Lead Customer Success Manager

🚀 Customer Success Lead – U.S. Defense & Intelligence | Leading OSINT + AI Tech Scale-Up

📍DMV AREA

About Us

My client is a fast-growing technology scale-up combining open-source intelligence (OSINT) and AI to help governments worldwide understand China’s techno-economic landscape. Their platform transforms complex OSINT into actionable insights on China’s defense, technology, and industrial base.

The Role

They're seeking a Customer Success Lead to drive the success of our U.S. federal defense and intelligence clients. You’ll lead a growing team, own strategic relationships with senior decision-makers, and ensure our solutions deliver exceptional value.

What You’ll Do

• Lead, mentor, and scale the Customer Success team.
• Own strategic relationships with senior decision-makers across the defense and intelligence community, positioning the company as a trusted partner and industry thought leader.
• Drive retention, renewals, and account growth.
• Act as the voice of the customer, aligning with product, engineering, intelligence, and sales teams to translate client insights into product innovation and go-to-market strategies
• Represent the company at high-level briefings and industry events.
• Establish operational excellence, developing playbooks and success frameworks to ensure the team delivers consistent, repeatable, and scalable value to clients.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience in customer success, account management, or client-facing roles, with proven leadership experience in building and leading high-performing teams.
• Demonstrated expertise in managing strategic relationships with senior stakeholders, particularly within government, defense, or intelligence sectors.
• Strong track record of driving customer retention, renewals, and account growth through strategic engagement and value delivery.
• Exceptional ability to align cross-functional teams (product, engineering, and business development) around customer needs and priorities.
• Superior communication and presentation skills, with experience influencing C-level stakeholders and representing organizations at high-profile industry events.
• Strategic, data-driven, and proactive mindset, with a focus on building scalable processes and fostering operational excellence.
• Deep knowledge of China’s foreign policy, politics, and military landscape, with the ability to translate complex insights into actionable guidance for clients.

Bonus Points

• U.S. defense/intelligence community background.
• Mandarin proficiency.
• Familiarity with Chinese government strategies (e.g., Military-Civil Fusion).
• Active TS clearance or higher OR ability to obtain one