Partner Engagement Manager

Partner Engagement Manager – AFCENT/ARCENT

About the Role

Our defense technology client is seeking a Partner Engagement Manager to own and grow strategic relationships with senior military customers—from day-to-day users through General and Flag Officers.

This role is responsible for driving adoption, renewals, and expansion of a mission-critical software platform within complex military organizations. You will operate at the intersection of operations, customer success, and growth, serving as the primary face of the company to key commands while acting as a trusted partner to planners, senior leaders, and technical stakeholders.

Success in this role requires deep operational credibility, strong relationship-building skills, technical fluency, and the ability to navigate large government organizations to get things done.

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Your Mission

As a Partner Engagement Manager, you will:

• Own the end-to-end customer relationship, from power users to senior commanders

• Drive rapid and sustained product adoption, with the goal of near-universal usage across key planning staffs (e.g., G-35 / G-5)

• Win renewals and expansions, ensuring customer accounts grow year over year

• Serve as the voice of the customer to the Product team, clearly communicating user needs and feedback

• Maintain deep product expertise and excite customers about new capabilities and improvements

• Gather intelligence on command structures, budgets, and regional dynamics to support growth

• Reinforce and instill the company’s brand and mission

• Support expansion efforts with Allies and Partner nations

This is a high-ownership role—responsibilities extend beyond a fixed list, and you’ll do what’s needed to ensure team and mission success.

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Key Responsibilities

Customer Ownership & Engagement

• Build trusted relationships with planners, senior officers, and executive leadership

• Provide face-to-face and remote customer support

• Understand customer social dynamics to support renewals and future sales

• Act as a reliable, detail-oriented point of contact customers can depend on

Product Adoption & Enablement

• Lead or support military exercises and planning events

• Train users and apply creative strategies to maximize product usage

• Become a power user of the platform and help customers fully leverage its capabilities

• Use field observations to recommend product improvements and enhancements

Incident & Issue Management

• Coordinate response when the product is unavailable, underperforming, or not meeting expectations

• Act as the liaison between the customer and product engineering teams

• Ensure issues are communicated clearly and resolved effectively

Operational & Organizational Navigation

• Navigate complex military and government bureaucracies to remove blockers

• Solve non-standard problems that require persistence, creativity, and influence

• Enable technical access, approvals, or coordination required to support customer success

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What Success Looks Like

• Senior planners listen when you speak—and Generals and Admirals do too

• Customers rely on you as a trusted advisor and advocate

• Product usage becomes deeply embedded in daily planning workflows

• Renewals are strong, and contracts expand over time

• Product and engineering teams receive clear, actionable insights from the field

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About You

You are:

• Deeply committed to serving real users and earning their trust

• Highly credible with military planners (primarily O-4 to O-6), and respected by senior leaders

• Energized by navigating military and political complexity to win long-term adoption

• Detail-oriented, dependable, and known as a workhorse on your teams

• Resourceful and persistent when facing bureaucratic challenges

• Technically savvy (you don’t need to code, but you can speak engineering and master the product)

• Mission-driven, ambitious, and motivated to grow as the company grows

• A strong communicator who is clear, direct, and low-ego

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Qualifications

Required

• Active Top Secret clearance with eligibility for SCI

• Proven experience leading operational planning in a military context, preferably at multi-star headquarters

• Advanced military education (e.g., Command and Staff, Advanced Military Studies)

• Deep familiarity with military planning exercises and software deployment on classified networks

• Experience expanding business presence within a region, ideally for software or technology products

• Strong customer support experience (in-person and remote)

• Ability to coordinate incident response across customers and engineering teams

• Demonstrated success navigating large government organizations and solving complex bureaucratic challenges

• Strong technical aptitude and ability to master and support a sophisticated software platform

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What Sets You Apart

• You are obsessed with creating value for users

• You are scrappy, curious, and a creative problem solver

• You learn quickly, work iteratively, and collaborate naturally

• You operate with integrity, intellectual honesty, and humility

• You thrive with autonomy, ambiguity, and high ownership