Senior Technical Account Manager

We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to become the trusted Data & AI Platform for everyone, leveraging the most popular open-source technologies like Apache Kafka®, Aiven for PostgreSQL®, Aiven for Clickhouse®, and Aiven for OpenSearch®. to help companies accelerate time-to-market, drive efficiency, and build innovative solutions across any cloud. 

About this Team:

Our Customer Growth team plays a crucial role in our growth and profitability. We want to be the trusted data source data platform for everyone – which, let’s face it, is an ambitious target. But thanks to our dedicated sales, pre-sales, and post-sales teams we are growing fast. 

Who we are:

So, how do we become the trusted open-source data platform for everyone? By listening closely to our customers and taking action to ensure they achieve their business goals. You see, the software we create is merely a means of delivering value. Our thinking is customer-first. That’s why our customers are at the front and center of all we do. And in the spirit of sideways thinking, we’re by their side as well. Actively helping them solve their challenges. Collaborating. Sharing. And innovating. In other words, it really isn’t just about who we are. It’s about who our customers are – and where they want to be.

Our Crabby Principles:

Aiveners use the V2MOM framework to set and align on business goals. In order to achieve those business goals we live by our ‘Crabby Principles’ which unite us in our ways of working, globally. 

These principles are embedded in our business processes and support us in collaborating and role modelling positive and productive behaviours in our daily work, something you will have the opportunity to demonstrate throughout your interview journey with us.

The Role:

We are looking for a customer-centric Technical Account Manager (TAM) with direct focus on our largest enterprise customers and partners.  The TAM is a technical professional who helps optimize Aiven’s customer experience and accelerate time-to-value when using Aiven’s Open Source services.  The Aiven TAM acts as a single point of contact, customer advocate and provides direct access into Aiven business functions such as Support, Engineering, Product Management, Marketing, and Executive Staff. 

Suitable candidates must have proven experience in the following areas that will be required in their day-to-day job: Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, or Clickhouse.  TAMs will also be involved in every stage of enterprise customer/partner development on Aiven.  Thus, this will involve meeting with customers/partners on a consistent basis allowing for positive and meaningful customer interaction.

What You’ll Do:

• Help customers/partners succeed, building successful relationships during the entire customer journey.
• Develop a deep (and technical) understanding of the customer’s/partner’s business priorities, operational model/objectives, cloud environment, cloud architecture/roadmap, and their technical initiatives.
• Maintain awareness of customer/partner operations as the Aiven advisor to assist with operational planning, risk management and act as an advisor for deployments.
• Act as an advocate of the customer/partner and conduit into various Aiven cross-functional teams & leadership, including Sales, Support, Engineering and Product Management.
• Conduct regular operational reviews with customer/partner on weekly incidents, field advisories, security vulnerabilities, and related root-cause analysis.
• Extract and maintain account insights and capture in systems of record.
• Participate in sales account planning and support account penetration/pipeline growth strategies.
• Actively contribute to customer/partner stability, enablement, and growth.
• Travel up to 50% of the time.

What We’re Looking For:

• Experience in a customer facing technical role; experience building relationships with executive and technical decision makers.  
• Fluency in one or more programming languages such as Java, Python, Go or Ruby.
• Ability to understand customers’ technical requirements on an architectural level and articulate to the Product team or supporting Solution Architecture team.
• Experience implementing proof of concepts as needed, to work with Aiven services in order to address business requirements.
• Knowledgeable of public clouds (AWS, Google or Azure) and in the areas of compute, storage - block and object, networking, and security groups.
• Linux operating system; demonstrable experience using various Linux utilities and tools (installation, securing system, storage, etc.) and a good grasp of networking basics like DNS and VPC.
• A fairly deep conceptual and hands-on understanding of Kafka and at least one of Cassandra or Opensearch (Elasticsearch).
• Demonstrable use of a relational databases preferably PostgreSQL and/or MySQL
  (migration experience from Oracle to PostgreSQL is an asset).
• Excellent communication, project management, presentation, and problem-solving skills required with ability to build trusted relationships with premier enterprise customers and partners. 
• Attention to detail, good problem solving and project management skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work well with cross-functional teams, including Sales, Support, Engineering, Product Management and Consulting Services.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and tasks, determine project urgency and execute detailed action plans in collaboration with experience driving change on behalf of customers.
• Customer relationship management is highly desired.

Our Offer:

If you ask us what’s the best thing about working for Aiven, many will probably say it’s the high concentration of talent from around the world that we have here. Enjoy the agile environment of a hyperscale scale-up where you can truly make an impact and have fun while at it.

We Invest in You!

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan
• With Aiven locations spanning the globe, we want all of our crabs to find the right balance with our hybrid work policy
• Get the needed equipment to set yourself up for success
• Step up your career game with real employer support (use one of our learning platforms, annual learning budget, and more)
• Get holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program

Make a Difference at Aiven:

• Contribute to open-source projects that you find meaningful outside of work - and get paid for it! Our Plankton program recognizes extra work to the open-source ecosystem for developers and non-developers alike.
• Use up to 5 days per year to volunteer for a good cause of your choice.
• Join one of our team member resource groups - empower yourself and others in missions that resonate with you.

What else:

• Need insurance: We’ve got you covered - benefit from our: Comprehensive health insurance options including dental and vision benefits and Life and AD&D insurance.
• Your wellbeing matters: we provide you with a health savings account with Aiven contributions, as well as short and long term disability plans that protect you if you’re unable to work.
• Looking after your future: you’re covered by 401(k) and roth 401(k) retirement plans.

Amazing! What’s next:

Once applying you should hear from our Talent Experience team within 5 days regarding the status of your application. If you are selected to move forward you can generally expect 4 stages with us :

1. 60-minute call with one of our Talent Partners 
2. 60-minute Depth of Expertise Interview with the hiring manager 
3. Assignment followed by 60-minute Technical Discussion with two senior team members
4. 60-minute Crabby Principles Interview 

E-verify:

Aiven participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. More information about our participation in e-verify can be found here.

How to Recognize and Avoid Employment Scams:

There has been a rise in fake job postings used by scammers to get personal information. Please familiarize yourself with the red flags of a potential scam.

Here at Aiven, all of our emails relating to recruitment come from an @aiven.io, @greenhouse.io or @eu.greenhouse.io domain and all of our interviews are conducted over video call or in person, our interviews will never occur over text or chat. If you’re unsure of the legitimacy of a job opportunity/offer pertaining to Aiven, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at recruitment@aiven.io.

Equal Opportunities:

Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.

At Aiven, we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at recruitment@aiven.io.