Head of Enterprise Professional Services

ROLE OVERVIEW

Benchling is seeking an experienced customer-facing Professional Services (PS) Leader to manage our Enterprise Professional Services team, which is responsible for our largest customer implementations. These engagements are generally multi-phased, 6-12 month, cross-departmental programs that require deploying Benchling into complex enterprise IT environments, interfacing with other vendor solutions and legacy applications. This is a highly visible leadership role, requiring you to partner with internal and external teams to exceed expected outcomes for our highest value customers.

The Head of Enterprise PS has the ultimate responsibility for the success of our largest and most important customer implementations. You must be a hands on leader who can think strategically, and help your engagement managers and project staff navigate large scale enterprise implementations.

To be successful in this role, you must be comfortable with Life Sciences R&D processes and scientific concepts, and be able to develop deep relationships with Scientific and IT leaders at large Pharma and Biotech organizations. You must have experience with Enterprise SaaS software implementation and be able to lead and drive cross-functional teams to deliver transformational solutions. You must be able to translate customer objectives into detailed services proposals and Statements of Work, and have experience managing project financials, negotiations, and building and leading a team.

The ideal candidate to lead, build, and scale our Enterprise PS team will be a dynamic cultural leader who has demonstrated the ability to lead teams of high performing, ambitious, qualified team members through stressful and consequential work in a hyper growth environment.

YOUR IMPACT

• Lead, support, and develop an exceptional team of Engagement Managers (EMs) who own implementation programs for our largest and most strategic customers.
• Oversee the activities of the EM team through ongoing involvement with their implementations, ensuring project teams deliver on time, within budgets, and with high quality outcomes.
• Further develop the Enterprise PS team beyond the Engagement Manager role, adding critical post-sales functions for a successful and scalable operation.
• Ensure we follow best practice implementation processes, and identify opportunities to improve our enterprise rollout methodology and tools.
• Develop relationships in our customers' organizations including with executive sponsors, key business and IT stakeholders, and project leads.
• Establish program governance structures that enable EMs to build internal and external alignment on project statuses, execute against project milestones, and deliver customer value.
• Act as the escalation point for Enterprise customer issues, work cross-functionally to develop solutions to problems, drive internal and external alignment, and be accountable for project success.
• Work with EMs and Sales to develop new business opportunities identified during project execution, create proposals, and represent Professional Services in pre-sales activities.
• Create estimates for Professional Service projects from extensions with existing customers, to proposals for new deals, lead the the development of Change Orders and Statements of Work (SOWs).
• Actively manage financials including project team utilization, budget vs actual hours and project margins.

ABOUT YOU

• BS or M.Sc. in Biology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Biotechnology, Bioengineering or similar life science field, or equivalent professional experience working with Life Sciences R&D processes and/or technology.
• Proven experience working with Life Sciences companies and be comfortable with Biotech R&D processes and scientific concepts. Must be able to confidently interface and build trust with VP and C-Level Scientific & Research IT leaders in top-20 Biotech and Pharma companies from day 1 on the job.
• 10 years client facing implementation and/or consulting experience, with demonstrated success managing enterprise scale projects
• 5 years experience in a PS leadership role, managing 10 people, with proven ability to recruit, hire, and lead a high-functioning Professional Services team
• Deep expertise in program management for multi-workstream enterprise software deployments including functional team management, scope & budget control, program governance, executive reporting, and project financials
• Experience leading services sales activities, including proposal generation, SOW creation, selling PS, Change Orders, and client negotiations
• Independent, adaptable, and can thrive in a fast-paced startup environment
• Excellent communication skills in verbal, written and presentation formats

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