Vice President, Commercial Partnerships

Workday•Pleasanton, CA

21h•$255,900 - $383,900•Hybrid

About The Position

Workday is seeking a Vice President, Commercial Partnerships to join their founding team of the Strategic Account Management organization. This role is responsible for managing high-value, high-risk accounts, directly engaging in challenging renewals, solving customer challenges, and setting the foundation for future growth. This is a high-visibility role where efforts will drive customer retention, protect revenue, and define how Workday engages with its most critical customers. The Commercial Relationships team is a specialized group responsible for nurturing and expanding relationships with Workday's most valuable clients, driving retention, reducing churn, and ensuring successful renewals across global markets.

Requirements

10+ years of leadership experience in Strategic Account Management, Renewals, Customer Success, or a similar role, preferably within a SaaS or enterprise software environment.
Proven track record of managing and reducing churn in high-risk, high-value customer accounts, with a focus on contract renewals and retention strategies.
Exceptional negotiation and conflict resolution skills, with the ability to manage complex, high-stakes customer discussions.
Strong operational expertise in building scalable processes for renewals, forecasting, and churn management.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate across functions, influence without direct authority, and drive alignment among diverse teams.
Expertise in data-driven decision-making, with proficiency in tools like Salesforce, Gainsight, Tableau, and Excel.
Deep understanding of enterprise SaaS business models, including TCO, ROI, and NRR metrics.
Experience leading customer advocacy programs and creating frameworks for customer engagement.
Highly adaptable, with a proven ability to lead during periods of ambiguity and change.

Responsibilities

Design and execute innovative strategies to reduce churn and stabilize high-risk commercial relationships in a rapidly evolving market.
Develop proactive measures and churn prediction frameworks, to identify and mitigate risks early.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to resolve escalated issues, ensuring customers remain successful and engaged with our solutions.
Establish and oversee operational processes for renewal forecasting, contract management, and renewal execution.
Lead challenging renewal discussions with high-profile accounts, often involving complex contract structures or difficult negotiations.
Create creative, win-win solutions that protect company margins while retaining customer relationships.
Build and refine renewal playbooks to standardize best practices for managing at-risk customers and renewal operations.
Partner with Customer Success (CX), Sales, and Product teams to create scalable churn reduction programs and operational frameworks.
Implement processes and tools that provide actionable insights into renewal risk, customer satisfaction, and account health.
Act as the central point of coordination for cross-functional teams, including Customer Success, Product, Sales, Professional Services, and Value Management, to ensure seamless customer experiences.
Drive accountability and alignment across teams for improving adoption, resolving customer pain points, and delivering business outcomes.
Champion customer advocacy by aligning internal teams around customer success and retention goals.
Leverage customer data, usage metrics, and predictive analytics to inform strategic decisions around retention and growth opportunities.
Build a robust reporting framework that enables leadership to monitor renewal performance, churn trends, and customer health.
Partner with analytics teams to create dashboards and tools that deliver actionable insights for managing renewals and churn.