Defense Customer Success Lead

Job description

THE ROLE We are looking for someone with experience using innovative marine technologies and working with the U.S. Department of War who is passionate about bringing novel capabilities to enhance situational awareness, reduce risk to force and mission, and provide a strategic advantage. As a Defense Customer Success Lead, you will embed with Defense users of Sofar products to train, enable, and problem-solve. You’ll be at the forefront of mission impact by empowering users to get the most out of their Spotter hardware and data, helping them make faster, safer decisions backed by ocean intelligence. Your top priority is solving customer challenges using Sofar products and helping users get the most out of their Spotters. This will involve wearing multiple hats, including solutions engineer, product manager, training instructor, and support. You will be pushing the boundaries of Sofar product use in the defense community, including developing new TTPs and adapting products for new use cases. You are the first hire focused on customer success for defense, so we are looking for a motivated and visionary leader who is excited to build out the function, including establishing internal processes (such as customer onboarding), success playbooks, and customer-facing TTPs. You love the Spotter platform and are creative about how it can be used to solve problems in the field. You will be comfortable with close collaboration with multiple teams (Product, Technical Support, etc.), extensive travel, and creating structure in ambiguous situations. You will also partner closely with Sales to grow existing customer accounts. You will also be the lead for Sofar’s participation in military exercises (e.g., Balikatan). This includes conceptualizing the CONOP, interfacing with government and vendor partners, executing successful Sofar product deployments at the exercise, capturing learnings, and implementing follow ups (such as product or playbook improvements). IMPACT YOU’LL OWN: - Develop and execute a scalable customer success plan to: - (1) onboard and train new users; - (2) help existing users get the most out of their Sofar products; and - (3) Bring learnings from the field back to Product - Work closely with the Defense GTM team to expand existing accounts - Lead the end-to-end customer success relationship and process, including building and maintaining relationships with Defense users and implementing the customer success framework with each customer account - Understand customer needs deeply, including developing customer profiles and TTPs and sharing learnings back to the rest of the company - Collaborate with internal teams (Defense GTM team, product, marketing, engineering) to align solutions with market demand and customer requirements. Provide market insights and feedback to inform product and go-to-market strategies. Assess competitors. Collaborate on proposal and presentation development and submission. ABOUT YOU You are a determined problem solver and excellent communicator who is passionate about giving warfighters the edge with innovative marine technologies. You have experience working with the U.S. Department of War and understand its organization, mission, and critical needs. You thrive on building relationships, figuring out how to make products work in real-life situations, and training users. You’re also a builder, capable of jumpstarting a new customer success function. Experience working in customer success functions is a plus, but deploying innovative technologies in war-fighting scenarios is a must. We are open to recently transitioning veterans and other candidates without formal customer success experience who demonstrate their ability to plan and execute a customer success strategy. Most importantly, you share our passion for leveraging technology to better understand our oceans and protect the safety of those who navigate them. - 5+ years of experience working with the U.S. DoD. - Strong understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities involved in deploying innovative technologies in theater, including understanding safety and compliance hurdles and real-world constraints. - Savvy in navigating government bureaucracy and in connecting the dots between users and program managers - Excellent communication, problem solving, and interpersonal skills. - Self-starter with the ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment, including self-managing a balance between developing and implementing a customer success plan and solving short-term customer needs - Curiosity and passion for understanding marine technologies and identifying customer gaps where technologies can be applied. - Willingness to travel as needed to meet customers, attend events, and participate in exercises. - U.S. Citizen with active SECRET clearance BONUS POINTS - Active TS/SCI clearance - 2+ years of experience in a customer success role, preferably in maritime/environmental tech - Located in San Francisco, CA, Norfolk, VA, San Diego, CA, or Honolulu, HI ESTIMATED SALARY RANGE - $100,000 - $150,000 depending on location - The range listed is what we reasonably expect to pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and may be modified in the future. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, experience, and equity package. OUR APPROACH TO AI IN THE HIRING PROCESS: At Sofar, we use AI tools in our day-to-day work, and we don't expect our hiring process to be any different. Here's how we think about it: Applying: Write your own first draft — we want to hear your voice and understand your real experience. AI is fine for refining and polishing, not for generating your story. Take-home assessments: Complete these on your own unless we've explicitly said otherwise. We'll always be upfront about it when AI is allowed. Interview prep: Go for it. Use AI to research Sofar, practice your responses, and sharpen your thinking before we meet. During interviews: This is you. We're a small team and we move fast — live conversations are how we get to know you, and we're genuinely curious how you think in real time. A note on transparency: We're a lean People team, and we use AI to help with things like drafting job descriptions, preparing interview questions, and candidate communications. We don't use it to make hiring decisions — those are always ours. The through line: use AI to show more of yourself, not less :) ABOUT WORKING AT SOFAR: Hybrid work: We're a hands-on team building hardware and software that operates in the real world — so being together matters. We ask that most team members are in office at least 70% of the time, though some roles (like field technicians or hardware engineering) may require more. Fully remote roles are designated as such in the job posting. Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas and retain an immigration lawyer to support the process. While we can't guarantee sponsorship for every role or situation, if we make you an offer, we'll make every reasonable effort to make it work. A note on applying: We mean it when we say we want the strongest people — not the most credentialed ones. If you're excited about this work but don't check every box, please apply anyway. Research consistently shows that underrepresented candidates are more likely to self-select out, and that's a loss for everyone. Sofar operates at the intersection of ocean science, climate, and technology — the problems we're solving are consequential, and the perspectives we bring to them matter. We're actively working to build a team that reflects that.