Customer Success Lead

Role overview

This position is focused on growing a strategically important customer base rather than only maintaining it. You will help travel agencies get more value from Tern by increasing bookable travel volume, expanding adoption of the platform, and uncovering additional opportunities for growth. The role owns the full customer journey, from launch through long-term partnership, and is expected to shape how customer success is built at an early stage.

Tern is a venture-funded software company working to modernize the $127B travel agency market by giving more power and better tools to the entrepreneurs behind it. Most travel agencies are small businesses that have historically lacked strong technology support. The platform is designed to help advisors run more efficient, professional, and profitable businesses with modern infrastructure.

Beyond business outcomes, the company’s view of travel is values-driven: advisors can help travelers make more intentional choices, avoid overcrowded destinations, and direct spending toward communities where it can have a positive impact. Tern’s broader mission is to support small businesses and shape the future of travel.

What the role will do

Agencies use Tern to manage commissions, client data, supplier connections, and other back-office work. This role is about moving customers beyond basic platform usage and helping them use Tern to grow their businesses, serve more clients, and strengthen their operations. You will help define the motion for doing that across a quickly expanding customer base.

The business is growing faster than the team, so this hire will determine how much of the experience should be handled personally and how much should be automated. You will own the strategy for maximizing booked travel revenue through Tern across every account and coordinate the execution needed to make that happen.

This is a strategic customer partner role, not a conventional success manager position focused on login counts or generic product activity. The expectation is to act as a consultant to influential agencies, drive fast activation, and help customers create value quickly after launch.

About the company

Tern is building for travel advisors, agencies, and the operational teams that support them. The company is early in its customer success journey and has already learned from its first enterprise customers. Those learnings now need to be expanded across new and high-value accounts, with a focus on growth, monetization, and scalable support.

The company values growth, initiative, operational excellence, deep user understanding, thoughtful problem-solving, fast execution, and humility. It emphasizes speaking up, moving quickly without sacrificing quality, and working with kindness and resolve.

Key responsibilities

• Help design the customer success approach from an early stage, including the customer segments to serve, the engagement model to use, and the playbook for supporting agencies at scale while preserving strong relationships.
• Own post-sale success for large and enterprise agency accounts, including early collaboration with sales on scope, execution of the agreed roadmap, launch planning, adoption support, and structured business reviews tied to growth outcomes.
• Work with product and engineering teams to launch agencies on Tern, run onboarding and training sessions, and continue supporting the relationship after go-live so customers keep growing on the platform.
• Identify customer pain points, workarounds, and unmet needs, then relay them to the product team quickly so agency feedback directly informs the product cycle.
• Create repeatable systems and scalable customer touchpoints that work across different account sizes and complexity levels, using AI and other tools to provide a highly personalized experience without relying entirely on manual effort.

What the company is looking for

• At least 5 years of experience in customer success, account management, or a senior sales position within a technology company, with direct ownership of post-sale adoption and revenue growth metrics.
• A background managing a substantial portfolio of accounts, along with a demonstrated ability to generate measurable growth rather than simply protect existing business.
• Experience building processes or programs in environments where the playbook was still being developed, and leaving behind something repeatable and useful.
• Comfort working across complex enterprise accounts, mid-market customers that expect close attention, and the individual needs inside large organizations.
• Confidence owning the full customer journey end to end, including planning the roadmap, coordinating cross-functional work, and handling hands-on customer support when needed.
• The ability to ramp up quickly on the travel industry and on multiple stakeholder types, including advisors, agency owners, and back-office teams; accounting or back-office knowledge is a plus.
• Strong instincts for increasing adoption and growth at both the organizational level and the individual user level within each account.

Bonus experience

• Experience in travel, hospitality, or another industry where customers sell a product or service and the software helps them sell more.
• A background in consulting, strategy, management consulting, or professional services, combined with hands-on startup or SaaS experience.
• Exposure to AI tools used in customer success or account management workflows.
• Experience supporting large-scale launches such as host networks, franchise systems, or multi-location rollouts.

Why this opportunity stands out

This is a chance to join early and help define what customer success looks like across a rapidly expanding book of business. The role is closely tied to the company’s growth strategy and will influence how support, communication, trust, and resource allocation work in an AI-enabled future.

The work is centered on revenue growth and account monetization, with direct ownership of the value customers create through Tern. If you want to shape a function from the ground up and partner with influential agencies on meaningful business outcomes, this role offers that scope.

What Tern values

The team emphasizes continuous improvement, ownership, excellence in execution, deep user empathy, thoughtful decision-making, healthy debate, quick movement, attention to detail, and a grounded attitude. The culture is designed for people who are driven, collaborative, and comfortable doing serious work without taking themselves too seriously.

Additional information

Tern encourages applicants from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The company notes that candidates are welcome to apply even if they do not match every requirement exactly.

Compensation: The stated salary range is $110,000 to $140,000 per year.

Location: United States. The role is listed as onsite.

Employment type: Full-time.

Openings: Not specified.

Start date: Not specified.