Role overview

Scaled Customer Success Manager, Startups

Requirements and responsibilities

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About the Role

  • Your job is to make that ecosystem work at scale.
  • You’ll own the startup customer journey from program approval and onboarding through activation, retention, expansion, and Enterprise readiness. You’ll also own day-to-day program operations and communications across the OpenRouter for Startups ecosystem, while helping launch new initiatives, workflows, and partner programs over time.

Build the Startup Success Engine

  • Own the scaled success motion for OpenRouter’s startup and scaled customer portfolio.
  • Partner cross-functionally to iterate and refine the operating system for startup activation, retention, growth, and Enterprise conversion.
  • Create and refine the workflows, dashboards, alerts, and playbooks that help the team understand which startups need attention, why they need it, and what action should happen next.
  • Turn manual customer success and program operations work into repeatable systems.

Drive Activation, Retention, and Growth

  • Own the start-up inbox, day-to-day program communications, and portfolio health across the startup segment.
  • Build scaled intervention workflows for customers showing risk signals.
  • Create activation paths that help startups reach first value quickly and understand how to use OpenRouter effectively.

Engineer Workflows and Automations

  • Build practical systems that make scaled customer success possible.
  • Use AI-native tools and automation to reduce manual work across onboarding, follow-up, risk detection, expansion identification, reporting, and feedback capture.

Own Startup Health and Expansion Signals

  • Define what “healthy” looks like for startup customers.
  • Segment the portfolio into cohorts.
  • Create the operating cadence for reviewing startup portfolio health.

Improve the Startup Program

  • Help evolve OpenRouter’s startup program into a scalable growth engine.
  • Improve the application, approval, onboarding, activation, communication, and follow-up experience.
  • Ensure approved startups get value quickly and have clear paths to scale.

Create Product Feedback Loops

  • Turn startup customer, founder, and partner interactions into structured product signal.
  • Build feedback loops that improve the experience for the entire startup ecosystem, not just one account at a time.

What We’re Looking For

  • You have managed a scaled customer portfolio, startup program operations, developer ecosystem, PLG customer base, or technical customer segment.
  • You are comfortable working with technical founders and developer-facing products.
  • You understand API-first businesses and can speak credibly about usage, latency, reliability, cost, integrations, and production adoption.
  • You are fluent in customer data and can use usage trends, support signals, product analytics, and revenue data to drive action.
  • You operate with a builder mindset and take ownership beyond your job description.
  • You do not default to manual touch points. You default to systems, repeatability, and leverage.

You’ll Stand Out If

  • You have experience in AI infrastructure, developer tools, API platforms, technical SaaS, or high-growth GenAI products.
  • You have worked with startup customers, founders, or startup programs.
  • You have experience with tools like HubSpot, Customer.io, Intercom, Zendesk, Linear, Retool, Zapier, Clay, Census, Hightouch, Mixpanel, Amplitude, or similar GTM / workflow / analytics platforms.
  • You can build your own agents, write SQL, build lightweight internal tools, create automations, or use AI-assisted workflows to move faster.
  • You have partnered with Sales on expansion, renewal, or Enterprise conversion motions.
  • You have built customer health dashboards, scaled onboarding journeys, portfolio review cadences, lifecycle programs, or product feedback loops.
  • You have strong instincts for which startups are likely to grow, which are likely to churn, and which need intervention.

What Success Looks Like

  • Within your first 2 weeks, you will understand the startup customer journey, map the current lifecycle, identify the highest-leverage activation and retention gaps, and define the first version of the startup health model.
  • Within your first 4 weeks, you will launch initial workflows.
  • Within your first 6 weeks, you will have built the first version of the scaled startup success operating system.
  • Longer term, success means higher startup activation, stronger retention, faster time-to-value.
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FocusCustomer SuccessRole area
Seniority signalLeadCandidate level
StackSQLPrimary skills
Location1 accepted countryEligibility

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