Director, Customer Experience

Culture Amp • Chicago, IL

10h • $200,000 - $240,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Customer Experience (CX) Pod Leader drives 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 responsibility for commercial outcomes and coaching, and operates as an equal partner to the Director, Sales in building a unified go-to-market engine.

The role owns the pod’s renewal forecast, territory design, portfolio health, renewals discipline, and gross revenue retention (GRR). It develops team capability and performance, supports high-stakes customer relationships, and ensures adoption goals and account plans move customer engagement from reactive to proactive.

Working jointly with the Sales Pod Leader, the Director shares responsibility for the customer lifecycle, pod go-to-market planning, net revenue retention (NRR), AI tool adoption, quarterly business reviews, escalations, and building 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 the actions driving 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 Revenue Operations to drive customer outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to work through ambiguity and lead a team 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 a dependable forecast to leadership.
• Lead pod territory design with the Sales Pod Leader and Revenue Operations, defining Customer Success Manager and Renewals Manager territories for coverage, collaboration, and customer continuity.
• Monitor adoption trends, engagement signals, and risk indicators using Vitally, Salesforce, and Gong; identify risks early and support value realization and mitigation for at-risk accounts.
• Lead renewal process discipline and negotiation strategy, manage commercial timelines, hold the team accountable for timely renewal outcomes, and own gross revenue retention (GRR).
• Coach Customer Success Managers and Renewals Managers through regular one-to-ones, performance coaching, feedback, and career development.
• Serve as executive sponsor on high-stakes accounts and senior Customer Experience contact for complex escalations, expectation resets, and at-risk customer partnerships.
• Set adoption goals across the pod’s book, hold the team accountable to account plans, and promote proactive customer engagement.
• Manage team performance, conduct structured performance management, recognize strong performance, address gaps, and contribute to hiring and onboarding decisions.
• Partner with the Sales Pod Leader on the customer lifecycle, ensuring effective handoffs, continuous coverage, and a joined-up experience from acquisition through adoption, renewal, and expansion.
• Model cross-functional trust, unified customer engagement, and shared accountability across Sales and Customer Experience.
• Co-create the pod’s go-to-market play roadmap and quarterly plans with the Sales Pod Leader; document the approach and recommend plays to regional and functional leadership.
• Jointly optimize for net revenue retention (NRR) and value creation in pod decisions, including resource allocation and customer prioritization.
• Model AI tool use to improve efficiency and output quality, and hold the team accountable for incorporating AI-enabled habits into daily work.
• Co-present quarterly business reviews covering pod performance across Sales, Customer Experience, and customer health.
• Act as the pod’s ultimate escalation point, resolving complex cross-functional and customer-facing issues and involving senior or cross-functional partners as needed.
• Build a pod culture of performance with the Sales Pod Leader by setting a clear vision, translating strategy into execution, and fostering 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 allowance to support wellbeing and lifestyle.
• Inclusive parental leave from day one.
• MacBook and a 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