Manager, Trial Success

Manager, Trial Success    

About the Role

• Samsara's Trial Success team makes sure enterprise trials are executed with excellence, so prospects see the full value of our solutions and are ready for implementation.
• As the Manager, Trial Success, you will lead and develop a team of 6+ Trial Success Managers (TSMs) who run customized trial plans for Enterprise prospects.
• You own team results: trial conversion, trial quality, and TSM growth and retention.
• You partner with Sales, Sales Engineering, Business Value Strategy, Product, and Customer Success leaders to drive deal progress and a consistent trial experience.
• You will also shadow a small number of high-stakes trials yourself, and be able to train new hires & step in as an escalation point for strategic deals.
• Remote position, open to candidates residing in the US except the San Francisco Bay Metro Area, NYC Metro Area, and Washington, D.C. Metro Area.

Travel Requirements

• Up to 25% travel to Samsara and customer sites in the US and Canada.
• Expect 3-5 onsite trips per quarter of 1-2 nights each, including team offsites and 1:1s with TSMs.

Key Responsibilities

People Leadership

• Hire and onboard: Build the hiring plan, run structured interviews, make strong hiring decisions, and ramp new TSMs to full productivity with a clear 30/60/90 plan.
• Coach continuously: Hold weekly 1:1s, review live trial work and customer calls, and give timely, specific feedback that builds skills in value-based selling, change management, and executive communication.
• Manage performance: Set clear goals and expectations, run goal-setting and performance review cycles, and address underperformance early with documented improvement plans when needed.
• Develop careers: Create individual development plans, identify stretch assignments, and build a succession pipeline for the next level of TSM and leadership roles.
• Calibrate and reward: Participate in calibration, promotion, and compensation cycles with fair, data-backed recommendations.
• Build culture and engagement: Foster an inclusive, high-trust team, monitor engagement and burnout, recognize wins, and retain top talent.
• Handle people operations: Manage time off, workload balance, coverage plans, and sensitive employee matters in partnership with People/HR.

Team Execution and Operations

• Set the team's goals, KPIs, and operating rhythm (pipeline reviews, trial health reviews, weekly close).
• Assign TSM coverage by account priority, segment, and capacity, and rebalance as deals shift.
• Review trial plans, success criteria, and mutual action plans in Accord to ensure quality and standardization.
• Inspect trial health, flag risks early, and lead account team strategy sessions to unblock deals.
• Report trial conversion, cycle time, and team health metrics to senior leadership.

Strategy and Cross-Functional Leadership

• Own and evolve the trial methodology, including job aids, communication templates, and playbooks.
• Partner with Sales, SE, BVS, Product, and Support leaders to bring the right resources to the right trial at the right time.
• Drive adoption of tools and AI-enabled workflows that increase TSM capacity and trial quality.
• Capture customer and field feedback from trials and share it with Product and Enablement.
• Represent the team in executive trial reviews and customer-facing escalations.
• Champion and model Samsara's cultural principles (Focus on Customer Success, Build for the Long Term, Adopt a Growth Mindset, Be Inclusive, Win as a Team).

What You'll Need to Succeed

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in a client-facing role working with Enterprise clients (strategic consulting, account management, project management, or sales); SaaS or technology experience preferred.
• 3+ years of experience directly managing people.
• Bachelor's degree required.

Required Skills

• Proven ability to hire, coach, develop, and retain high-performing client-facing teams.
• Strong project management and change management experience (PMP certification is a plus).
• Expertise in communication strategy, risk management, and executive stakeholder management.
• Ability to set goals, measure performance with data, and manage by metrics (conversion, cycle time, pipeline).
• Experience influencing cross-functional leaders without direct authority.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication; able to convey complex ideas concisely.
• Strong quantitative and presentation skills.
• Technical aptitude with CRM and project management tools.
• Comfort in an unstructured, fast-paced, change-heavy environment.

An Ideal Candidate Also Has

• Experience managing or scaling a trial, proof-of-concept, or proof-of-value function in software or hardware.
• Sales experience closing business with large Enterprise organizations.
• Experience supporting large-scale business solutions at Fortune 500 companies.
• Experience building team processes, playbooks, and standards from scratch.
• A strong bias for action, the ability to think big, and insistence on high standards.