excited by AI and interested in using technology to scale your impact
• Thrives in fast-moving environments where priorities evolve quickly

You'll Love This Role If...

• You enjoy building rather than maintaining
• You want direct access to founders and decision-makers
• You like solving complex customer problems
• You are energised by ownership and accountability
• You see AI as a force multiplier rather than a threat
• You want your work to have a visible impact on company growth

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to join a business at a pivotal stage of growth and become one of the key people shaping how customers experience the product.

You'll have significant influence, genuine ownership, and the chance to build a Customer Success function from the ground up while helping define what great customer outcomes look like in an AI-native company.