Director, Customer Experience

Culture Amp • Chicago, IL

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Customer Experience (CX) Pod Leader) is accountable for driving customer value, retention, and expansion across a shared book of business within a cross-functional pod. The role leads Customer Success Managers and Renewals Managers, with commercial ownership tied to revenue, and operates as an equal partner to the Director, Sales in building one unified go-to-market engine.

The Director owns the pod’s renewal forecast and renewal outcomes, territory design, portfolio health, renewal process discipline, and gross revenue retention (GRR). They coach and develop the team, serve as executive sponsor on high-stakes accounts, manage escalations, and drive customer adoption and value realization.

Co-owned with the Director, Sales, the role also helps manage the customer lifecycle from acquisition through adoption, renewal, and expansion; creates the pod’s go-to-market plans; optimizes for net revenue retention (NRR) and customer value; promotes AI fluency and tool adoption; presents joint quarterly business reviews; resolves complex issues; and builds a high-performing pod culture.

Requirements

• Demonstrated success as a Customer Success leader, with direct accountability for GRR, renewal outcomes, and team performance against retention and adoption goals.
• Experience owning and delivering a renewal forecast, including communicating movement, risk, and actions affecting results.
• Deep understanding of Customer Success methodology, LAER frameworks, and value-based customer engagement in a B2B SaaS environment.
• Proven ability to coach and develop Customer Success practitioners into high-performing strategic advisors.
• Commercial confidence in renewal negotiations, expansion conversations, executive-level customer engagement, and escalations.
• Experience working cross-functionally with Sales, People Science, Implementation, Support, and RevOps to drive customer outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity and lead teams through change, evolving models, or new ways of working.
• Strong coaching and people leadership capabilities, including building accountability and developing talent.
• Senior leadership presence and communication skills for high-stakes customer situations and internal stakeholder alignment.
• Data fluency and proficiency with Vitally, Salesforce, and Gong, or equivalent tools, to diagnose risk and drive team performance.
• Alignment with Culture Amp values and behaviors.

Responsibilities

• Own the pod’s renewal forecast, maintain forecast integrity, explain week-over-week changes, and provide leadership with a dependable forecast.
• Lead territory design for the pod’s book of business in partnership with the Sales Pod Leader and RevOps.
• Monitor adoption, engagement, and risk signals using Vitally, Salesforce, and Gong to maintain portfolio health and identify renewal risks early.
• Lead renewal process discipline, set negotiation strategy, manage commercial timelines, hold the team accountable for timely outcomes, and own GRR.
• Coach Customer Success Managers and Renewals Managers through regular one-on-ones, performance coaching, feedback, and career development.
• Serve as executive sponsor for high-stakes accounts and senior CX contact for complex escalations, expectation resets, and at-risk customer partnerships.
• Set adoption goals, ensure account plans are followed, and encourage proactive customer engagement.
• Manage team performance through structured performance management, recognize strong performance, address gaps, and contribute to hiring and onboarding.
• Partner with the Sales Pod Leader to provide seamless customer lifecycle handoffs and coverage from acquisition through adoption, renewal, and expansion.
• Model cross-functional trust, unified customer engagement, and shared accountability across Sales and CX.
• Co-create the pod’s go-to-market roadmap, quarterly plans, and prioritized plays and customer segments; document the approach and recommend plays to regional and functional leadership.
• Optimize pod decisions for net revenue retention and long-term customer value.
• Model AI tool use and promote AI-enabled habits that improve efficiency and output quality across the pod.
• Co-present quarterly business reviews covering Sales, CX, and customer health performance.
• Act as the pod’s ultimate escalation point, resolving complex cross-functional and customer-facing issues and involving relevant partners as needed.
• Set the pod’s vision with the Sales Pod Leader and foster a culture of ambition, accountability, and collaboration.

Benefits

• Equity through the Employee Share Option Program.
• Learning programs and coaching.
• Quarterly refresh days, an extended end-of-year break, and a monthly wellbeing and lifestyle allowance.
• Inclusive parental leave from day one.
• A MacBook and budget to set up a home workspace.
• Five annual social impact days.
• Medical insurance coverage for the employee and family (available in the US and UK).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed