Manager, Customer Engineering

The Team + The Role Pendo’s Customer Engineering team is the technical backbone of our pre- and post-sales motion. The team brings together responsibilities previously split across Customer Success, Technical Account Management, and Solutions Engineering into one full-lifecycle technical ownership model. Customer Engineering is a growth function focused on customer health, retention, expansion, and technical partnership. As Manager, Customer Engineering, you will lead a team of Customer Engineers and be accountable for their aggregate output while staying close to the work. You will translate team goals into individual assignments, coach direct reports on technical and commercial skills, and run the day-to-day operating rhythm for your pod. This is a people leadership role where your team’s output is your output. This is a role based in-office in Sydney or Remote in Melbourne. What this looks like day-to-day Team output and account health: Own the aggregate health, retention, and expansion outcomes for the accounts your team manages. Ensure Customer Engineering coverage is adequate, account risks are surfaced early, and no account falls through the cracks.People development: Coach and develop P2 through P4 Customer Engineers through regular 1:1s, actionable feedback, performance management, and individual development plans. Identify skill gaps and partner with enablement to address them.Operational rhythm: Run the team’s operating cadence, including weekly account reviews, pipeline syncs with Account Directors, escalation triage, and capacity planning. Maintain documentation standards and Salesforce hygiene across the team.Hiring and onboarding: Partner with recruiting to hire strong Customer Engineers and own the onboarding experience for new team members. Ensure new hires become productive within expected ramp timelines.Account Director partnership: Serve as the management counterpart to Account Director leadership for your pod. Resolve cross-functional friction, align priorities, and ensure the Customer Engineering and Account Director partnership operates in lockstep.AI adoption: Set expectations for how your team experiments with and adopts AI tools for account workflows, call prep, and documentation. Model AI usage in your own management workflows and share what works across the team. Who You Are Beyond the qualifications, we hire through a specific lens. These aren't buzzwords; they're the things we'll actually look for in how you talk about your work. You're a builder, not a maintainer. You're most energized when there isn't a clear path yet, and you get to define it. You don't wait for direction; you identify gaps, shape solutions, and drive them forward. At Pendo, great Managers, Customer Engineering don't just follow instructions; they operate as strategic advisors, influencing decisions, guiding stakeholders, and elevating how we work. You're AI-curious - genuinely. You're not using AI tools occasionally. You're rewiring how you work around them. You're faster, sharper, and more prolific because of it, and you bring that energy to everything — how you approach your work, how you prep, how you communicate, how you think. We want someone who sees AI as a multiplier, not a shortcut. Must-haves 5+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role, such as Solutions Engineering, Technical Account Management, Customer Success Engineering, or Customer Engineering, plus demonstrated people management experience.Demonstrated ability to coach and develop technical team members with measurable outcomes.Experience managing a team accountable for customer health, retention, and expansion metrics.Strong operational instincts, including the ability to build and run a team cadence that keeps accounts healthy.Ability to partner effectively with Account Director leadership and resolve cross-functional friction.Experience driving team adoption of AI tools to accelerate workflows.Comfort with direct feedback, performance management, and honest development conversations. Nice-to-haves Experience with Pendo, digital adoption platforms, or product analytics tooling.Background in B2B SaaS with complex enterprise customer motions.Experience hiring and onboarding technical team members.Familiarity with pod-based or tiered account coverage models. About Pendo Pendo was founded in 2013 by former product managers, who combined their heads and hearts to build something they wanted but never had as product managers: a simple way to understand and attack what truly drives product success. Our mission is to improve society's experience with software. Come join one of the fastest-growing startups, supported by best-in-class institutions like Battery Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Spark Capital and Meritech. Pendo Core Values: Bias to Act, Hone Your Craft, The Team is Pendo, and Maniacal Focus. Location: Pendo is a hybrid culture. In-office 3 days per week unless designated remote. Benefits: Flexible, high-control benefits with a monthly health stipend, strong parental leave, equity, and above-market retirement contributions. EEOC: We are an equal opportunity employer and believe having diverse teams where everyone brings their whole self to Pendo is key to our success. We welcome all people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. Accessibility: Pendo is committed to working with, and providing access and reasonable accommodation to, applicants with mental and/or physical disabilities. If you think you may require an accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, please send a request to: accommodation@pendo.io. All requests for accommodations are treated discreetly and confidentially, as practical and permitted by law.