Technical Account Manager, Newspack

Newspack, part of Automattic’s portfolio of products, aims to help small and medium-sized news organizations publish great stories, develop a loyal audience, and find a path to financial sustainability at a time when local journalism faces immense challenges.

We do that by deploying an open-source publishing solution tailored to the needs of digital news publishers, using industry best practices.

In nearly five years, Newspack has launched more than 250 publications, with dozens more slated to join in months. These range from venerable publications like the Chicago Reader to ambitious digital startups like VTDigger and MLK50. In the process, we’ve created a vibrant community of more than 1,500 publishers, editors, and producers whose goal is to see journalism thrive in their local communities. 

Newspack is now growing the commercial team and is looking for an experienced Technical Account Manager who is excited by our mission and the opportunities we have in the publishing world. 

Responsibilities: 

As a Technical Account Manager (TAM) for Newspack, you will:

• Work directly with our growing roster of small- and medium-sized news publishers to migrate their sites to WordPress and launch on the Newspack platform. 
• Troubleshoot technical and editor-facing issues as they arise, work with publishers to leverage and optimize Newspack’s feature set, and drive adoption of best practices in digital news publishing and monetization. 
• Work closely with our product engineers to refine the Newspack product based on experience, expertise, and publisher input. 
• Develop close relationships with your customers to understand their business/operational needs and technical challenges and help them achieve the greatest value from our products.

Requirements: 

You are motivated by impact, whether that’s achieved by rapid deployment of bespoke, high-profile sites; helping newsrooms take control of their online publishing; helping businesses with their digital transformation; or working with some of the most influential companies in the world to get the most out of WordPress.

Your style is to get things done while reducing friction for your colleagues and customers — to respond rapidly when called upon, as well as being proactive. You view our customers as partners and pride yourself in establishing long-term relationships. You enjoy managing projects and timelines and working with everyone from engineers to GMs and VPs of Sales.

In addition, you have experience with:

• Influencing customer outcomes, analyzing customer health metrics, and tracking customer interactions via tools.
• Collaborating closely with team members to support renewals and expansion opportunities.
• Gauging customers’ levels of engagement with the company, and providing feedback to internal stakeholders regarding product and service improvements.
• Creating structure in ambiguous situations and designing effective processes.
• Leading customer on-sites, conducting service reviews, and empowering customers to achieve success and gain the greatest value from our products.
• Effective problem-solving, conflict resolution, and context-switching.
• Distilling and accomplishing goals and wish-lists into concrete next steps.
• Remaining undaunted by managing risks in high stakes situations.
• Conducting kick-off calls and getting everyone on the same page.
• Working with WordPress or other web technologies.
• Bonus points for software development and architecture experience, but writing code is not in scope for this position.

Salary range: $73,000-$130,000 USD – Please note that salary ranges are global, regardless of location, and we pay in local currency.

Read more about our compensation philosophy and benefits.

About Automattic 

We are the people behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, Simplenote, Jetpack, Longreads, Day One, PocketCasts, and more. We believe in making the web a better place.

We’re a distributed company with more than 1900 Automatticians in 96 countries speaking 120+ different languages. And, even more than growth and profitability (although we’re plenty profitable), above all, we’re driven by a mission:  We democratize publishing and commerce so anyone with a story can tell it, and anyone with a product can sell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or country.

We believe in Open Source, and the vast majority of our work is available under the GPL.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Automattic 

We’re improving diversity in the tech industry. At Automattic, we want people to love their work and show respect and empathy to all. We welcome differences and strive to increase participation from traditionally underrepresented groups. Our DEI committee involves Automatticians across the company and drives grassroots change. For example, this group has helped facilitate private online spaces for affiliated Automatticians to gather and helps run a monthly DEI People Lab series for further learning. DEI is a priority at Automattic, though our dedication influences far more than just Automatticians: We make our products freely available and translate our products into and offer customer support in numerous languages. We require unconscious bias training for our hiring teams and ensure our products are accessible across different bandwidths and devices. 

Automattic is a Most Loved Company and Disability Confident Committed. (Here’s what that might mean for you.) Learn more about our dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion and our Employee Resource Groups.