Customer Success Manager

We are seeking a Customer Success Manager to join our team. You will serve as a strategic advisor to empower leading companies across many industries in transforming their businesses through process applications built on Appian’s software platform with AI, robotic automation, Data Fabric, and other innovative technologies. You will gain a deep understanding of our customers’ business goals, cultivate impactful relationships with stakeholders at different levels, positioning yourself as a trusted advisor and catalyst for their success.

Combining your understanding of customer needs, your business and technical aptitude, and deep expertise you will develop about Appian capabilities, you will enable customers to achieve their unique objectives through collaborative engagement with internal and external partners. As a Customer Success Manager, your task will be to ensure progress against key customer outcomes, identify and mitigate various types of risks to customer success, including: business, program, implementation, technical, project, adoption, engagement. 

This role is based at our ​h​eadquarters in ​McLean, Virginia. Appian was built on a culture of in-person collaboration, which we believe is a key driver of our mission to be the best. Employees hired for this position are expected to be in the office 5 days a week to foster that culture and ensure we continue to thrive through shared ideas and teamwork. We believe being in the office provides more opportunities to come together and celebrate working with the exceptional people across Appian.  Travel will be required as needed (25-50% expectation).

What you’ll do:

• Uncover and shape each customer’s desired goals, translate these objectives into actionable and prioritized plans, and then drive execution of these plans with the customer.

• Drive adoption by empowering clients to become more self-sufficient with building and managing Appian applications and solutions.

• Identify opportunities for Appian to reach the client’s business goals and articulate business value cases for additional investment in expanding the customer’s use of Appian. 

• Identify and remove any barriers to successful adoption and expansion of the customer’s use of Appian software.

• Establish yourself as a strategic partner and trusted advisor with key client stakeholders by demonstrating alignment between Appian’s capabilities and the client’s evolving business strategy.

• Monitor account health to ensure customer satisfaction and identify opportunities for impactful intervention.

You’ll be successful in this role if you have skills and experience to:

• Develop mastery in your understanding of Appian’s products, with superb technical proficiency and a growth mindset as technology continues to evolve. 

• Become an expert in Appian’s platform, program, and implementation methodology and best practices, many of which are highly technical.

• Uncover opportunities to improve customer’s use of the Appian platform through improvements to use case planning, technical implementation, and best practices within their Appian program.

• Persuasively recommend areas of process improvement by aligning the right technology solutions to business value, including new and emerging areas of technology such as artificial intelligence (AI).

• Build program roadmaps and develop mutual success plans jointly with the customer and drive toward measurable outcomes.

• Think critically, creatively, and independently to solve strategic and tactical problems that may be complex, ambiguous, or intractable, with an ability to challenge the customer’s norms when needed to ensure transformative success for the customer. 

• Remain undeterred by setbacks or obstacles, working collaboratively with customers to demonstrate “grit” and put forward determined efforts to reach your goals. 

• Constantly look for ways to drive results proactively, improve the way we work with our customers, and never be satisfied with “good enough.”

• Effectively collaborate with internal and external partners with empathy and respect, including facilitating .

• Demonstrate confidence and comfort when communicating or presenting to a wide range of stakeholders, including technical resources, technology managers, program managers, business stakeholders, senior executives, and C-level leaders.

• Manage difficult and high-stakes conversations that challenge others’ perspectives tactfully, relying on earned reputation as a trusted advisor. 

• Provide effective coaching and mentorship to colleagues in a matrixed organization with high standards and minimal direct hierarchies. 

• Advocate for agile concepts to drive incremental value while maintaining strategic program objectives.

Required skills and experience:

• Bachelor’s degree, ideally in a technical field. 

• Superb consulting skills and proven results working as a trusted advisor to drive business value for customers.

• Superb communicator (written and spoken) to executive level business and technical audiences. 

• Excellent organization and project management skills, with significant attention to detail. 

• Successful track record of persuading partners to forgo the easy approach in favor of the difficult, more valuable path. 

• Experience with technology implementation, consulting, success management, and/or advisory services, ideally for 5+ years. 

• Experience with building, implementing, configuring, deploying, and/or testing of enterprise technology solutions using a software product or platform, ideally in Saas/PaaS model (examples include workflow, intelligent automation, low-code development, BPM, CRM, ERP, EAI, RPA, ITSM, ECM, EHR, etc.).

• Solid understanding of integrating web services, data integration architecture, data systems, and/or enterprise architecture, with the ability to quickly learn and explain how technology drives business value. 

• Experience with agile software development practices

• Willingness to travel occasionally, up to 25-50%