About the role

The opportunity

Okteto is the developer platform for teams building on Kubernetes. We help platform engineering teams give their developers and agents fast, reproducible cloud development environments, and we're at an inflection point. We have ~40 accounts, a product our customers love, and a real opportunity to deepen those relationships, expand usage, and turn reactive support into a proactive customer success program. What we don't have yet is someone whose job is to own that. This is a founding CS role. You'll report directly to the CEO and work alongside two Solutions Architects as a tightly integrated team, and work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Sales. Your job is to build the program and execute, not to grow an org. Build out of a team will be dependent on the success of the program at current scale, and upon our performance as a company. This is a 70% IC / 30% leadership role. The AE team owns the transaction between Okteto and the customer. You own the delivery of value, communication of that value, the health of the account and the resulting growth. Success in this role means deeply understanding customer pain, translating business needs into measurable outcomes, and ensuring customers realize the full value of Okteto’s technology.

Your team

You'll work with two Solutions Architects who today handle demos, POCs, and customer support. They're technically strong but have been operating without dedicated management or a structured CS framework. Part of your job is to coach them, build their customer-facing skills, and create clear ownership lanes so the team operates proactively rather than reactively. You'll be part of any future decisions about team structure or headcount, but the goal is depth, not size.

What you'll own

The CS program - build it, run it

Design and implement the CS function from the ground up: health scoring, onboarding playbooks, QBR cadence, escalation paths, tooling
Own the health of all ~40 accounts. Know where each one stands at all times: risk, expansion potential, satisfaction
Track and manage the metrics that matter (NRR, time-to-value, churn rate, expansion pipeline) and report on them clearly
Define escalation standards: what information is required before routing issues to Engineering or Product, severity classification, and SLA expectations
Maintain strong account visibility and renewal forecast confidence
Apply MEDDICC principles to strengthen account strategy and visibility

Account strategy and execution

Understand customer goals, pain points, and success criteria
Translate business challenges into actionable success plans using Okteto solutions
Proactively monitor customer health and risk signals
Identify churn risks early and lead mitigation plans
Build a prioritization system so you and the team spend time where it moves the needle
Work with Sales and SAs on account strategy for complex or high-value accounts
Drive expansion by identifying where customers are using one feature and helping them get broader value from the platform

QBR Leadership & Executive Engagement

Own Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) for key customers
Present business value, product adoption, roadmap alignment, and next-step strategy
Engage executive stakeholders to reinforce partnership and long-term value
Use data and insights to tell a compelling customer success story

Implementations and onboarding

Lead or directly run technical onboarding for new customers
Prescribe best practices for using Okteto applications effectively
Build repeatable onboarding playbooks so the experience is consistent regardless of who executes it
Define measurable onboarding milestones and time-to-value benchmarks

Product feedback loop

Serve as the structured voice of the customer into product. Patterns you see across accounts — friction points, missing features, workflow gaps — should directly inform the roadmap
Build a consistent process for capturing and surfacing customer insights, not just escalating one-off requests
Partner closely with product on prioritization by connecting customer signal to business impact

Team leadership

Mentor, grow and manage the two SAs day to day — clear expectations , regular feedback , smart prioritization , performance management
Participate in decisions about team structure and future hiring
Invest in developing the team's customer-facing skills particularly around proactive outreach , discovery executive communication ,and information gathering quality before escalation
Define operating model between CS & SA functions: who owns what for pre-sale vs post-sale & how handoffs work

What success looks like

In 60 days

You've shipped v1 of a customer health framework
You've met every account. You can call health of top 15 accurately
Onboarding for next 3 customers runs through documented playbook
You've established regular management cadence with SA team (1:1s ,team syncs ,account reviews)

In 6 months

NRR up; churn down; you can show work
Repeatable CS motion — onboarding ,QBRs ,renewals ,expansion — runs smoothly
At least 3–5 accounts meaningfully expanded usage
SA team has clearer lanes & operates proactively
Product receives regular structured customer insight from CS function

What we're looking for

Technical credibility (non-negotiable)

Can hold substantive conversation with platform engineers ,SREs & DevOps leads
Experience with Kubernetes ,microservices architecture & developer tooling
Familiarity with AI-native development workflows is strong plus

CS program experience

Highly consultative & prescriptive with customers
Built or formalized CS program at technical B2B company
Demonstrable experience ensuring customers follow best practices - leading not following them
Owned broad book of accounts SMB through enterprise; know how to prioritize & tier attention systematically

Product partnership

Understand CS at product-led company is intelligence not just retention
Fed structured customer insight into product

The right profile

Builder & doer; want to be in accounts & designing systems simultaneously
Effective working within small integrated team rather than building one around you
Good written communication; global async-first environment
Experience working with technical buyers (platform engineers ,VP Eng ,CTOs) adapting approach across levels
Experience managing technical teams including hiring coaching performance management & culture building distributed teams across time zones