AVP, Customer Success

Hyland•Westlake, OH

About The Position

The Assistant Vice President (AVP), Customer Success is responsible for defining and executing the vision, strategy, and operational performance of the Customer Success organization. This leader is accountable for driving customer outcomes across adoption, value realization, retention, advocacy, and expansion while ensuring customers achieve measurable business results from their investment in Hyland solutions. The AVP provides both strategic leadership and hands-on execution, translating corporate objectives into scalable customer success programs, operating models, and measurable outcomes. This role leads the execution of customer engagement strategies while continuously evolving the Customer Success function to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and customer impact. Working closely with Sales, Renewals, Product Management, Engineering, Professional Services, Support, Marketing, and Operations, the AVP ensures alignment across teams to deliver a seamless customer experience throughout the customer lifecycle—from onboarding and adoption to renewal, expansion, and advocacy. The AVP owns key business metrics, including Gross Revenue Retention (GRR), Net Revenue Retention (NRR), customer health, product adoption, customer satisfaction, customer advocacy, and expansion performance. This leader is responsible for establishing success strategies, driving execution against operational plans, and leveraging data-driven insights to mitigate risk, improve customer outcomes, and accelerate revenue growth. In addition to strategic planning, the AVP is accountable for the day-to-day leadership and management of the Customer Success organization, including performance management, talent development, resource allocation, forecasting, operational reviews, and executive customer engagement. The role serves as a key voice of the customer, influencing product direction, go-to-market priorities, and company-wide initiatives that improve customer value and business outcomes.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
12+ years of experience in Customer Success, Account Management, Renewals, SaaS, or related customer-facing functions.
7+ years of leadership experience managing managers and customer-facing teams.
Demonstrated success driving customer retention, adoption, expansion, and revenue growth.
Experience owning or directly influencing GRR and NRR performance.
Strong business, financial, analytical, and operational acumen.
Experience leading cross-functional initiatives, executive customer conversations, and organizational change.

Nice To Haves

Experience in enterprise SaaS or recurring-revenue business models.
Knowledge of Customer Success platforms such as Gainsight, Salesforce, customer health tooling, and product analytics.
Experience building scaled customer engagement, digital success, renewal readiness, and customer advocacy programs.
MBA or advanced business education preferred.

Responsibilities

Own and drive customer outcomes, retention, and expansion strategies across the assigned customer lifecycle.
Maintain direct responsibility for Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) and Net Revenue Retention (NRR), including renewal performance, churn reduction, downsell mitigation, forecasting, and expansion influence.
Establish programs that accelerate adoption, value realization, advocacy, renewal readiness, and customer growth.
Develop and execute risk management strategies to proactively identify, mitigate, and resolve customer health issues.
Partner with Sales, Account Management, and Renewals leaders to maximize retention outcomes and customer growth opportunities.
Ensure strategic accounts have active success plans, executive engagement, measurable goals, and documented value outcomes.
Define and continuously improve the end-to-end customer journey across onboarding, adoption, value realization, advocacy, renewal, and expansion.
Build scalable engagement models, segmentation strategies, playbooks, and operating processes that align customer goals to measurable business value.
Develop consistent success planning, health scoring, executive business review, and renewal readiness practices.
Translate customer insights and business objectives into actionable programs that improve retention, growth, and customer experience.
Partner with Product, Services, Support, Marketing, Renewals, Operations, and Sales to create a seamless customer experience.
Represent the voice of the customer by communicating customer trends, risks, opportunities, and market insights to leadership and business partners.
Collaborate with stakeholders to resolve critical customer issues and improve customer outcomes.
Act as a senior escalation point for strategic customer situations and executive-level customer concerns.
Establish operational KPIs, dashboards, benchmarks, and reporting mechanisms to drive performance and accountability.
Monitor customer health, adoption, engagement, retention, expansion, advocacy, and financial performance metrics.
Lead renewal and expansion forecasting processes in partnership with relevant revenue teams.
Drive process standardization, operational rigor, and continuous improvement initiatives that increase efficiency and scalability.
Lead, coach, and develop Customer Success managers and customer-facing team members.
Set clear goals, role expectations, and accountability measures linked to customer outcomes, GRR, NRR, and operational performance.
Develop succession plans and identify future leaders within the organization.
Foster a customer-centric, data-driven culture focused on accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Contribute to budget planning, resource allocation, workforce planning, and operational investment decisions.
Ensure organizational resources are aligned to customer needs, business priorities, retention goals, and growth objectives.
Monitor departmental performance against financial, operational, and customer outcome targets.