Principal: Customer Success (Airlines)

Cellulant

  • Nairobi
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 21 days ago
About Cellulant:is Africa's leading payments company, providing seamless, secure and innovative solutions that empower businesses, banks, and global brands to thrive in a fast-changing global economy.With a presence in over 24 countries and 200+ payment methods across cards, bank transfer and mobile money, our single API payment platform, Tingg, simplifies collections, disbursements, and reconciliations. It processes over 1 million transactions daily for market leaders in various sectors, such as Airlines, Telecoms, E-commerce, Ride-Hailing, Retail, and Remittances.By simplifying how people pay and get paid, we drive trust, commerce and scale – and connect companies to their ambitions.Our Story:Across Africa, payments are more than transactions. They are gateways to prosperity, connecting people, businesses and communities to opportunities and growth.From enabling a logistics company in Lusaka to pay suppliers across borders, to enabling a hospitality brand in Lagos to scale effortlessly, to supporting an airline in Nairobi to reconcile payments from multiple platforms, Cellulant is the bridge that makes it all possible.Through trusted technology and customer-centric innovation, we build connections that inspire progress, strengthen economies and transform payments into a tool for progress.Since our founding in 2003, we've continuously adapted and grown, leveraging our experiences to simplify payments for businesses. We are driven by an unshakable belief that seamless people-centred payments are the key to unlocking prosperity.Today, Cellulant powers online and offline payment processing, allowing businesses to collect payments, send payouts, and accelerate business growth.Our Mission:To deliver seamless, secure and innovative payment solutions for businesses.Our Vision:To create a connected world where businesses move money as easily as they share ideas.Role Summary:The Principal: Customer Success – Airlines is a senior leadership role responsible for owning and driving the success of Cellulant's most strategic airline customers across Africa. This is not a traditional account management role, it is a strategic partnership position that blends deep industry expertise, commercial acumen, and operational excellence to deliver measurable business outcomes for both the customer and Cellulant.In this role, you will act as the trusted advisor for airline partners, ensuring they fully leverage Cellulant's payment ecosystem to streamline operations, optimize revenue collection, and enhance passenger experiences. You will lead the end-to-end customer lifecycle - from onboarding and integration to long-term expansion and renewal - while ensuring airline clients see tangible ROI at every stage.Key Responsibilities:1. Strategic Airline Partnership ManagementServe as the primary relationship owner for a portfolio of strategic airline partners across multiple countries, ensuring alignment between airline business objectives and Cellulant's solutions.Lead annual, semi-annual, and quarterly business reviews with airline executives, presenting account performance, ROI analysis, market insights, and opportunities for innovation.Design and execute tailored success plans for each airline, mapping Cellulant capabilities to their operational needs in areas such as ticket sales, settlements, refunds, ancillary services, and loyalty programs.Build and maintain multi-level relationships within client organizations from operational managers to C-suite, ensuring high visibility and trust at all levels.Partner with airlines' commercial and finance teams to align product adoption with seasonal trends, route expansions, and regulatory changes.2. Customer Lifecycle Ownership & Value DeliveryOversee the entire customer journey for airline clients: onboarding, adoption, renewal, expansion—ensuring a consistent, high-quality experience at every stage.Create onboarding frameworks specific to airlines, covering integrations with GDS (Global Distribution Systems), ERP systems, and payment gateways.Continuously monitor account health metrics, product usage, SLA adherence, and payment settlement cycles, to identify both opportunities for upsell and early warning signs of churn.Implement proactive account engagement cadences to prevent reactive firefighting and ensure customers are realizing measurable business outcomes from Cellulant's services.Track and report KPIs (CSAT, NPS, Retention, Expansion) to internal leadership, highlighting risks, successes, and trends.3. Industry-Specific Insights & Thought LeadershipStay ahead of aviation and airline industry trends, including IATA regulations, payment innovations, and regional travel market dynamics.Translate these insights into actionable recommendations for both customers and internal teams, ensuring Cellulant remains a trusted partner in an evolving market.Represent Cellulant at industry events, forums, and working groups, strengthening the company's position as a payment leader in the airline sector.Produce quarterly airline sector intelligence briefs for internal teams, ensuring go-to-market strategies and product roadmaps align with customer needs.4. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Product AlignmentWork closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, and Finance to ensure customer requirements are built into development cycles and operational processes.Translate customer feedback into clear product requirements with measurable business value, ensuring enhancements address real-world airline challenges.Drive issue resolution frameworks for critical airline incidents, coordinating internal resources for rapid resolution while maintaining strong client communication.Participate in solution design workshops to ensure new features or integrations meet the specific needs of airline workflows.5. Process Excellence & ScalabilityDevelop and maintain airline-specific playbooks for onboarding, escalation management, and periodic reviews, ensuring scalability across multiple markets.Standardize reporting templates for airline account health, enabling faster internal decision-making and strategic planning.Build customer advocacy programs for airline partners, turning satisfied clients into public case studies and reference accounts.Continuously review internal CS processes for efficiency: introducing automation, self-service tools, and improved documentation where applicable.6. Team Leadership, Coaching & EnablementMentor and coach Customer Success Managers and Account Executives working on airline accounts, building deep industry knowledge and account management skills.Lead internal training sessions on airline industry nuances, payment flows, and partnership models to upskill cross-functional teams.Serve as the escalation point for airline accounts, ensuring swift resolution of high-impact issues while protecting the client relationship.Foster a culture of customer-first thinking within the CS team, emphasizing proactive engagement and measurable value delivery.7. Executive Reporting & AdvocacyPrepare board-level summaries for Cellulant leadership on airline account performance, revenue growth, and expansion opportunities.Advocate internally for resources, product improvements, and strategic initiatives that enhance the airline customer experience.Collaborate with Sales and Marketing to co-create success stories, whitepapers, and thought leadership content showcasing Cellulant's airline sector impact.What You Bring:
  • Deep Airline Industry Insight: You understand the unique revenue streams, operational flows, and constraints (e.g. ticketing, reconciliation, loyalty programs) faced by airlines.
  • Fintech & Payments DNA: You know how airlines integrate with technology platforms—from settlement flows to ticket reconciliation and data analytics.
  • Executive Presence: You can engage airline leadership with credibility: navigating operational jargon and strategic goals.
  • Strategic & Commercial Mindset: You spot value creation cycles: helping airlines grow while advancing Cellulant's footprint.
  • Leader & Teacher: You've developed talent, driving performance improvements across teams.
Core Metrics of Success (KPIs):
  • Airline Retention Rate: Aim for 95%+ retention across strategic airline accounts.
  • Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Target 85%+ consistently among airline partners.
  • Onboarding Success Rate: Achieve 95% of new integrations completing within 30 days.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): Strive for 70+ from airlines.
  • Revenue Expansion: Drive 15%+ upsell or cross-sell within airline accounts.
  • Product Adoption & SLA Adherence: Ensure high usage of core features, with timely issue resolution.
Why You'll Love This Role at Cellulant:
  • You'll play a pivotal role in transforming how African airlines handle payments, reconciliation, and customer experience.
  • You'll partner closely with growth teams, product, and engineering to influence services used by millions across Africa.
  • Cellulant offers professional growth, exposure to diverse regional markets, and a chance to build customer success excellence—anchored in one of the continent's fastest evolving fintech footprints.
Why Work for Us?At Cellulant, we are more than a payments company: we are bridge-builders. We believe that by simplifying the way people pay and get paid, we are connecting companies to their ambitions, people to opportunities, and Africa to the global economy. Our work goes beyond payments—it's about what people, businesses, and communities can do when the movement of money becomes more dependable, seamless, and secure.Some exciting things about us...
  • We have an extensive footprint: We have an office presence in 10 countries, and our products serve 24 countries across Africa, with a global workforce of about 300 employees.
  • We believe innovation is at the heart of Fintech: Thousands of market leaders and top enterprises trust our technology to power their payments. Our customers are in various sectors, including financial services, travel and hospitality, telecom, e-commerce, remittance companies, SaaS, and the gig economy.
  • We support a diverse and inclusive workforce: We focus on the growth and development of our employees through well-developed, individualised career paths, ensuring you reach your full potential in a supportive and delivery-oriented environment.
  • We put our employees first: We offer market-related compensation, generous personal time off, and medical and life insurance benefits (markets permitting).
  • We seek collaborative builders: At Cellulant, we believe that great ideas happen when we come together. Therefore, we nurture a collaborative work environment that challenges, engages, and empowers each person to contribute to the growth and success of the business.
  • We solve Africa's digital economy: We're solving payment challenges on the continent to create opportunities and accelerate economic growth for all of Africa.

Cellulant