Director of Customer Engagement

Firestorm is looking to hire the Director of Customer Engagement who will lead the customer-facing arm of the Mission Success function. You will build and lead the Mission Success Manager (MSM) team. You will also own the 30/60/90 customer cadence across the account portfolio; and translate field-derived signal into closed-loop customer responses within the published Service Level Agreement (SLA). This is a founder-adjacent leadership role: you will set the customer-experience standard for a defense-tech company at Series B level, in front of operators who decide vendor credibility in the first 72 hours of fielding.

• Lead the MSM team as it stands up, ensuring a growth path to additional MSMs as portfolio scales.
• Own the 30/60/90-day customer cadence across the account portfolio; ensure single-throat-per-account discipline.
• Translate Voice of Customer (VOC) signal into closed-loop customer responses within the 14-day SLA, even when the response is "not in scope for this fiscal year."
• Partner with the Product Engineer counterparts: (xCell General Manager), Tempest (Head of Product), and Squall (Project Manager) on monthly VOC triage and quarterly roadmap visibility cadence.
• Partner with Program Managers and the Business Development account owners in a three-cornered customer-account relationship: contract execution (PM), customer experience (MSM), commercial relationship (BD).
• Build the customer-success operational rhythm: account scorecards, customer satisfaction (CSAT) measurement, renewal posture, expansion conversation framework.
• Represent Mission Success in the monthly Warranty & Field Quality Review (W&FQR) and in cross-functional forums affecting customer experience.
• Direct interface with the customer at Severity-1 (Sev-1) events; arbiter on customer-impact decisions affecting contract terms or reference ability.
• Perform other duties as required

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business Administration, Marketing, Communications or equivalent field. In lieu of degree 15 years of progressive relevant experience
• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations & the ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Defense (DoD) security clearance
• 10+ years customer success, account management, or post-sales leadership in defense-tech, dual-use hardware, government services, and/or related sector with U.S. military or government customers.
• Experience leading customer-facing teams; hired or grown at least one prior customer success / account team.
• Experience converting customer accounts from Cap Ex wins to recurring revenue or follow-on contract awards.
• Experience building customer-facing operating discipline (30/60/90 cadences, CSAT measurement, renewal motions).
• Excellent written and verbal communication; comfort at the executive-customer interface (O-5 / GS-14 and above).

• Prior U.S. military service or 5+ years working with U.S. defense customers at the operator level.
• Active Secret clearance at hire (Firestorm will sponsor);
  Top Secret eligibility preferred.
• Experience with defense-tech contract types (Other Transaction Authority (OTA), Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT), Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)).
• Familiarity with operational unit types served (U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), U.S. Forces Korea (USFK)).

Firestorm is a California-headquartered defense-tech company building expeditionary advanced manufacturing systems (xCell), Group 1-3 modular Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (Tempest), and Group 1 quad copter Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (Squall, produced via the xCell manufacturing platform). We are 150 employees, Series B, and growing the Mission Success function from the ground up to deliver white-glove fielding, sustainment, and customer success for the operators who decide vendor credibility in the first 72 hours of operational use.

Our Mission Success function is Warfighter First, Led by Warfighters - the team that fields the system is the team that fielded systems like it.

• Position is based onsite at…