Customer Success Lead

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, which manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Customer Success Lead based in Germany.

We are seeking an experienced Customer Success Lead to drive customer satisfaction, retention, and growth for a digital platform serving the recycled materials and commodities trading industry. In this hands-on leadership role, you will manage strategic customer relationships while building and developing a high-performing Customer Success team. You will oversee the entire customer lifecycle, from implementation and onboarding to adoption, renewal, and account expansion. Working closely with Product, Engineering, Sales, and senior leadership, you will translate customer needs into actionable improvements and measurable business outcomes. Your expertise in complex B2B software implementations and commodity supply chains will help customers optimize operations, improve efficiency, and strengthen profitability. This is an exciting opportunity to shape customer success practices within a growing technology business supporting the digital transformation of the circular economy.

Accountabilities:

• Customer Success Team Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop a small Customer Success Management (CSM) team by establishing clear expectations, providing regular feedback, supporting professional development, and contributing to recruitment as the team grows.

• Customer Portfolio Management: Own the overall health, retention, and expansion of the customer portfolio, using commercially relevant metrics to monitor performance and communicate progress, risks, and opportunities to senior leadership.

• Strategic Account Ownership: Personally manage the most important and complex customer relationships, ensuring successful implementation, sustained adoption, long-term satisfaction, contract renewals, and account expansion.

• Customer Onboarding and Implementation: Oversee customer onboarding, data migration, implementation planning, and go-live activities, working closely with customer operations teams to ensure successful deployment and adoption.

• Customer Success Processes and Playbooks: Develop, standardize, and continuously improve processes for onboarding, implementation, customer health monitoring, quarterly business reviews, renewals, and escalation management.

• Voice of the Customer: Represent customer needs to Product and Engineering teams by consolidating feedback, identifying recurring challenges, and translating operational requirements into commercially relevant product recommendations.

• Product and Roadmap Collaboration: Influence product priorities by communicating customer insights, identifying opportunities for platform improvements, and helping internal teams understand the business impact of proposed developments.

• Sales Partnership and Revenue Expansion: Collaborate with Sales on pre-sales scoping, customer handovers, and account expansion opportunities, ensuring commitments are realistic and aligned with successful delivery and customer adoption. This is a non-quota-carrying leadership role.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build strong working relationships across Customer Success, Product, Engineering, Sales, and leadership to resolve customer challenges, improve internal coordination, and deliver a consistent customer experience.

• Commercial Performance and Value Realization: Understand customer business models, margins, logistics costs, and price-risk exposure, connecting platform capabilities to tangible operational improvements and financial outcomes.

• Operational Excellence and Scalability: Introduce practical processes and performance standards that enable the Customer Success function to scale effectively without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

• Knowledge Sharing and Best Practices: Collaborate with Customer Success counterparts across the wider organization to exchange insights, align working methods, and strengthen customer experience across multiple platforms.

Requirements:

• Customer Success Experience: A strong track record of managing complex B2B customer accounts and software implementations, with measurable results in adoption, retention, customer satisfaction, or account expansion.

• Leadership and Coaching: Experience leading, mentoring, or coaching colleagues, either formally or informally, with the ability to improve team performance, establish clear standards, and support professional growth.

• Industry Knowledge: Experience in recycled materials, metals, commodities trading, or related supply chain industries is a strong advantage. Candidates from adjacent sectors should demonstrate a willingness to learn the recycled materials value chain, including sourcing, grading, logistics, documentation, and trading processes.

• Strategic Account Management: Proven ability to manage senior stakeholders, navigate complex customer environments, resolve escalations, and build long-term partnerships…