Customer Success Executive
Instrumental
Customer Service, Sales & Business Development
Palo Alto, CA, USA
Posted on Nov 28, 2024
Instrumental helps the world’s most admired electronics brands build better hardware -- delivering 3mo payback periods and improving the most critical manufacturing metrics. We drive the digital transformation of quality, inspection, and testing with data analysis & AI products. Hardware engineering, manufacturing operations, and quality teams leverage Instrumental’s manufacturing platform to accelerate development time, improve yields, and reduce field failures.
We’re looking for a Customer Success Executive (CSE) who thrives in the space between strategy and execution. This is not a behind-the-scenes role—you’ll be in the thick of it, guiding enterprise customers through high-impact decisions, uncovering new opportunities, and expanding our footprint within organizations like Cisco or Bose. You’ll need to be sharp, adaptable, and persistent, knowing when to push and when to listen. Success in this role comes from understanding the people behind the business—building trust, influencing decisions, and creating partnerships that drive real impact. And while you’ll drive business growth, you won’t be above jumping in wherever needed to make sure customers succeed.
This is an opportunity to own key customer relationships, drive real business outcomes, and work with some of the most innovative teams in manufacturing. The right person will find satisfaction not just in the wins, but in the challenge of earning them—understanding the nuances of each customer, navigating complexity, and making an undeniable impact.
At Instrumental, we know that the best customer partnerships are built on trust, insight, and the ability to lead with both confidence and empathy. If you’re someone who thrives in environments where relationships, strategy, and execution intersect—and you want to be part of a team that values your ability to build, connect, and drive meaningful change—we’d love to hear from you.
What You'll Do:
- Cultivate and expand relationships with enterprise manufacturing leaders, earning their trust and influencing key decisions.
- Identify opportunities for growth within existing accounts and thoughtfully lead customers toward solutions that make a meaningful impact.
- Serve as a strategic partner, balancing advocacy for the customer with a deep understanding of how to move the business forward.
- Work cross-functionally with Sales, Product, and Engineering to ensure seamless execution and continued success.
- Be hands-on when needed—whether troubleshooting a customer issue or making sure they feel supported in high-stakes moments.
Who You Are:
- A natural relationship builder with the confidence to challenge assumptions and the tact to do so effectively.
- Someone who has direct experience with hardware development or manufacturing businesses and a deep understanding of how to transform movement in specific KPIs such as yield, throughput, and quality to business and operational value.
- Adept at navigating large, complex organizations, understanding both formal structures and the unspoken dynamics that drive decisions.
- Comfortable with strong personalities—whether it's a direct, no-nonsense VP or a skeptical engineering lead, you know how to engage, guide, and win trust.
- Unafraid to push for results while keeping relationships strong—your approach is persistent but never abrasive.
- Energized by solving problems and making things happen, whether through influence, creative thinking, or sheer determination.
- Highly attuned to the nuances of communication—you know when to be direct, when to be diplomatic, and how to make people feel heard while still moving things forward.
This position requires access to items and data that are developed under U.S. government contracts and subject to dissemination controls that limit access to U.S. citizens only.
We’re a growing team that works collaboratively, supports each other, and is energized by having impact. We value passion and the ability to learn – you’re encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn’t match the job description precisely!
The following is a representative annual base salary range for this position within the Bay Area: $117-155k. This position is additionally eligible for substantial variable incentives. In addition, job level and salary opportunities are evaluated through our interview process – we review the experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of each applicant.
Instrumental is proud to offer a highly-rated variety of benefits, including health, vision, dental, commuter plans, and parental leave.