Director, Customer Success

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California.

📋 Description

• Drive gross retention, expansion, and credit consumption while guiding customers onto the Backstory platform.

• Provide leadership with a weekly overview of renewal risks and execute save initiatives through direct executive engagement.

• Implement high-touch strategic, time-sensitive coverage models for both emerging and scaled customers.

• Transition emerging accounts to strategic coverage during their renewal cycles.

• Manage account alignment, book economics, capacity planning, and scalable playbooks.

• Gain a deep understanding of strategic customers’ businesses, technical environments, and product opportunities.

• Link requests to established problem statements and measurable outcomes.

• Take responsibility for success plans, executive readouts, EBRs, and the value realization framework.

• Recruit, develop, and retain managers and Customer Success Managers.

• Foster solution-oriented product and architecture instincts throughout the team.

• Oversee onboarding, ramping, career paths, and performance standards.

• Conduct weekly renewal reviews, segment account reviews, monthly business reviews, and quarterly planning sessions.

• Maintain metrics and dashboards; manage budget, staffing, and processes.

• Lead Customer Success initiatives on Backstory, including account plans, health signals, renewal reviews, and customer preparation.

• Facilitate forums for sharing platform workflows and translate daily usage into product insights.

• Establish standards for the Sales-to-Customer Success handoff and collaborate on joint renewal and expansion planning.

• Coordinate with Professional Services, Technical Support, and Studio on strategic accounts.

• Integrate customer insights into product and go-to-market strategies.

• Support customer references, stories, and Marketing advisory initiatives.

⛳️ Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in Customer Success, Account Management, or post-sales leadership, including over 5 years in team leadership and manager development.

• Proven track record of owning retention and expansion results in B2B SaaS environments.

• Experience in building segmentation, capacity models, playbooks, and scalable metrics.

• Proficient in operating a function based on data from Salesforce, Gainsight, or similar platforms.

• Practical experience in designing success planning, EBR, and value frameworks for enterprise customers.

• Ability to translate product usage into outcomes meaningful to executives.

• Skill in identifying the underlying issues behind feature requests and advising on whether to decline, scope down, or escalate.

• Strong product intuition.

• Possess executive presence with C-level customer stakeholders and senior internal leaders.

• Experience in negotiating and influencing high-stakes decisions.

• Established partnerships with Sales, Services, Support, and Product teams.

• Familiarity with Claude and other advanced AI tools.

• Understanding of agentic workflows and MCP-based integrations.

• Have a clear perspective on how AI is transforming the Customer Success role.

• Ability to learn systems prior to implementing changes, accept feedback, and engage in constructive disagreement while committing to a decision.

• Strongly preferred: experience in guiding customers through usage-based or consumption pricing models and linking variable consumption to delivered value.

🏝️ Benefits

• Regular employees may be eligible for commissions or bonus programs (target included in OTE).

• Equity.

• Benefits.

• Accommodations throughout the hiring process.