Description:
The Director, Advocacy & Influence will lead Bentley’s strategy for customer advocacy, influencer engagement, and champion activation across our ecosystem. This role will identify, nurture, and activate authentic voices — from passionate users and customer champions to key external influencers — and turn those relationships into references, speaking opportunities, co-marketing, market credibility, and business impact.
This leader will own Bentley’s advocacy strategy, influencer relationships, and Bentley’s annual Year in Infrastructure (YII) Awards program, helping build a more intentional and scalable engine for customer voice, external influence, and third-party validation.
The right person for this role is highly relationship-oriented, energized by working with users and influencers, and excited to build a modern advocacy function that increases trust, expands visibility, and supports growth.
Responsibilities Customer Advocacy Program
- Identify, nurture, and activate customer champions across Bentley’s ecosystem, from practitioners to executive stakeholders
- Build pathways for turning engaged users and customers into visible advocates over time
- Help establish and scale Bentley’s formal customer advocacy and reference program
- Partner with internal teams to align advocates with the right business, sales, and marketing opportunities
- Build and manage a pipeline of advocacy opportunities, including references, case studies, testimonials, speaking engagements, quotes, media moments, analyst engagement, and peer influence
YII Awards Program
- Own Bentley’s YII Awards program end to end as a year-round advocacy platform
- Drive continuous improvement in the program experience, reach, and business impact
- Extend the life of YII Awards stories, winners, and proof points throughout the year across marketing, communications, and advocacy efforts
- Ensure YII Awards remains a strong source of customer visibility, market credibility, and high-value content
Influencer, Ambassador & Co-Marketing
- Help shape Bentley’s influencer and brand ambassador strategy across key audiences and markets
- Identify and cultivate relationships with external influencers, including industry voices, analysts, and respected market leaders
- Develop co-marketing opportunities with strategic accounts and partners that elevate shared success stories
- Support Bentley’s presence across third-party validation channels, including review platforms and other external trust signals
Cross Functional Activation & Operations
- Partner closely with the Chief Storyteller and cross-functional stakeholders to surface the right customers, stories, and proof points for broader narrative development
- Work across content, communications, programs, field, and sales teams to activate customer and influencer voices in ways that support trust, awareness, and go-to-market priorities
- Create and maintain a centralized repository of advocacy assets, references, and customer stories for use across teams
- Help define the processes, workflows, tools, and KPIs needed to make advocacy more scalable, measurable, and effective over time
Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience in customer advocacy, customer marketing, community, influencer, reference, or related programs
- Proven experience leading and managing a small team
- Highly relationship-oriented, high-energy, and genuinely excited about working with users, champions, and external influencers
- Strong instincts for identifying high-potential advocates and turning relationships into meaningful market-facing opportunities
- Experience with customer storytelling, speaking programs, co-marketing, references, influencer engagement, or other forms of external activation
- Comfortable building programs with structure, process, and measurable outcomes
- Strong cross-functional instincts and ability to operate effectively in a matrixed organization
- Curious, proactive, and energized by building programs that create momentum and visibility
- Experience with B2C-style community, ambassador, loyalty, or influencer programs — and an ability to translate those ideas into a B2B context — is a plus