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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Customer Success Director

💰 $ - $

Customer SuccessCustomer ExperienceSaaSSales OperationsLeadership

🎯 Role Definition

The Customer Success Director is an experienced leader responsible for driving customer retention, growth, and long-term value by building scalable success programs, coaching high-performing CSM teams, owning renewal and expansion motions, and partnering cross-functionally to deliver product-led outcomes. This role is focused on strategic account management, operationalizing success playbooks, measuring and improving key SaaS metrics (ARR, MRR, churn, NPS, CSAT), and representing the voice of the customer to influence product and go-to-market priorities.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Customer Success Manager / Lead Customer Success Manager
  • Enterprise Account Manager / Strategic Account Manager
  • Professional Services / Implementation Manager

Advancement To:

  • VP of Customer Success / Head of Customer Success
  • Chief Customer Officer (CCO)
  • General Manager or Head of Customer Experience

Lateral Moves:

  • Director of Revenue Operations
  • Director of Account Management
  • Director of Customer Experience

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own and execute an enterprise-wide customer success strategy that aligns with company KPI targets (ARR, MRR, net retention, gross retention), delivering measurable reductions in churn and consistent revenue expansion across mid-market and enterprise portfolios.
  • Build, lead and scale a team of Customer Success Managers (CSMs), Solutions Consultants, and Renewal Specialists through hiring, coaching, performance management and career development to hit team-level goals for renewals, upsells, and adoption.
  • Define and operationalize customer segmentation, health scoring models, and playbooks using data-driven signals (product usage, support tickets, NPS, CSAT, ARR) to drive timely and proactive customer interventions.
  • Own renewal and expansion processes end-to-end including negotiation support, executive sponsorship, pricing escalation, termination prevention, and cross-sell/up-sell motions to maximize net revenue retention.
  • Design and deliver a repeatable onboarding and time-to-value program that reduces time-to-first-value, increases product adoption, and shortens the path to successful outcomes for customers.
  • Partner with Sales and RevOps to create joint account plans, align on targets for net retention and expansion, coordinate handoffs for new business to ensure a seamless customer lifecycle.
  • Lead executive business reviews (EBRs) and strategic QBRs for key accounts to align outcomes, measure value realization, surface renewal risks and identify growth opportunities.
  • Implement and manage tools and systems for customer success operations including CRM (Salesforce), customer success platforms (Gainsight, ChurnZero), analytics tools, and reporting to provide real-time visibility into customer health and revenue risk.
  • Create and monitor core CS metrics and dashboards—NPS, CSAT, product usage, adoption KPIs, time-to-value, churn reasons—and translate insights into actionable programs that improve customer outcomes and retention.
  • Serve as the voice of the customer internally by partnering with Product, Engineering, Marketing and Support to prioritize roadmap items, escalate critical issues, and ensure product-market fit for strategic customers.
  • Own customer escalations and critical incident response, leading cross-functional resolution, communication to impacted stakeholders, and post-mortem action plans to prevent recurrence.
  • Drive value realization initiatives such as success plans, ROI/Business Case frameworks, and reference programs that help customers quantify outcomes and advocate for renewal and expansion.
  • Create and maintain customer enablement materials—onboarding guides, playbooks, training curricula, and adoption resources—to scale enablement across regions and accounts.
  • Manage budget and headcount planning for the customer success function, set OKRs and KPIs, and report on ROI of CS initiatives to executive leadership and the board.
  • Establish and execute a strategic partner program and reference architecture with customer advocates, integrators, and channel partners to accelerate adoption and co-sell opportunities.
  • Build a robust feedback loop and voice-of-customer program using surveys, advisory boards, and direct interviews to inform product improvements and GTM strategy.
  • Lead cross-functional initiatives to reduce churn drivers (contractual friction, onboarding slippage, product gaps), leveraging root-cause analysis and targeted retention campaigns.
  • Champion customer-centric processes for pricing, contract renewals, and escalation policies in partnership with Legal and Finance to minimize obstacles to renewal and expansion.
  • Forecast renewal and expansion revenue accurately; partner with Finance and Sales to incorporate CS-driven pipeline into corporate revenue planning.
  • Develop and deploy account-based success strategies for the top-tier (enterprise) book of business to protect high-value ARR and identify white space opportunities.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Facilitate cross-functional workshops to align on customer journey maps and removal of friction points across onboarding, support, and product adoption.
  • Lead post-implementation reviews and customer health audits to refine success playbooks and capture expansion triggers.
  • Mentor peers and other leaders on best practices for customer lifecycle management, change management, and organizational adoption of CS tools and processes.
  • Manage strategic vendor relationships for customer success tooling and professional services to ensure operational efficiency and ROI.
  • Coordinate with Marketing to develop advocacy, reference, and case study programs that highlight customer outcomes and accelerate pipeline.
  • Execute churn mitigation campaigns including win-back strategies, contract renegotiations, and value re-articulation for at-risk customers.
  • Provide input to pricing, packaging, and contract terms based on market feedback and competitive analysis to improve renewal outcomes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Customer Success Strategy & Operations — designing segmentation, playbooks, and scalable programs for retention and expansion.
  • SaaS Metrics & Analytics — strong experience with ARR, MRR, net/gross retention, churn, LTV, CAC payback and KPI-driven performance management.
  • CRM & CS Platforms — expert-level experience with Salesforce and customer success tools such as Gainsight, ChurnZero, Totango, or ClientSuccess.
  • Revenue Motions — renewals, upsells, cross-sells, and account expansion playbook development and execution.
  • Data Literacy & BI Tools — ability to use SQL, Excel, Looker, Tableau, or Power BI to analyze usage, cohort behavior, and health metrics.
  • Executive Communications — running Executive Business Reviews, board-level reporting, and presenting ROI and roadmap impact.
  • Contract & Commercial Acumen — understanding of legal/financial implications of renewals, pricing adjustments, and commercial agreements.
  • Project & Program Management — agile familiarity, rollout planning, change management for large-scale adoption initiatives.
  • Customer Onboarding & Implementation — designing and executing scalable onboarding programs with measurable time-to-value.
  • Technical Integrations & APIs — familiarity with technical pre-sales, integrations, and partner ecosystems in SaaS environments.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic Leadership — ability to translate vision into repeatable programs and measurable outcomes.
  • Cross-Functional Influence — proven track record partnering with Sales, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Support.
  • Empathy & Customer Advocacy — strong customer focus and ability to represent customer needs internally.
  • Coaching & People Development — mentoring and scaling high-performing CS teams.
  • Negotiation & Conflict Resolution — skilled at handling escalations and complex commercial conversations.
  • Communication & Presentation — clear, persuasive communicator in executive-level forums.
  • Analytical Thinking — data-driven decision making with focus on measurable results.
  • Problem Solving & Root-Cause Analysis — systematic approach to reducing churn and improving adoption.
  • Change Management — ability to drive organizational adoption of new systems and processes.
  • Stakeholder Management — managing expectations across internal and external stakeholders with diplomacy.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Computer Science, Information Systems or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • MBA or relevant graduate degree; certifications in customer success management, product management, or data analytics are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration, Marketing, or Management
  • Computer Science, Information Systems, or Engineering
  • Data Analytics / Statistics
  • Communications or Organizational Psychology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 8–12+ years in Customer Success, Account Management, or related client-facing roles, with at least 3–5 years managing teams.

Preferred:

  • 10+ years experience in SaaS or technology companies with proven track record of improving net retention, reducing churn, and scaling CS processes.
  • Direct experience with enterprise accounts, renewals/expansion quotas, and managing cross-functional initiatives at scale.
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