Rhizome is seeking a Customer Success Lead who can build our customer team from scratch and provide top-quality service to our enterprise customers. The ideal candidates will have a strong background in B2B SaaS and the energy sector, ability to work and empathize with Fortune 500 customers, and have a history of leading Customer Success teams in a startup environment. Critical to the success of this role is a player-coach mentality and comfort in being scrappy and adaptable with changing priorities. If you’re a leader who is hungry to build, thrive in the earliest stages of a startup, and have a passion for applying your skills to solving tough challenges related to climate change, this is for you. This role will report directly to the CEO.
About Rhizome
Rhizome is at the forefront of developing decision intelligence technology at the intersection of climate science and infrastructure systems. Our team pursues this endeavor with the wisdom and steadiness of industry veterans, and the curiosity, grit, and energy of startup and technology enthusiasts.
Our climate resilience SaaS platform helps utilities, governments, and industries plan for greater resilience to climate change and extreme weather by applying AI to a vast amount of information that characterizes infrastructure assets and their vulnerability to extreme weather. Focused on the $500B resilience investment gap in the grid today, our mandate is simple: Help electric utilities proactively adapt to climate change by integrating cutting-edge climate-asset intelligence into their existing planning workflows. As the world experiences record-breaking climate-related impacts, especially related to grid failures, our platform identifies future extreme weather vulnerabilities on utility assets at high resolutions and empowers planners to optimize investment deployments that keep society safe during natural hazard events.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Project Management and Customer Deliveries (Player)
- Be the point-of-contact and ensure timely delivery and implementation of Rhizome’s software platform, initially for electric utility customers.
- Manage delivery expectations, technical work plan, milestones, and associated timelines, both internally and externally, with several customers.
- Provide technical support, program recommendations, and be the trusted advisor for large enterprises.
- Be proactive in searching for ways to improve service and shorten delivery timelines.
- Leverage tools such as Jira and Confluence for internal and external project management.
- Customer Success Org (Coach)
- Build the foundation of the customer success organization by setting the culture, delivery expectations, tools, and cadences.
- Design, implement, and document processes and procedures to ensure repeatability of successful customer deliveries and support.
- Grow the Customer Success team by adding critical team members as Rhizome grows its customer base.
- Product and Technology
- Collaborate with the technology team on delivery expectations, work plan, milestones, and timelines.
- Solicit customer feedback and provide insights and information to product and engineering teams.
- Commercial
- Support the business development team on sales and product marketing efforts, identifying potential customer needs and crafting solutions leveraging Rhizome’s technology platform to meet those needs.
- Identify and support upsell opportunities to expand product opportunities with customers.
- On an as-needed basis, assist with proposal development, keeping a focus on delivery expectations and reasonable milestones and timelines.
Qualifications
- A player-coach who has proven experience in early-stage and growth startup environments.
- You’re someone who gets excited about driving impact with large enterprise customers.
- Possess the technical capabilities to support API implementation and data transfers with complex data sets; familiarity with utility AMS, OMS, and GIS a plus.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills with a particular ability to develop and present slide decks that are clear and communicate complex, technical information in an intuitive and confident manner.
- Ability to ask hard questions, manage difficult conversations, and quickly get to the “why” behind client objections.
- Comfort operating in fast-paced environments, adapting and pivoting when necessary, and prioritizing efforts with minimal guidance.
- Comfort in a highly technical, heavy industry environment. You’re not afraid of the technical details.
- Ability to execute under pressure under tight deadlines.
- Knowledge of AI/ML approaches or ability to learn quickly.
- Ability to creatively solve problems and independently move initiatives forward.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with diverse teams and colleagues.
- Ability to build trust with large enterprise customers.
- Background in energy and utilities, or otherwise heavily-regulated industry.
- Enthusiasm, energy, and optimism for building from scratch and growing through impact.
- 8+ years of full-time Customer Success experience preferably at early- or growth-stage technology companies
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience required.
We’ll pay extra close attention if you have:
- B2B SaaS experience specifically in the utility sector
- Previously worked in climate data and climate adaptation
- Have previously built and led Customer Success teams with highly technical customers
Culture and Core Values
At Rhizome, we lead with compassion and empathy, aiming to understand before we help. Our thesis as technologists is that, in order to fulfill our mission to protect society from the impacts of climate change through intentional, intelligent infrastructure planning, we need to embark on a journey of respectfully listening, learning, and then problem-solving. This sentiment is represented through our core values:
Empathy: Understanding and relating to problems, customers, and each other, with humility.
Creativity: Exploring with curiosity and building with intention.
Aspiration: Striving for societal impact, personal fulfillment, and simply doing good work.
Tenacity: Pushing past barriers and the status quo with a sense of optimism and determination.
Service Excellence: Delivering high-quality outcomes for our customers, colleagues, and communities.
Compensation and Benefits
Rhizome offers salaries and an excellent package of benefits and stock options. Compensation is based on a variety of factors including experience, role, and location.
Salary Range: $140,000 - $165,000
Benefits: Unlimited time off, stock options, excellent health, dental, and vision, and 401k.
