Engagement Manager – Build AI PS Function at Cresta in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
This is a founding role — Cresta's first dedicated Engagement Manager — which is a significant career signal. You won't just execute a playbook; you'll write it. That kind of ownership is rare and highly valuable for professionals who want to shape a function from scratch and build a direct track record of business impact.
Compensation context: Cresta offers base + variable + equity. For a senior Engagement Manager / PS Sales role at a well-funded AI SaaS company (Series D+, $270M raised), market benchmarks in the US typically range from $120K–$180K base with 20–30% OTE variable. Equity at Cresta's stage carries real upside given marquee investors (a16z, Sequoia, Greylock) and a high-profile CEO pedigree.
Skills you'll develop:
- Enterprise professional services scoping and SOW construction — highly portable across SaaS/AI companies.
- Conversational AI and contact-center AI domain expertise — one of the fastest-growing segments in enterprise software.
- Commercial deal structuring and pricing strategy — skills that open doors to VP of PS, Chief Customer Officer, or PS GM paths.
Green flags: Stanford AI Lab roots, blue-chip customer logos (United Airlines, Marriott), and a CEO with deep Google AI credentials signal a credible, high-growth environment. The founding nature of this role means high visibility.
Watch for: "Founding role" can mean building without resources. Clarify headcount plans, tooling budget, and leadership support during interviews to ensure this is a build-and-grow opportunity rather than a solo firefighting role.
Cresta unlocks the true potential of the customer experience, turning every conversation into a competitive advantage. Cresta's unified AI platform combines conversational AI agents, real-time human agent augmentation, and comprehensive conversation intelligence to drive revenue and efficiency gains across every channel. The world's leading companies, including United Airlines, Cox Communications, and Marriott, use Cresta to power world-class customer experiences every day.
Born from the Stanford AI Lab, Cresta has raised more than $270 million from the world's leading investors, including a16z, Greylock, and Sequoia. Cresta's leadership includes some of the leading minds in AI today. Our CEO, Ping Wu, founded and led Google's Contact Center AI and Vertex AI platforms before joining Cresta to build the future of AI-driven customer experiences.
Over the next few years, AI is going to redefine how people all over the world interact with businesses every day. Come build that future at Cresta.
About the Role:
We're hiring our first dedicated Engagement Manager to own how Cresta scopes, prices, and sells professional services — across both our core platform and our fast-growing AI Agent product. You'll sit inside Professional Services and turn an ad-hoc, bottlenecked process into a repeatable, revenue-generating motion. This is a founding services-selling role with room to build.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own the SOW process end-to-end: scope engagements, draft SOWs, price services, and sell them to enterprise customers.
- Scope AI Agent deployments (conversational design, integration, outcome configuration) as well as core-platform services.
- Drive services attach and bookings on new and expansion deals.
- Partner with Sales, Deal Desk, and Product to move deals fast without sacrificing delivery margin.
- Build the repeatable process, templates, and pricing logic that let this function scale.
Qualifications:
- 4–10 years in professional services, with 2+ years scoping and selling services engagements (PS Sales / Engagement Manager / Services Sales).
- Track record of driving services attach and bookings — not just processing paperwork.
- Technical fluency to scope complex deployments; conversational AI / contact-center AI experience strongly preferred.
- Comfortable pricing and defending services value directly with enterprise customers.
- Deal desk or commercial-contracting exposure a plus.
Perks & Benefits:
We offer a comprehensive and people-first benefits package to support you at work and in life:
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with plans to fit you and your family
- Paid parental leave for all new parents welcoming a new child
- Remote work setup budget to help you create a productive home office
- Monthly wellness and communication stipend to keep you connected and balanced
- 20 days of vacation time to promote a healthy work-life blend
Compensation at Cresta:
Cresta's approach to compensation is simple: recognize impact, reward excellence, and invest in our people. We offer competitive, location-based pay that reflects the market and what each individual brings to the table.
Compensation for this position includes a Base salary + Variable + Equity.
Actual base salaries will be based on candidate-specific factors, including experience, skillset, and location, and local minimum pay requirements as applicable. Your recruiter can provide further details. In addition, total compensation includes a comprehensive benefits package for you and your family.
Our use of AI in recruiting: We may use AI tools in our recruiting process, which require human review and oversight. If you have questions about our use of AI or wish to opt out, please contact [email protected] (if you are opting out, please use the subject 'Opt-Out' in your email).
Recording & AI transcription: We do not authorize candidates to record or use AI transcription of any interview by phone, notetaker app, AI glasses, or other device. Candidates may request an exception or accommodation for review during the interview process as needed.
Recruiting impersonation scams: We have noticed a rise in recruiting impersonations across the industry, where scammers attempt to access candidates' personal and financial information through fake interviews and offers. All Cresta recruiting email communications will always come from the @cresta.ai domain. Any outreach claiming to be from Cresta via other sources should be ignored.
Frequently Asked Questions
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