Services Engagement Manager

Company Overview: TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first, built-for-scale Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We are a force multiplier for defenders, helping organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team is composed of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors, we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission of revolutionizing the AI-Native MDR landscape. We’re a fast growing startup backed by industry experts and top tier investors led by Crosspoint Capital Partners and also backed by Shield Capital, DTCP (formerly Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners), Deepwork Capital, and the Florida Opportunity Fund. Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). As an early employee, you’ll play a meaningful role in defining and building our culture. Get in on the ground floor. We’re a small but well-funded team that just raised a substantial round – joining now comes with limited risk and unlimited upside. Culture is one of the most important things at TENEX.AI —explore our culture deck at culture.tenex.ai to witness how we embody it, prioritizing the irreplaceable collaboration and community of in-person work. Location: Hybrid in Overland Park, KS or Sarasota, FL. TENEX will provide a company paid relocation package to either Kansas City metro or Sarasota metro area. About the Opportunity: The Services Engagement Manager (SEM) is the single accountable owner of scoped, time-bound professional services engagements — from the moment they’re shaped in the sales cycle, through delivery, formal acceptance, and clean financial closure. The role protects two things at once: our customers’ outcomes and our delivery integrity. Where a Customer Success Manager owns the open-ended ARR relationship and is measured on retention and growth, the SEM owns a discrete, funded engagement and is measured on margin, on-scope and on-time delivery, and a clean exit. This is a senior, highly cross-functional role at the intersection of sales, delivery, and customer success, reporting to the VP of Customer Success. What You’ll Do: Shape and scope engagements with Sales. Translate customer requirements into a defensible Statement of Work — scope boundaries, assumptions, deliverables, acceptance criteria, effort estimates, and milestone/payment structure. Guard scope integrity before signature. Validate that what Sales is proposing can be delivered at target margin, identify what’s out of scope, and propose a change order before an engagement is signed. Own the engagement end to end. Drive the engagement plan, cadence, and milestone tracking from kickoff through delivery. Orchestrate delivery resources. Sequence and prioritize Forward Deployed Engineers, detection engineering, subject-matter experts, and third-party partners against the plan. Manage scope and margin in flight. Actively manage scope against the SOW, raise change orders for additions rather than absorbing silent creep, and run the engagement P&L — tracking burn against estimate and flagging overruns early. Drive to acceptance and clean closure. Secure formal customer sign-off against defined acceptance criteria and execute clean financial closure, including final milestone completion, invoicing readiness, and revenue-recognition support. Hand off and improve the catalog. Run a structured handoff to the Customer Success Manager for any steady-state relationship, and feed reusable scope and estimate patterns back into the services catalog. What You Bring: Professional-services delivery or consulting experience in cybersecurity or enterprise software, with a track record of personally authoring SOWs, estimating effort, and owning a margin or utilization number. Strong scoping and effort-estimation skills, SOW authoring, and change-order discipline. Project and delivery management strength, including engagement P&L and margin management. Executive stakeholder management — credible in front of a CISO — plus enough SecOps / detection-engineering fluency to scope engagements and serve as a real check on what’s being sold. Comfortable being measured on delivery and margin outcomes over relationship longevity, with a bias toward closure and the ability to hold the scope line firmly and diplomatically. Bonus Points: A delivery or project-management background paired with genuine technical depth. Experience working with partners on jointly owned engagements. Background in a high-growth startup or MDR / security-services environment. Education & Certifications: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent experience). Relevant certifications such as PMP, ITIL, Security+, or CISSP are a plus. Why Join Us? Opportunity to own high-stakes professional services engagements end to end — from scoping through formal acceptance and clean closure — as the single accountable owner of customer outcomes and delivery integrity. Collaborate with a talented and innovative team focused on continuously improving security operations. Competitive salary and benefits package. A culture of growth and development, with opportunities to expand your knowledge in AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.