akiro is Esperanto and means “procurement”. Just as the origin of our name indicates, we strive to become the platform for connecting people with different backgrounds, cultures and languages to change businesses for the better forever through procurement strategies with purpose and sustainable business value. akirolabs is an AI-augmented collaboration platform for strategic procurement/category management. In our labs we are developing the future of ProcureTech.

In fact, globally leading procurement professionals and thought leaders are confirming akirolabs’ uniqueness and innovation power. Dr. Elouise Epstein, one of the world’s preeminent experts in procurement, considers akirolabs a “significant development” and “breakthrough innovation”. Gartner’s globally leading analyst, Koray Köse, has named akirolabs a Gartner® COOL VENDOR™ in November 2022.

Find out more on our website and LinkedIn page.

Your Role

At akirolabs, we face complexity at scale every single day and convert it into opportunity by using attributes like speed and nimbleness/agility, focus and grit, or structured problem-solving. Yet we feel we’re just in the early pre-game portion of our lives with tons of more adventures to be had and crazy scale to be conquered.

Consider facts such as these:

• We already have customers combining for €60bn in annual revenues. External spend usually makes up 40-60%, meaning that our customers are developing procurement strategies for ca. €30bn of annual spend with our systems – and we are just getting started.
• Despite our young age, we are already recognized as Gartner Cool Vendor, DPW Top 10 Startup and a breakthrough Innovation by KEARNEY
• Our Engineering team has been able to build a wonderful product at rapid pace - and yet we’re just scratching the surface. Through more AI & ML capability, we’re trying to truly disrupt the game itself, evolving from a digital strategic procurement toolkit, to a strategy ecosystem, to finally achieve strategy automation.

As a Customer Success Manager, you’ll play a critical role in ensuring that our customers are successful and getting value out of the akirolabs platform. You’ll manage a portfolio of customers as they embark on their akirolabs journey and ramping up spend and developing procurement strategies. In this role, you’ll be responsible for increasing user adoption, measuring success and addressing roadblocks if they come up. Being a people person is a necessity for this position as much as speaking the procurement language. You’ll work closely with our customers and co-founder team.

• As an expert you will be expected to advise our customers throughout the strategy development and execution process and to facilitate the cross-functional and cross-border collaboration.  Your ability to bring strategic procurement excellence, avid curiosity and creative problem solving skills will be critical.
• Finally, as part of our customer facing team, you will be expected to roll up your sleeves and collaborate with & support your peers in creating an organizational culture we are proud of, managing expert and executive relationships at our Fortune-500 customers, and be an evangelist who advocates for continuous improvement programs that keep transforming akirolabs and our customers to become world-class.

Responsibilities

• Build and strengthen client relationships by developing success plans and executing those plans in a timely and organized manner.
• Track KPIs for clients assigned to ensure full knowledge of your customers and be proactive on addressing any adoption issues identified through these KPIs. Ensure customer delight and reduce churn to the minimum.
• Proactively and regularly monitoring the relationship between akirolabs and its customers, in order to anticipate and deal with any reason for dissatisfaction and best possibly prevent and fix any kind of issue.
• Manage client expectations and desired outcomes using strong procurement subject matter expertise, leadership skills, project management and presentation skills, as well as business acumen.
• Act as the client advocate ensuring key decision-makers understand the value of akirolabs. Play an active role in our regular Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meetings, representing your customers’ business needs in design sessions with other clients.
• Pick-up customer requirements and work with the product team to increase product/market-fit continuously
• Proactively help the client meet their business objectives by becoming a true partner who can help educate and guide the client through business transformations and ensure the clients receive the value they are expecting.
• Coordinate and manage regularly scheduled meetings with clients to ensure day-to-day operations run as expected and that special projects and product implementations run smoothly.
• Report client status to the leadership team as well as the tech, sales and operations teams using both qualitative and quantitative measures.

Requirements

• Your personality will make the difference: commitment, involvement, autonomy, strength of proposal, organizational capacity, analytical and synthesis spirit
• Bachelor’s degree in business or STEM, advanced degree preferred (MS, MBA)
• Experience of 2+ years in a procurement excellence role, as a procurement consultant or in a corporate procurement role AND/OR
• Experience of 2+ years in Customer Success in a SaaS company
• Very organized and rigorous, you are anxious to keep the commitments that you have agreed with the customers, and to inform them regularly of the progress of their requests when it is necessary.
• Ability to drive continuous improvement of Client Services across the company by helping to create a culture focused on customer success (Marketing, Product, Sales, Finance, Executive)
• Soft Skills:
  • Fluent in English (must-have) and German (nice-to-have)
  • People Person and Relationship Builder
  • Master Communicator
  • Problem-Solver
  • Person of High Integrity
  • Exceptional attention to details, accuracy and precision
  • Calm manner, even and specifically under pressure
  • Ability to cope with rapidly change demands and priorities

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• A lot of space for your own ideas with a sparring approach
• Full flexibility in location (remote first) and working style
• An innovative working environment that focuses on a collaborative company spirit, an open feedback culture, and employee growth opportunities
• Work closely with experienced (former CEOs & Senior Partners) and successful entrepreneur

About akirolabs

akirolabs is an AI-augmented collaboration platform for strategic procurement/category management. In our labs we are developing the future of ProcureTech. Find out more on our website and LinkedIn page.

Better Procurement

• Guiding procurement BEYOND efficiency, savings and profit towards total sustainable business value. Maximizing the value to the business, to the planet and our society.
• Thinking and acting beyond the traditional supply market focus > BEYOND category
• Bringing procurement closer to the core business, the overarching business strategy and broader company purpose 

Better Product

• Combining procurement thought leadership with leading edge technology
• Addressing the most challenging, demanding, inspiring discipline in business: strategy
• Enabling diversity and collaboration as the key driver of innovation and disruption
• Driving business insight & business foresight
• Filling a white space in ProcureTech, building upon an award-winning innovation
• Pushing the boundaries in ProcureTech continuously into the future

Better People

• Attracting the best talent
• Proving the most rewarding business and technology challenges

Living the BRAVE akirolabs culture and values:

• BOLD: entrepreneurial, failing forward  
• RESPECTFUL: diverse & inclusive
• ACCOUNTABLE: responsible and with integrity
• VERSATILE:  adaptive & flexible, working from anywhere & remote-first
• EMPOWERING:  non-hierarchical & inspiring team collaboration and events      

Equal Opportunities

akirolabs is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind: akirolabs is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at akirolabs are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, […], family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. akirolabs will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. We encourage applicants of all ages.