Senior Customer Solutions Manager, Defense

Job description

About the Role As Inkit's Senior Customer Solutions Manager for Defense, you will be the strategic technical advisor, solutions architect, and customer success advocate for our Defense and Intelligence community customers. You will own the post-award relationship end-to-end, from onboarding and integration through ongoing mission alignment and contract growth. You understand how government programs are structured, how technical decisions get made, and how to speak the language of both the mission operator and the IT program office. This is a hybrid role that blends deep technical engagement with customer success and business development instincts. You will work closely with Inkit's Engineering, Product, and Sales teams to ensure defense customers get maximum value from the platform, and to surface new requirements that inform our roadmap. Key Responsibilities Customer Engagement & Success Serve as the primary technical point of contact for a portfolio of DoW/IC customers throughout the entire contract lifecycle. Lead onboarding, integration, and deployment planning for new DoW accounts, coordinating across Inkit engineering and customer IT/security teams. Conduct regular operational reviews with government program offices and end users to assess adoption, performance, and mission alignment. Proactively identify risks, blockers, and expansion opportunities within your accounts and develop action plans to address them. Technical Advisory & Solutions Architecture Understand customer environments, including network architecture, classification boundaries, and data handling requirements, and translate them into actionable technical implementation plans. Advise customers on best practices for deploying and configuring Inkit's File Intelligence Platform in secure cloud environments. Partner with Engineering to scope and document customer-specific technical requirements, integration patterns, and customization needs. Support pre-sales technical activities including demonstrations, proof-of-concept engagements, and proposal technical solutioning. Relationship Management & Growth Build and maintain trusted relationships with contracting officers, program managers, system administrators, and end users across your account base. Identify expansion opportunities including additional use cases and new user populations. Represent the voice of the customer internally, synthesizing feedback into prioritized product and roadmap inputs for Engineering and Product teams. Coordinate with BD/Sales leadership on renewals, upsells, and new opportunity pursuit strategies. Required Qualifications 5+ years of experience in the U.S. defense or intelligence community, either as active duty / federal civilian or as a contractor supporting DoD/IC IT programs. Direct experience working within or alongside government IT program offices, including familiarity with DoD acquisition processes, ATO/RMF frameworks, and program lifecycle management. Strong technical fluency in software systems, data management, or enterprise IT with the ability to engage credibly with both developers and government IT architects. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience briefing senior government leaders (O-6/GS-15 and above). Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance (Secret minimum; TS/SCI preferred or required depending on account portfolio). Bachelor's degree in a technical, business, or national security-related field, or equivalent experience. Preferred Qualifications Prior experience as a customer success manager, technical account manager, or solutions engineer supporting federal/defense software programs. Familiarity with document management, data governance, file intelligence, or cybersecurity software in a federal context. Experience supporting programs on government cloud environments (IL4/IL5/IL6 or equivalent). Experience in or supporting SOCOM, DIA, NSA, NGA, DISA, or major combatant commands is a strong plus. Benefits and Perks Flexible work environment with options for remote work. Comprehensive health benefits, including Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance. Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) to support work-life balance. Why Inkit? At Inkit, we’re on a mission to provide privacy and protection for the world’s data. Every day, individuals and organizations waste time digging through endless files and folders. Inkit’s File Intelligence Platform solves that by using AI to transform how we interact with files, surface information, and protect sensitive data. We’re building a new standard for how the world understands and controls its data. With over $30 million in federal government contracts and more on the way, this is an exciting time to join our team.