Vice President, Customer Success

Role overview

The Vice President of Customer Success is a senior leadership position focused on shaping the company’s customer success direction and ensuring customers consistently achieve measurable business outcomes. This executive will design and run the customer success function, guide the team, and build a structured customer lifecycle framework that improves satisfaction, product usage, retention, and renewals while supporting long-term growth.

The role commonly reports to the Chief Customer Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Operating Officer, or Chief Executive Officer. It may be relevant in sectors such as SaaS, cloud, AI, fintech, healthcare, enterprise software, cybersecurity, telecommunications, and professional services.

What the role is expected to achieve

• Create and roll out customer success strategies that align with company goals.
• Improve customer experience, product adoption, retention, and renewal performance.
• Increase expansion opportunities such as upsells, cross-sells, and referrals.
• Build a strong customer success organization with clear processes and leadership depth.

Core responsibilities

• Develop the customer success roadmap, operating model, and playbooks.
• Set up a full customer lifecycle management system, from onboarding through renewal and growth.
• Create frameworks for customer health monitoring, value realization, and journey optimization.
• Oversee onboarding, implementation support, training, enablement, adoption, and engagement.
• Lead renewal management, churn reduction efforts, and expansion revenue initiatives.
• Maintain senior-level client relationships and handle customer feedback, complaints, and risk signals.
• Build customer success plans that strengthen loyalty and brand advocacy.
• Design customer operations processes using data on customer behavior, service quality, and value metrics.
• Partner with sales and commercial teams to support renewals, growth, and long-term account strategy.
• Improve the overall customer experience through journey design, service process improvements, self-service tools, knowledge resources, and community programs.
• Use business analysis to track retention, renewal, churn, adoption, NPS, CLV, and revenue forecasts.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, marketing, support, delivery, finance, legal, and IT teams to resolve customer needs quickly.
• Lead and develop customer success leaders and teams, including hiring, performance management, and capability building.

Requirements

• 15 or more years of experience in customer success, account management, customer service, or sales management.
• At least 5 years of experience managing teams.
• Experience working with enterprise customers.
• Background in a multinational company or SaaS environment is preferred.
• Strong knowledge of customer success, CRM, customer lifecycle management, customer journey mapping, customer health management, and RevOps.
• Ability to analyze data, manage projects, and support change management initiatives.
• Hands-on familiarity with tools such as Salesforce, Gainsight, Totango, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zendesk, Power BI, and Tableau.
• Advanced education in business administration, marketing, management, information systems, computer science, finance, or engineering management is preferred; an MBA is especially valued.
• Additional preferred credentials include PMP, ITIL, Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt, and customer success certifications.
• Strong customer focus, strategic thinking, business judgment, communication, influence, and leadership skills.

Key performance areas

• Retention rate, renewal rate, and churn rate.
• Product adoption and customer health score.
• Customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score.
• Customer lifetime value and expansion revenue.
• Speed of customer issue resolution.
• Completion of customer success plans.
• Team performance and talent development outcomes.

Additional information

This role is designed for a senior executive who can connect customer outcomes with revenue growth. It requires close coordination across multiple business functions and a strong ability to translate customer needs into scalable operating practices.