Customer Success Manager, Japan

Job description

About Blackpanda Blackpanda is Asia's leading cyber incident response company, delivering digital emergency response across three integrated channels: IR consulting, IR-1 assurance subscriptions, and Lloyd's of London-underwritten cyber insurance. Each is purpose-built for a different buyer, whether enterprise, mass market, or sophisticated risk-transfer clients, and each stands alone as full incident response. Together, these channels reach the entire commercial market, because our mission is to provide digital emergency response for everyone. Buy all three and they combine into the complete post-attack recovery solution: preparation in advance, response the moment you're hit, and financial recovery paid for by insurance. One local team to help you get ready, respond, and recover. How We Work Blackpanda is a tech-enabled services team. We invest heavily in AI and are constantly pushing to do better, faster, and at scale. You are given freedom to use the approved tools in the team, but you are to take ownership of outcomes. We prefer smart work over hard work, welcome good ideas regardless of where they come from, and have deliberately kept red tape out of the way of innovation. If you want to join a team building the best response practice in Asia — and shaping the tools and methods that get us there — you'll be in good company. What we are looking for At Blackpanda, Customer Success is central to how we deliver outcomes and build long-term customer partnerships. We are seeking a highly motivated Customer Success Manager (CSM), based in Japan, to drive adoption, retention, and long-term value across our portfolio of customers and partner-led accounts in the Japanese market. In addition to direct customers, this role will support key channel partners and coordinate customer success activities across partner-led accounts. The CSM will work within Japan’s relationship-driven business environment, maintaining clear follow-up, accurate documentation, and alignment among customers, partners, and Blackpanda teams. This role is ideal for someone with 2–4 years of Customer Success, Account Management, Client Services, or other relevant post-sales experience in cybersecurity, SaaS, or enterprise technology. You will develop into a trusted advisor to customer and partner stakeholders while helping them realise measurable value from Blackpanda’s flagship IR-1 subscription and incident response services. You will manage the day-to-day post-sales customer journey, with coaching and support from regional Customer Success leadership. You will work closely with Revenue, Incident Response Delivery, and Tech teams to deliver a consistent local customer experience and position Blackpanda as Asia’s premier DFIR partner. Responsibilities and Duties Customer Lifecycle Ownership & Value Realisation Manage assigned post-sales activities from onboarding through adoption, renewal preparation, and ongoing customer success, with support from Customer Success leadership. Serve as the day-to-day customer advocate for assigned accounts and progressively build trusted-advisor capability. Develop and maintain practical Customer Success Plans with clear actions, milestones, owners, and measurable outcomes. Drive adoption and engagement of Blackpanda’s IR-1 subscription and incident response readiness services. Strategic Relationship Management Build professional working relationships with day-to-day customer contacts and partner stakeholders. Customer Success leads onboarding, adoption, account health, service coordination, and renewal readiness; Sales retains ownership of pricing, commercial negotiation, contracting, and closing expansion opportunities. Coordinate regular customer touchpoints, operational check-ins, and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), preparing materials and progressively developing confidence with senior stakeholders. Translate cybersecurity and incident response capabilities into business-aligned customer outcomes. Channel Partner Management and Retention Build and maintain dependable working relationships with key channel partners, with timely follow-up and clear documentation in Japanese and English. Coordinate partner-led onboarding, end-customer engagement, customer success plans, and renewal preparation while respecting partner account ownership and communication protocols. Monitor the health, engagement, and retention indicators of key partner-led accounts and maintain accurate account records. Surface customer needs and potential expansion opportunities to Sales, which owns commercial qualification, pricing, negotiation, and closure. Serve as the post-sales coordination point between partner stakeholders and Blackpanda delivery teams, including navigating consensus-based decision-making and longer renewal lead times common in Japan. Retention, Renewals & Expansion Proactively manage renewals by monitoring customer health, satisfaction, and risk indicators. Identify churn risks early and coordinate internal interventions to maintain account health. Identify customer needs and refer qualified upsell or expansion opportunities to Sales for commercial ownership. Maintain accurate renewal dates, customer health updates, risks, and next steps to support renewal forecasting. Cross-functional Orchestration & Delivery Excellence Coordinate closely with Incident Response Delivery, Support, and Operations teams to ensure timely resolution of customer needs. Coordinate customer communications for service issues, escalate complex matters to the appropriate internal owner, and track actions through resolution. Ensure customers receive a seamless experience across subscription services and emergency response engagements. Contribute to the continuous improvement of Customer Success infrastructure, including CRM (Hubspot) workflows, reporting dashboards and customer engagement tools. Support implementation of systems enhancements that improve renewal tracking, customer health scoring and lifecycle automation. Voice of Customer & Advocacy Loop Capture and communicate customer feedback to internal Product and Leadership teams to influence service improvements. Support customer advocacy initiatives including case studies, references, and long-term partnerships. Represent the customer internally, ensuring Blackpanda continues delivering world-class cyber emergency response. Qualifications and Experience 2–4 years of experience in Customer Success, Account Management, Client Services, or another relevant post-sales role within cybersecurity, SaaS, or enterprise technology. This is an early-career role for someone ready to take increasing ownership of customer outcomes. Experience supporting customer or partner relationships, coordinating follow-ups, and contributing to adoption, satisfaction, retention, or renewal outcomes. Experience coordinating across multiple customer, partner, and internal stakeholders; exposure to senior or technical stakeholders is advantageous. Interest in cybersecurity and a willingness to learn incident response, SOC, threat intelligence, and managed security service workflows. Relevant industry exposure is preferred but not required. Clear, professional written and verbal communication, with the confidence and potential to develop executive presence and present to senior security leaders over time. Proactive, outcomes-driven approach to customer engagement and risk management. Highly organised, detail-oriented, and able to manage priorities, follow-ups, and timelines across multiple accounts. Familiarity with CRM and Customer Success tools such as HubSpot or equivalent platforms. Business-level Japanese proficiency, both written and spoken, is required for customer and partner communication. Working proficiency in English is also required for collaboration with regional teams. Additional Asian language skills are advantageous but not mandatory. What we offer 40 days paid leave per year inclusive of public holidays, which may be taken at the discretion of the employee subject to compliance with our Leave Policy and the approval of their manager. Limited Work From Anywhere policy allotment, allowing for work from alternate locations contingent upon coverage provided by teammates and approved by manager for 5 days per quarter. Enrolment in the company’s comprehensive corporate health plan that includes a large direct billing network for medical and dental coverage. Opportunities for inter-office travel, including a required annual week-long Tribe Onsite meet-up. $5000 USD/year for professional training budget contingent on approval from manager with 12-month retention requirement Declamation Candidates who successfully pass the Interview stage may be required to complete a Case Study, used to evaluate their technical knowledge and application of their skills in practical scenarios relevant to the role. Blackpanda is committed to building a culturally diverse company, and we value a broad set of opinions in our team. As we grow, we are looking to build a team with a range of viewpoints at its core, and we encourage applications from minority candidates and all genders however you identify (X/F/M). Blackpanda does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruitment agencies. We will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited candidates submitted by recruiters with whom we have not established explicit, written agreements for our job vacancies. By submitting any candidate information, recruiters agree to forfeit any claim to fees should their candidate be hired without an established agreement with Blackpanda.