Customer Success Leader

We are rebuilding biotech for the AI era. When a breakthrough is delayed, the world waits. Getting a molecule from discovery to patients, or a crop from lab to field, involves thousands of slow, manual, disconnected steps. AI has the potential to change this, compressing decades of R&D work into years. But that only happens when clean, structured scientific data and AI are built into how science gets done. Benchling is the AI platform for biotech R&D. Scientists use Benchling to design experiments, capture structured data, and run AI agents and models directly in their workflows. Over 200,000 scientists around the world trust Benchling to power their most important work, from academic labs to Sanofi, Moderna, and more than half of the world's top 50 biopharma.

We’re building an AI scientist for our customers. We can’t do that if we haven’t built the muscle ourselves. AI fluency is the foundation we build on; it’s core to how we work, and we’re committed to helping every new hire integrate it into their day‑to‑day. As part of our interview process, you’ll complete a brief AI‑focused exercise or discussion so we can understand how you think about and use AI to drive impact in your role. Feel free to reference any tools, platforms, or workflows you use today.

ROLE OVERVIEW

Benchling is seeking a Customer Success Leader with a background in Life Sciences and enterprise SaaS. This role is an exciting blend of team management and strategic leadership. You’re a hands‑on leader who enjoys working closely with their teams and with their customers to drive significant adoption and customer advocacy. You must be able to think and act strategically as well as get into the details of our customer engagements and our product. You will develop an understanding of Benchling’s solutions, and demonstrate your experience to guide our teams to establish significant adoption strategies, to focus on customer outcome realization, and to build processes that scale.

To be successful in this role, you are comfortable with R&D processes and scientific concepts, and be able to speak confidently and build relationships with Scientific and IT leaders at leading Pharma and Biotech organizations. You have experience leading customer‑facing teams in a high‑growth enterprise SaaS environment. And you are a proven leader who can drive a CS business from hiring and staffing, to managing and mentoring your team, to leading through change.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead and Develop the CSM Team: Manage, mentor, and grow a team of CSMs, including hiring as needed. Foster a collaborative, customer‑centric culture that drives measurable outcomes for customers. Ensure the team is highly enabled on Benchling’s platform and equipped with the scientific domain expertise needed to support customers effectively. Coach CSMs on designing and delivering Executive Business Reviews that showcase value realization, customer maturity, and Benchling's strategic roadmap.
• Drive Key Metrics and Program Success: Lead the team in achieving adoption targets through strategic guidance and operational excellence. There will be a particular focus on AI adoption, including awareness, activation, and usage monitoring. Use data to identify risks, opportunities, and trends across the customer portfolio, and develop plans to address them. Collaborate with cross‑functional teams (Sales, Product, Professional Services) to ensure alignment on customer goals.
• Adapt and Optimize Processes: Implement best practices for tracking metrics, standardizing processes, and ensuring consistent delivery of value to customers. Partner with CX Operations to identify and eliminate sources of CSM toil, leveraging AI tools, automation, and improved workflows to increase team efficiency and allow CSMs to focus on high‑value customer engagement.
• Carry a Strategic Book of Business: Directly owns a small portfolio of strategic/enterprise accounts as the named CSM, with full responsibility for adoption, value realization, and renewal influence. Model the customer engagement standard expected of the team (EBRs, multi‑threading, adoption planning) using these accounts to stay close to the realities of the role and the product. Use direct customer exposure to sharpen coaching, identify systemic gaps, and feed credible voice‑of‑customer back into Product, PS, and Sales.
• Customer Advocacy and Support: Serve as a senior point of contact for complex or high‑priority customer engagements, supporting CSMs in addressing challenging situations. Champion the voice of the customer within Benchling, providing feedback to internal teams to drive product improvements and innovation. Guide CSMs in navigating complex customer organizations to build multi‑threaded relationships and drive consensus on adoption strategies.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Business, or a related field. 5+ years of experience in Customer Success, Professional Services, or a related field within SaaS. 2+ years in a management role. Strong understanding of Life Sciences R&D, process development, or related scientific domains. Proven ability to lead and develop a high‑performing team. Excellent communication skills, able to build relationships across technical and business stakeholders at all levels. Self‑motivated, adaptable, and thrives in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment. Experience leveraging a modern CS tech stack, including CRM (e.g., Salesforce), customer success platforms (e.g., Gainsight), data/analytics tools (e.g., Mode, Sigma), and AI‑assisted productivity tools (e.g., Claude). Ability to travel up to 20% based on team and customer needs.
• Preferred: Experience working with or supporting the Benchling platform. Demonstrated ability to guide teams in managing complex customer relationships and driving measurable success.

HOW WE WORK

We offer a flexible hybrid work arrangement that prioritises in‑office collaboration. Employees are expected to be on‑site 3 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). Benchling welcomes everyone. We believe diversity enriches our team so we hire people with a wide range of identities, backgrounds, and experiences. We are an equal opportunity employer. That means we don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.