Open Source has taken over the world of software development; however, the largest trade-off still persists: security. Companies spend an enormous amount of time and resources patching and fortifying open source software in order to ship with confidence & compliance.

Founded by the industry's leading experts on open source software, security and cloud native development, Chainguard has built the largest library of open source software that is secure by default. Customers including Snowflake, Canva, and HPE rely on Chainguard to build securely with open source software across the organization.

Chainguard is the safe source for open source.

About Us

We live and breathe our company values:

We are customer obsessed - Our true advantage is the strength of our relationships with customers through collaboration, empathy, and responsiveness. We establish trust as we educate, advocate, and listen to their needs. Our focus is on delivering solutions to our customers that create value and make their lives better.

We have a bias for intentional action - We're a start-up and we need to move fast. However we need to move fast through intentional action to make sure we're able to deliver quickly and efficiently on what is most impactful to our collective success. We prioritize, plan, try things, and fail fast. We think about how what we do impacts other teams and communicate our progress - owning the whole solution from start to finish. If we move fast enough, we can make two or three mistakes, learn, and correct them before competitors even make their first decision.

We don't take ourselves too seriously (but we do serious work) - Though we are solving an important problem which takes focus and a degree of seriousness, we don't take ourselves too seriously while we do. We laugh, have fun, embrace uniqueness, and enjoy the journey. Together.

We trust each other and assume good intentions - We hire great team members and trust them to do their work. We're transparent with data, news, and decisions - positive or negative - to empower team members to make well informed decisions. Showing up for each other fully means we celebrate each other's accomplishments as well as give compassionate direct feedback when needed. We always default to assuming good intentions.

The role, in a nutshell:

The Director of Technical Customer Success Management (CSM) will report to the VP of Customer Success, working collaboratively to achieve the company's goals and enhance customer success initiatives.

As a key leadership role within the Customer Success organization, the Director of CSM will be instrumental in building and shaping the function. The successful candidate will demonstrate strong people management skills, experience building out a CSM function (i.e. customer engagement, account management and retention strategies), and a mindset of driving operational excellence and scale.

What you'll do:

Leadership and People Management:

Lead and mentor a team of technical CSMs, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture.
Provide guidance and support for career development, performance management, and skill enhancement within the team.

Strategic Planning, Building and Execution:

Collaborate with the VP of Customer Success to develop and execute the overall strategy for the CSM function.
Drive the creation of customer engagement strategies to meet adoption, retention, and growth targets.
Develop processes in the lens of value and customer experience. Institute scale and automation in order to accomplish more with less over time.

Customer Management:

Ensure a thorough grasp of adoption metrics across the customer base and collaborate with CSMs to devise actionable plans for mitigating churn risk and promoting account expansion.
Conduct account deep dives to drive adoption and account level objectives.
Stay informed about escalated accounts, take charge in resolving issues, offer leadership support to the team and customers as needed, and provide regular updates to senior leadership.

Client Engagement and Advocacy:

Work closely with customers to understand their unique requirements and challenges.
Build strong client relationships at the Executive level to understand their workflow, prioritize Chainguard engagements, drive customer satisfaction and position account growth.
Serve as the voice of the customer within the organization, providing insights and feedback to drive product improvements and innovations

Retention and Growth:

Collaborate with GTM, Product, and Engineering teams to drive adoption, customer retention, and growth.
Utilize insights from customer adoption data to develop precise renewal forecasts. Collaborate closely with the sales team to generate a weekly forecast aggregation, projecting at least six months into the future.

Continuous Improvement:

Implement and refine operational processes to enhance efficiency and effectiveness within the CSM team and engagement model.
Monitor industry trends and best practices to stay ahead of market demands.

What we're looking for:

At least 5+ years of proven experience in a leadership role, with a strong background in people management.
Experience in Cybersecurity, DevOps, or an adjacent space
Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; advanced degree preferred.
Demonstrated success in building and scaling CSM functions.
In-depth knowledge of project management methodologies and practices.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage with both internal teams and external clients and executive level personas
We are remote friendly, but this role needs to be based in the United States

Base Salary Range
$190,000-$235,000 USD

A few of the benefits we offer (for our full time employees):

Equity/stock options
Unlimited PTO
Remote work with flexible coworking and team meetup opportunities
Home office and internet stipend
100% health/dental/vision insurance coverage for you and your family

If your experience is close but doesn't fulfill all requirements, please apply. Chainguard is on a mission to build the best team. To achieve our goal, we are focused on hiring "Guardians'' with unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.

Chainguard is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

For US based roles - Chainguard participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with employee Form I-9 Information to confirm authorization to work in the U.S. Chainguard, Inc. only uses E-Verify once a candidate has accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. If E-Verify cannot confirm that an employee is authorized to work, Chainguard, Inc. will give the employee written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so the employee can begin to resolve the issue before any adverse employment action is taken. For more information about your right to work, please see the Notice of Right to Work.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Chainguard will process your personal data in accordance with Chainguard's Privacy Policy.

Summary
Company name: Chainguard
Remote job title: Director, Customer Success Management
Job tags: project management, Customer Success Management, Homeland Security