Scaled Customer Success Manager, Startups

OpenRouter is a unified interface for AI inference, providing access to numerous models through a single API. They are seeking a Scaled Customer Success Manager for Startups to build and manage the post-sale engine for their startup ecosystem, focusing on customer activation, retention, and growth.

Responsibilities:

• 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
• 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
• Partner with Sales to surface startups ready for Enterprise conversion, higher usage commitments, premium support, compliance, observability, throughput, or strategic partnership
• Work across GTM to expand distribution, improve onboarding and activation, and connect the startup program to broader growth initiatives
• 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
• Build self-serve resources that help technical founders succeed without waiting for human intervention
• Define what 'healthy' looks like for startup customers
• Segment the portfolio into cohorts
• Create the operating cadence for reviewing startup portfolio health
• Help evolve OpenRouter’s startup program into a scalable growth engine
• Improve the application, approval, onboarding, activation, communication, and follow-up experience
• Build rubrics and workflows that identify high-potential AI-native startups and route them into the right journey
• Ensure approved startups get value quickly and have clear paths to scale
• Continuously improve how the program runs by streamlining processes and creating better experiences for founders, partners, and internal teams alike
• Turn startup customer, founder, and partner interactions into structured product signal
• Capture and synthesize feedback across onboarding friction, model availability, routing behavior, latency, reliability, pricing, documentation gaps, integration blockers, and developer experience
• Surface patterns to Product and Engineering based on frequency, customer severity, growth potential, and revenue impact
• Build feedback loops that improve the experience for the entire startup ecosystem, not just one account at a time

Requirements:

• You have managed a scaled customer portfolio, startup program operations, developer ecosystem, PLG customer base, or technical customer segment
• You care deeply about startups and understand the realities of early-stage building
• You enjoy working closely with founders, operators, and emerging teams as they navigate product-market fit, growth, and scale
• 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 know how to identify churn risk, activation blockers, expansion signals, and commercial opportunity in a usage-based business
• You are fluent in customer data and can use usage trends, support signals, product analytics, and revenue data to drive action
• You have built workflows, dashboards, automations, lifecycle programs, internal tools, customer journeys, or playbooks that improved customer outcomes at scale
• You operate with a builder mindset and take ownership beyond your job description
• You're energized by creating structure from ambiguity and helping new programs scale from 0 to 1
• You're comfortable working in evolving environments where processes are still being defined
• You do not default to manual touch points. You default to systems, repeatability, and leverage
• 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