Customer Success Manager (Technical)

Company: Kong

About Kong

Kong is a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies, building the infrastructure that powers the next generation of intelligent and agent-driven applications.

Trusted by Fortune 500 enterprises and innovative startups alike, Kong's unified API and AI platform, Kong Konnect, enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI models.

Role Overview

As a member of the Customer Success Team, you will serve as the primary post-sales technical contact for Kong customers.

You will act as a customer advocate, trusted advisor, and technical partner, helping organizations successfully adopt, implement, and expand their use of Kong products.

This role combines:

• Technical Customer Success

• Solution Consulting

• Product Adoption

• Account Growth Support

• Technical Relationship Management

You will engage with stakeholders across all levels of customer organizations, from developers and architects to engineering leaders and executives.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Success & Adoption

• Serve as the primary post-sales technical point of contact for customers.

• Respond to inbound customer inquiries regarding products, implementations, and technical challenges.

• Support onboarding activities by:

  • Understanding customer requirements

  • Identifying business objectives

  • Assessing project timelines

  • Recognizing risks and implementation challenges

• Drive successful adoption of Kong products and features.

Technical Consulting & Enablement

• Conduct product demonstrations and technical workshops.

• Provide implementation guidance and best practices.

• Perform regular platform health checks and adoption reviews.

• Help customers maximize value from their Kong deployments.

Customer Relationship Management

• Build strong, long-term customer relationships.

• Become a trusted technical advisor for customer teams.

• Understand and document:

  • Customer architectures

  • Use cases

  • Business objectives

  • Technology roadmaps

• Advocate for customer needs internally across Kong.

Expansion & Growth Support

• Identify opportunities to expand customer usage of Kong's API platform.

• Explore additional use cases and adoption opportunities.

• Participate in renewal and expansion discussions by providing technical expertise to Sales and Renewal teams.

• Support customer retention and long-term success initiatives.

Escalation & Account Management

• Manage and coordinate customer escalations.

• Drive resolution across Product, Engineering, Support, and Customer Success teams.

• Monitor customer health and maturity using Kong's customer success framework.

• Ensure successful outcomes throughout the customer lifecycle.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Collaborate closely with:

• Sales

• Product Management

• Engineering

• Marketing

• Technical Support

• Professional Services

Represent the voice of the customer and contribute to continuous product and service improvement.

Candidate Profile

Technical Knowledge

API & Microservices Technologies

• Strong understanding of APIs and API management.

• Practical knowledge of microservices architectures.

• Familiarity with modern distributed systems.

Cloud & Infrastructure

Experience with:

• Kubernetes

• AWS

• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

• Microsoft Azure

Understanding of cloud-native architectures and deployment models is highly desirable.

Customer Success & Consulting Skills

• Experience working directly with enterprise customers.

• Ability to guide customers through technical implementations and adoption journeys.

• Strong relationship-building capabilities.

• Customer-first mindset with a focus on delivering business outcomes.

Communication Skills

• Excellent verbal and written communication abilities.

• Ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Strong presentation and facilitation skills.

Analytical & Business Skills

• Ability to use data to demonstrate business value and customer outcomes.

• Experience measuring:

  • Product adoption

  • Customer health

  • Expansion opportunities

  • Business impact

• Ability to tell compelling stories through data and insights.

Project & Stakeholder Management

• Experience managing multiple customer projects simultaneously.

• Strong organizational and prioritization skills.

• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.

• Proven ability to collaborate across multiple departments and stakeholder groups.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Successful candidates will demonstrate:

Technical Expertise

• API Management

• Microservices

• Kubernetes

• Cloud Platforms

• SaaS Technologies

Customer-Facing Skills

• Customer Success Management

• Technical Account Management

• Solution Consulting

• Technical Enablement

• Executive Communication

Business Skills

• Customer Retention

• Adoption Management

• Expansion Support

• Stakeholder Management

• Data-Driven Decision Making

Personal Attributes

• Curious and technically minded.

• Strong problem-solving abilities.

• Highly collaborative.

• Customer-obsessed.

• Self-motivated and proactive.

• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced technology environment.

What Success Looks Like

In this role, success is measured by:

• Customer adoption and utilization of Kong products.

• Customer satisfaction and retention.

• Reduction of technical escalations.

• Successful onboarding and implementation outcomes.

• Growth in customer platform usage.

• Contribution to renewals and account expansion opportunities.

Key Skills for an English CV

• Customer Success Management

• Technical Account Management

• API Management

• API Gateway

• Microservices Architecture

• Kubernetes

• AWS

• Azure

• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

• SaaS

• Cloud Computing

• Solution Consulting

• Product Adoption

• Customer Retention

• Technical Workshops

• Stakeholder Management

• Technical Escalation Management

• Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Enterprise Software

• Data-Driven Customer Success

How This Role Compares to the Other Opportunities

This Kong position is significantly different from the sales-focused roles you previously shared.

Primary Focus Breakdown

• 40% Customer Success & Adoption

• 25% Technical Consulting

• 15% Account Growth & Expansion Support

• 10% Stakeholder Management

• 10% Escalation & Project Coordination

Unlike:

• Deliveroo, Bolt, Planet, TD SYNNEX, and Supermicro → New business acquisition and sales-focused roles.

• Lime → Business strategy and operations.

• A&O Shearman → Marketing & business development.

This role is best suited for professionals with backgrounds in:

• Customer Success

• Solutions Engineering

• Technical Account Management

• Cloud Infrastructure

• API Platforms

• Enterprise SaaS

rather than traditional Business Development or Sales.