Senior Renewals Manager, Kong
Microservice API gateway
Open for applications
Microservice API gateway
501-1000 employees
Open for applications
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To build the nervous system that will safely and reliably connect all of humankind!
Role
Who you are
- Experience in SaaS renewals, account management or deal strategy
- Experience leading or mentoring others
- Proven experience building and scaling a renewals function or adjacent team from scratch
- Deep understanding of SaaS unit economics, retention metrics, and customer lifecycle models
- Exceptional cross-functional collaboration skills — especially with Sales, CS, Product, Finance, and Legal
- Strong commercial acumen and a track record of hitting retention goals and driving upsell or margin improvements
- Process-oriented mindset with a bias for systems, automation, and scale
- Executive presence and communication skills; comfortable influencing C-level stakeholders
What the job involves
- You’ll be the first dedicated EMEA renewals leader, balancing hands-on ownership of a high-value renewal portfolio with building the foundation for a scalable practice
- Your work directly protects and grows recurring revenue while the company moves to a highly efficient GTM motion
- This is a rare opportunity to create a high-impact function at a pivotal moment in our company’s growth
- Personally manage a book of strategic renewals—forecast, negotiate, close
- Surface churn/expansion risks early and rally Sales, CS and Product for save plays
- Stand up core dashboards and a weekly renewal forecast call
- Create first-wave playbooks, email cadences and negotiation templates
- Hire and mentor a small team of Renewal Managers
- Refine segmentation and touch models (high-touch, pooled, auto-renew)
- Formalize policies (notice periods, co-terming, discounts) with Deal Desk & Finance
- Scale tooling—integrate CPQ, CS platform and billing for one-click quotes
- Build the EMEA Renewals Function: Stand up the EMEA renewals organization, including hiring, tooling, playbooks, segmentation, and KPIs — from foundational processes to scalable execution
- Own the Renewals Number: Take full ownership of renewal forecasting, execution, and performance globally. Deliver predictable, efficient renewal motions across all segments and regions
- Design the Renewal Strategy: Define policies, timing, roles, and customer touch models (high-touch, tech-touch, auto-renew) in partnership with Sales, CS, Product, and Finance
- Drive Cross-Functional Alignment: Act as the central orchestrator across Sales, CS, RevOps, Deal Desk, and Legal to ensure renewals are proactively managed and friction is minimized
- Optimize Commercial Outcomes: Create mechanisms to maximize retention, expansion, and margin through thoughtful negotiation strategies, renewal plays, and pricing levers
- Develop Data-Driven Rigor: Define dashboards, forecasting cadences, and risk signals to ensure the business has full visibility into renewal health and churn risk
- Scale Globally: Ensure consistency in process and tooling across regions while adapting for local market and customer nuances
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Kong provides a cutting-edge API and service lifecycle management platform tailored for modern architectures, such as microservices, containers, cloud, and serverless environments. With a focus on flexibility, scalability, speed, and performance, Kong allows developers and Global 5000 enterprises to securely connect and orchestrate microservice APIs for today's sophisticated applications.
The core products offered by Kong include Kong, an open-source API and Microservices management solution Galileo, a platform for API analytics and debugging; Gelato, a platform for creating developed portals for PIs and Microservices; and API Marketplace, a hub for discovering and publishing cloud APIs. Additionally, the recent introduction of a new collection of AI plug-ins in Kong Gateway 3.6 enhances the platform's capabilities further, reinforcing its commitment to innovation and advancement.
In pursuit of growth, the company is prioritizing expanding its marketing efforts, bolstering its customer service team, and accelerating product development. By focusing on these key areas, Kong aims to continue providing unparalleled solutions and support to its ever-expanding user base in the rapidly evolving landscape of modern application development.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Nov 2024
$175m
SERIES E
Feb 2021
$100m
SERIES D
Total funding: $344.1m
Company benefits
- Flexible time off: Take time to take care of yourself and the things that matter most
- Stock options: We want you to share in our success. That's why stock options are offered to most Kongers
- U-First Fridays: Get 4 hours a month for continuous learning with a book, podcast, or course of your choice
- Virtual events: Stay connected with Donut chats, trivia, fitness challenges, guided meditations, and more
- Dedicated unplug days: Silence those notifications. Enjoy some well-deserved long weekend where the entire team unplugs
- Home office stipend: Build a home office environment tailored to support your productivity
Company HQ
The East Cut, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Augusto Marietti
(CEO)Previously founded Mashape API Marketplace. Before Mashape, Augusto was an SF homeless immigrant from Italy.
Janet Phillips
(Vice President of People)Previously Director at SonicWALL for 5 years and Senior Director at Symantec for 7 years.
Marco Palladino
(CTO)Previously co-founded MemboxX, an online service for storing documents and small pieces of personal data.
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