Senior Customer Success Manager

About Buildkite

Buildkite's CI platform is trusted by the world's leading engineering teams, helping ship software used by more than 1 billion people every day. Companies including Canva, Meta, Mistral AI, and NVIDIA rely on Buildkite to run builds, tests, and deployments on their infrastructure, ours, or both - giving them the speed, reliability, and flexibility to ship with confidence.

About the Role

The Senior Customer Success Manager is a highly strategic, senior individual contributor responsible for driving quantifiable business impact across a focused portfolio of Buildkite’s highest-impact Enterprise customers. As the Strategic Customer Partner on those named accounts, you are the primary owner of the customer relationship — accountable for the adoption of Buildkite, the value the customer realizes from it, and the long-term health of the partnership across renewal and expansion.

This is a founding role on a small, senior team. You will operate autonomously across complex Enterprise accounts, integrate every Buildkite motion that touches the customer — commercial, technical, and executive — into a coherent experience, and help shape the operating model of a CS function still being built. We’re looking for someone who wants to define the role, not just fill it. This is an Individual Contributor position.

What You'll Do

Strategic Account Leadership

• Account Ownership: Own the post-sale state of a portfolio of named Enterprise accounts as the customer’s single accountable partner at Buildkite — across health, adoption, retention, and expansion identification.
• Value Realization: Drive measurable business outcomes from the Buildkite investment by aligning each account’s success plan to the customer’s core engineering and business goals.
• Internal Orchestration: Act as the central Buildkite resource on the account — mobilizing Account Executives, Technical Account Managers, Solutions, Product, and Support so the customer experiences one cohesive Buildkite.
• Cadence Design: Determine when and how to engage each account based on the value it returns to the customer — right-sizing engagement so every interaction earns its place on the customer’s calendar.
• Operating Model Contribution: Shape the playbooks, processes, and operating model of a founding CS function — and mentor future hires as the team scales.

Executive Influence and Customer Partnership

• Executive Engagement: Cultivate and maintain trusted relationships with customer C-suite, VP, Director, and program-owner stakeholders — including the executive sponsor accountable for the Buildkite investment.
• Business Translation: Translate technical adoption and platform health into the business outcomes that matter to executive sponsors, and into the language they use with their own leadership.
• Executive Business Reviews: Lead the EBR cadence with the AE and TAM — bringing the value narrative, customer readiness, and forward-looking strategy that keeps the partnership on track.
• Customer Advocacy: Amplify the voice of the customer inside Buildkite, ensuring Product, Engineering, and Support stay focused on what matters most to the accounts you own.
• Stakeholder Navigation: Navigate complex internal and customer organizations to drive consensus, surface blockers, and align stakeholders to the outcomes the partnership depends on.

Risk, Renewal, and Expansion Readiness

• Account Health: Maintain a live view of technical, commercial, support, and relationship signals across your portfolio — surface risk early, mobilize the right Buildkite resources, and prevent escalation through proactive partnership.
• Renewal Strategy: Partner with the Account Executive on renewal strategy by driving the value narrative, customer readiness, and account health that underpin every commercial conversation.
• Expansion Sourcing: Identify and source expansion opportunities through the Customer-Sourced Qualified Lead (CSQL) process — turning customer outcomes into growth.
• Onboarding: Partner with the Technical Account Manager on the first 90 days, and sustain the joint CSM/TAM cadence that drives customers from go-live to long-term value.

This Is You If...

• You have 5+ years in Customer Success, strategic account management, or a senior post-sale role at a B2B SaaS company, owning Enterprise accounts end-to-end as the person accountable for value, retention, and expansion
• You bring direct experience at a CI/CD, DevOps, developer tools, or technical infrastructure SaaS company — enough domain fluency to navigate engineering conversations and the CI/CD problem space credibly, without trying to be the technical expert
• You have a demonstrable track record of driving retention and expansion outcomes on a named Enterprise book
• You communicate with exceptional executive presence — comfortable engaging VP, CTO, and C-suite stakeholders, and translating technical work into the business outcomes their leadership cares about
• You're able to handle objections, navigate complicated discussions, and drive alignment across customer and internal stakeholders — with persistence in the face of adversity
• You have experience orchestrating across Sales, Solutions, Support, Product, and Marketing to deliver a coherent customer experience across complex, multi-stakeholder accounts
• You bring strong commercial instincts — you understand how your work connects to renewal health, churn risk, and expansion, and you operate effectively alongside AEs and Renewals
• You're a strong autonomous operator who wants to define the role, not just fill it — comfortable building in a founding-team environment, shaping the playbook as you run the play, and contributing directly to the operating model of a new function

Bonus Points If...

• 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
• 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, ChartMogul, or equivalent)
• Background contributing to or building out a CS function from an early stage — not just executing within an established one

Benefits

• Work from anywhere in the world for up to 6 weeks a year, on top of a fully remote setup — great work doesn’t have to happen from one desk.
• 20 days paid annual leave plus 10 days sick & carer's leave — actively encouraged, we want you to be at your best and time off is a part of that.
• 16 weeks paid parental leave for primary carers (6 for secondary) — becoming a parent is life changing and we’re committed to supporting you and your family through it.
• A remote-work allowance for home-office kit, co-working, or working elsewhere — we want you to have everything you need to be set up for success in your role.
• Confidential EAP & mental health support — sometimes life gets hard. You should be able to access the resources and support you need.
• Support for learning and growth — with time and budget for conferences, courses, and coaching so you have the opportunity to grow, improve your craft, and build mastery.
• Retirement and health coverage (based on your region) — build towards your future, your way.

Exact benefits may vary slightly by country. We'll walk through the specifics for your location.

Compensation

This role offers On-Target Earnings (OTE), split 80/20 between base salary and sales commission. The base salary range is $140,000–$155,000 USD. Compensation is determined based on geographic location, relevant experience, and qualifications.

What Happens Next

Every application gets a response. If this sounds like the way you already sell, apply, or reach out with questions first.

🌈 Equal Opportunity Employer

At Buildkite, we value diversity and celebrate all types of skills, backgrounds, and experiences. We’re dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment and providing reasonable accommodations throughout our recruitment process.

If you need any accommodations or support during the application or interview process, please reach out to us at [email protected].