About the Company:
Stable Kernel is a technology services firm and custom software developer building scalable software solutions for cutting-edge, innovative enterprises to move their business forward. We are headquartered in Atlanta, GA.
We’re a privately held, Great Place to Work Certified Company™ with multi-awards for our amazing culture. Plus we have an impressive 10+ year trajectory of sustainable growth. At Stable Kernel, we support our colleagues in ways that help them do some of the best work of their lives.
About the Role:
As a Stable Kernel Client Experience Strategist, your primary goals are to build loyalty with our clients and identify potential growth opportunities by operating as a strategic advisor to our clients. You will be on the front line with our clients, anticipating and staying one step ahead of their needs. Using your active listening and observational skills and having empathy for the client, you will function as a voice of the client, helping them understand and communicate the “what” and “why” of their technology needs to SK team members and leaders. You will leverage your relationship management and detail-oriented strengths to actively manage healthy client accounts, be a champion for positive change, and handle client escalations, if they arise.
As a member of our client strategy organization, you will report directly to a Director of Client Experience and work closely with our engineers, project managers, designers, other client strategists, business analysts, our sales team, and other colleagues across the company.
Core Responsibilities Include:
- Project Impact:
- Designing and implementing holistic and strategic solutions with an eye for growth and minimizing unnecessary complexity.
- Providing feedback and ideas that improve the overall health of the account.
- Defending the work against compromise and corner-cutting.
- Understanding the financial impact of decisions made.
- Utilizes advanced-level capabilities and supports team members by crafting reusable solutions within existing toolsets.
- Creating standard business process diagrams and product canvases that follow industry standards.
- Understanding cross-department practices and terminology, including design, engineering, and agile project management, to communicate with team members and clients.
- Business Alignment:
- Understanding the client’s immediate challenges and strategic objectives.
- Identifying and implementing ways to provide better value to our clients beyond your team.
- Suggesting and delivering improvements based on your observations.
- Supporting activities that promote SK and attract new business (e.g. Thought Leadership).
- Translating high-level and rough client requirements into clear requirements for various SK teams (BA, Engineering, Design, and Project Management) to craft project plans, product roadmaps, and estimates.
- Identifying and redirecting deviations from plans when they exist.
- Extending the expectations to business processes in order to identify requirements.
- Demonstrating the ability to effectively manage large or multiple client accounts.
- Communicating and presenting to various levels of leadership.
- Leading Lean Inception workshops and other discovery exercises.
- Understanding of SK’s service offerings and cross-department capabilities allowing you to serve as an expert advisor to our clients.
- Identifying new organic growth opportunities with the client and engaging them in next steps.
- Supporting the statement of work process with the ability to craft sections of the SOW independently.
- Interacting with Others:
- Engaging heavily with clients with frequent engagement and collaboration with team leads.
- Influencing improvements for your team, projects, and clients.
- Advising clients and team members independently.
- Assessing and communicating the current status of client engagement and project health to clients.
- Identifying trends for health issues or patterns of progress.
- Identifying and understanding how to handle outliers and processes that are not in control.
- Autonomy & Ambiguity:
- Thinking critically on how to solve problems and requiring no direction on completing activities and tasks.
- Gathering, describing, and presenting high-level business needs to internal team members.
- Negotiating and working out solutions within environments with a moderate level of volatility, uncertainty, ambiguity, and/or complexity.
- Problem-Solving:
- Making trade-offs between short-term and long-term solutions and evaluating trade-offs others are making.
- Preventing issues and optimizing resolutions by effectively communicating to team members and leadership.
- Recognizing and mitigating risks and removing roadblocks to find a way forward in difficult situations with the ability to anticipate future risks and remove them before problems arise.
- Escalating issues and supporting others to address immediate causes.
- Leadership:
- Taking ownership of challenges and opportunities to streamline team processes.
- Advocating for best practices by researching and proposing potential alternatives when needed.
- Mentoring junior and intermediate colleagues by helping them grow professionally.
- Setting a positive example by using our company values and imperatives as a north star.
- Providing regular constructive feedback.
- Resolving conflicts.
- Guiding less experienced colleagues through complex projects.
- Leading team learning sessions.
- Leading a large-scale program or multiple projects
- Demonstrating strong project management skills, including planning, delegating, and monitoring progress.
- Making critical decisions and driving projects to successful completion.
- Representing the team in client conversations.
Intimate, Working Familiarity With:
General Requirements:
- At least 5 years of experience in a client service role.
- At least 3 years of experience working with software development teams or experience in an IT industry.
- Experience managing client portfolios with cumulative annual revenues and a track record of growth within those clients.
- Excellent relationship-building and strategic prowess, with the ability to speak with executives at Fortune 100 companies.
- Ability to lead client engagements and be a key influencer.
- Curiosity for new technologies relative to Stable Kernel solutions offerings, and a passion for staying current with trends that affect the custom software ecosystem.
A Bit More Info:
Minimum Base Compensation: $115,000
This is a full-time position.
Stable Kernel operates a People Before Place Hybrid model, allowing most employees to choose where they can do their best work most days.
Travel may be associated with this role as it requires you to maintain an in-office presence in a hybrid capacity for regular in-person engagements for both clients and internal teams.
Our generous total compensation package includes:
- Company-subsidized health, vision, and dental plan premium options beginning on the first day of employment
- 401k with above-average company matching
- Fully paid Group Life, Short and Long Term Disability, and AD&D insurance
- Optional Flexible Spending Account, Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, and Health Savings Account participation
- Voluntary Life, Critical Illness, and Accident insurance
- EAP and Health Advocacy program available at no cost to employees and their dependents
- $3000 annual industry educational budget
- Paid time off and paid holidays
*Note – We are not sponsoring employment visas at this time. If you are currently in possession of an employment visa, it will need to be effective for at least 3 years from the date of your application for your candidacy for employment to be considered.
Stable Kernel’s culture is inclusive and expansive. We celebrate diversity in its many glorious forms and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender role orientation, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
However, we will discriminate against those unwilling to comply with the practice of our company values:
- we work with integrity always
- we respect our work and each other
- we are dedicated to life-long learning and sharing
- we stay hungry for new challenges
If you are like-minded in this regard, we hope you will apply. We look forward to meeting you.
