Head, Customer Engineering

Job title : Head, Customer Engineering

Mission / Purpose of the Job

• Architect and own the Customer Engineering function. Define how the team operates, who it hires, how it scales, and how its outcomes are measured.
• As a player-coach, will directly manage strategic enterprise accounts while simultaneously building the team, processes, and knowledge systems that allow the CE team function to scale without proportional headcount growth.
• Build a small, elite Customer Engineering team that delivers governance outcomes customers couldn't achieve without the platform - ensuring every fulfilment makes the next one faster and every customer success makes the next customer easier to win.

Job Responsibilities
Operating Model Design & CE Scaling:

• Design and continuously refine the CE team's operating model: work segmentation, account prioritisation, and value delivery at scale
• Build the reusable asset system: after every 23 fulfilments, extract one artifact (script, checklist, dashboard template, integration runbook) that eliminates manual repetition
• Rationalise the tool stack to one unified system - the team should spend time delivering, notadministering
• Define scope discipline: what to build now vs. what to delay - protect the team from overengineering while ensuring scale foundations are in place
• Own capacity planning: right-size CE headcount against the fulfilment pipeline; apply strength-based role tilt (technical CE vs. commercial CE)

Strategic Account Leadership:

• Personally own the most strategically important enterprise relationships - embedded in the account, not managed from a distance
• Lead Quarterly Business Reviews with C-suite stakeholders (CISO, CCO, CRO, Board sponsors) at strategic accounts
• Position the organisation as a governance transformation partner: the operating infrastructure for governance programmes
• Identify and close expansion opportunities in strategic accounts: new frameworks, new geographies, multi-entity extension, supply chain risk

KPI Ownership & Performance Management:

• Own the CE team's full KPI framework across delivery, adoption, commercial contribution,and strategic impact ´ Run the weekly 30-minute KPI review: Time to Governance Value, fulfilment cycle time,multi-stakeholder adoption, NRR contribution, health score distribution
• Conduct monthly variance analysis: distinguish systemic fulfilment problems from one-off account issues; update playbooks accordingly
• Hold the team accountable to governance outcome metrics, not activity metrics, whilemaintaining a culture of psychological safety
• Set and track benchmarks: T2GV by segment, cycle time by account type, feature adoption by module, expansion rate by cohort

Team Building & Talent Development:

• Own CE hiring: define the role profile, conduct technical and behavioural assessments, make final decisions with quality over speed
• Design and maintain the 90-day onboarding programme: new CEs paired with experienced engineers for first 34 fulfilments before independent delivery
• Develop specialist tracks: cloud compliance, multi-entity governance, DSPM and data privacy
• build depth so no critical expertise is siloed
• Run quarterly retrospectives: delivery timeline variance, playbook updates, process improvement identification
• Deliver quarterly regulatory briefings: what is changing in the compliance landscape, which] customers are affected, what configuration updates are needed
• Build a culture where knowledge is captured, shared, and improved - each fulfilment makesthe team collectively smarter

Go-To-Market Partnership:

• Act as technical authority in the sales process for enterprise opportunities: join strategic sales calls, lead the discovery architecture, own the POV framing
• Ensure fulfilment-ready clarity before every contract signature - no surprises post-sale about scope, complexity, or integration requirements
• Lead the reference customer programme: cultivate Strategic (?40%), Mid-Market (?50%),and SMB (?75%) customers as active references
• Partner with Marketing on demand generation: CE-sourced case studies, governancetransformation narratives, and quantified customer outcomes
• Own contribution to company NRR: track and drive the expansion revenue influenced bycustomer Engineering delivery quality

Product Intelligence & Platform Roadmap Influence:

• Act as the primary CE interface to Product and Engineering leadership on platform direction
• Ensure ?50% of the product roadmap is influenced by Customer Engineering customer Intelligence not internal assumptions
• Chair or co-lead the monthly Product Enhancement Council: present top customer feedbackthemes and drive prioritisation
• Identify platform gaps requiring short-term custom workarounds and escalate as highpriority product issues with commercial context
• Translate regulatory changes (e.g., NIS2, DORA, AI governance) into specific platform feature or framework requirements
• Govern the productisation of CE-originated solutions: when a custom script or dashboardtemplate has been built for multiple customers, it becomes a platform feature

Market & Regulatory Leadership:

• Maintain authoritative knowledge of the compliance and regulatory landscape: NIS2 (EU), DORA (EU financial sector), NDPR (Nigeria), POPIA (South Africa), AI Act governanceimplications
• Represent the organisation at industry events, conferences, and thought leadership forumson AI-native governance and compliance transformation
• Brief investors and analysts on CE's role in the commercial model and NRR performance
• Advise customers proactively on regulatory changes before they become audit findings

Requirements
Work Experience:

• 8+ years in customer-facing technical or consulting roles; 3+ years leading Customer Engineering, Professional Services, or Solutions Architecture teams in B2B SaaS
• Track record of building or significantly scaling a Customer Engineering or Sales Engineering function, including hiring, delivery process design, and KPI ownership
• Deep background in compliance, security, or risk - or demonstrated ability to rapidly build authoritative domain knowledge
• Experience owning enterprise accounts ($250K+ ACV) endto-end including complex scope disputes and expansion negotiations

Knowledge:

• Enterprise compliance frameworks across global jurisdictions (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, GDPR, NIS2, DORA, NDPR, POPIA, CBN RBF, HIPAA)
• AI governance frameworks and regulatory evolution (including EU AI Act implications)
• Enterprise risk, governance, and compliance operating models
• SaaS delivery lifecycle at enterprise scale in regulated industries
• Governance automation and compliance technology landscape

Skills:

• Customer Engineering function design and scaling
• Enterprise account leadership and executive stakeholder management
• Solutions architecture for complex multi-system environments
• KPI design, operational analytics, and performance management
• Team building, hiring, and organisational design
• Product roadmap influence through customer intelligence
• Go-to-market collaboration across Sales, Product, Engineering, and Marketing
• Regulatory translation into technical platform requirements
• Strategic enterprise negotiation and expansion management

Behavioral Attributes:

• Strong ownership mindset and end-to-end accountability
• Systems thinking with focus on scalable execution models
• Outcome-driven orientation focused on governance value delivery
• Strong executive presence with senior stakeholder credibility
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity
• Strong bias for reuse, standardisation, and operational efficiency
• High resilience in complex enterprise environments
• Strong leadership and coaching orientation

Key Competencies:

• Expert-level knowledge: ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, ISO 22301, NDPR, POPIA, CBN RBF, GDPR, NIS2, DORA, HIPAA
• Advisory-level awareness: EU AI Act governance implications, AI governance frameworks, cross-border data sovereignty requirements
• Mastery of enterprise compliance platforms and architectures, able to design multi-domain fulfilment solutions with CTO-level stakeholders
• Fluency in articulating differentiation from GRC incumbents and point solutions across technical and business value dimensions
• Strong awareness of governance automation market trends.