Defense Customer Success Lead

Summary Job Title: Defense Customer Success Lead Level: Lead; 5+ years of DoD experience Clearance: Active Secret clearance required; TS/SCI preferred Work Location Type: Remote, United States; preferred locations are San Francisco, CA, Norfolk, VA, San Diego, CA, or Honolulu, HI Work Type: Full-time, benefits Travel: As needed for customers, events and exercises; Agency name: US Navy BizFirst is assisting our client with recruiting a Defense Customer Success Lead. This role will embed with defense users to train, enable, and problem-solve, helping them make faster, safer decisions using marine sensing hardware and ocean intelligence. As the first Defense Customer Success Lead, you will build the customer success function, including onboarding processes, success playbooks, and customer-facing tactics, techniques, and procedures. Our client is an ocean technology company that designs, builds, and deploys marine sensors and combines oceanographic and underwater acoustic sensing with data and software. Its capabilities help commercial customers increase efficiency and reduce emissions, while helping government and defense stakeholders understand ocean conditions, maritime activity, and remote environments. The company has more than a decade of Navy research partnerships and is expanding its established capabilities into funded federal programs. What will you do As the first Defense Customer Success Lead, you will embed with defense users to train, enable, and problem-solve. You will empower users to get the most out of marine sensing hardware and data, helping them make faster, safer decisions backed by ocean intelligence. You will build the customer success function, including onboarding processes, success playbooks, and customer-facing tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). The role reports to the Global Head of Government and Defense. Responsibilities Develop and execute a scalable customer success plan to onboard and train new users, help existing users get the most out of the company’s products, and bring learnings from the field back to Product. Solve customer challenges using marine sensing products, working across solutions engineering, product management, training, and support. Develop new TTPs and adapt products for new use cases. Work closely with the Defense go-to-market team and Sales to expand existing customer accounts. Lead the end-to-end customer success relationship and process, including building and maintaining relationships with defense users and implementing the customer success framework with each customer account. Understand customer needs deeply, including developing customer profiles and TTPs and sharing learnings with the rest of the company. Lead participation in military exercises: conceptualize the concept of operations (CONOP), interface with government and vendor partners, execute successful product deployments, capture learnings, and implement product or playbook improvements. Collaborate with the Defense go-to-market team, Product, Marketing, Engineering, and Technical Support to align solutions with market demand and customer requirements. Provide market insights, assess competitors, and collaborate on proposal and presentation development and submission. Requirements 5+ years of experience working with the U.S. Department of Defense. Hands-on experience deploying innovative technologies in warfighting scenarios. Formal customer success experience is not required; transitioning veterans and other candidates who can plan and execute a customer success strategy are welcome. Strong understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities involved in deploying innovative technologies in theater, including safety and compliance hurdles and real-world constraints. Ability to navigate government bureaucracy and connect the dots between users and program managers. Excellent communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. Self-starter who can work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment, balancing development and implementation of a customer success plan with short-term customer needs. Curiosity and passion for understanding marine technologies and identifying customer gaps where technologies can be applied. Willingness to travel as needed to meet customers, attend events, and participate in exercises. Preferred Qualifications Active TS/SCI clearance. 2+ years of experience in a customer success role, preferably in maritime or environmental technology. Located in San Francisco, CA, Norfolk, VA, San Diego, CA, or Honolulu, HI. Work Authorization and Clearance U.S. citizenship required. Active Secret clearance required. An Equal Opportunity Employer Our Client Benefits Competitive base pay plus equity. Medical, dental and vision coverage. Continued learning and development stipend. One-time home office stipend for remote team members. Relocation bonus for team members moving to the Bay Area. Flexible PTO, in addition to 10 company-wide office closure days; the last week of December off for everyone. 12 weeks of parental leave, plus 4 additional weeks for birthing parents. Military leave and job protection for reservists and guard members under USERRA. Annual company onsite week and team events throughout the year. Requirements