Vice President Customer Success

Black Kite•Boston, MA

2d•$300,000 - $320,000

About The Position

The Vice President of Customer Success owns Black Kite’s Customer Success capability company-wide, including strategy, organization design, segmentation, resourcing, and executive representation. The role is accountable for retention, expansion, and customer health outcomes across the company. It reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer and manages two Senior Directors of Customer Success, who lead established CSM teams. Black Kite’s CSMs own the full customer lifecycle: onboarding, enablement, adoption, renewal, and shared responsibility for expansion. The VP will scale this model by defining team structure, account tiering and engagement, success measures, and leadership development. The role also leads the organization’s AI adoption strategy, embedding AI tools and workflows into daily CSM work to improve efficiency, customer engagement, and scalability. This executive role represents Customer Success in company-wide planning, board-adjacent conversations, and external forums, and partners with Sales, Product, Marketing, Finance, and Engineering on customer lifecycle priorities. The expected total compensation range is $300,000–$320,000, consisting of base pay plus variable compensation and varying with qualifications, scope, complexity, and location.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive Customer Success leadership experience in B2B SaaS.
At least 3 to 5 years owning a Customer Success function at the VP level or equivalent.
Demonstrated track record of owning and improving NDR and GDR at scale, with specific outcomes.
Deep experience leading a full-lifecycle CSM model in which one team owns onboarding, enablement, adoption, expansion, and renewal without handoffs to separate post-sale functions.
Deep experience designing Customer Success organization structures, tiering models, and segmentation frameworks for a growing SaaS business.
Proven ability to build and develop a multi-layer management team, including Directors and Senior Directors.
Strong cross-functional leadership and ability to partner credibly with Sales, Product, Marketing, and Finance executives.
Executive presence and communication skills, including comfort representing the function to a board, C-suite, or strategic customer.
Financial acumen across Customer Success unit economics, including NDR, GDR, CAC payback, and expansion margin.
Data-driven decision-making skills, including setting metrics, building dashboards, and holding an organization accountable to outcomes.
Comfort with AI tools in a professional context, including personal use and experience driving adoption across a team.

Nice To Haves

Experience in cybersecurity, risk management, compliance, or a technically complex SaaS environment.

Responsibilities

Define and own the company-wide Customer Success strategy, including tiering, segmentation, engagement frameworks, and scaled programs across the customer lifecycle.
Build and refine playbooks, milestones, and success metrics for onboarding, enablement, adoption, and renewals.
Set the long-term vision for scaling the Customer Success organization.
Make organization-structure decisions, including defining Team Lead and Director scopes.
Hold final budget and headcount authority for the Customer Success organization.
Lead the Customer Success team’s AI adoption strategy by identifying, evaluating, and embedding AI tools in day-to-day workflows.
Own company-wide gross dollar retention (GDR) and net dollar retention (NDR) outcomes.
Establish and enforce customer health-score methodology and early-warning systems across segments and lifecycle stages.
Hold final escalation authority for the function, including strategic account risk and named-account escalations.
Ensure the Customer Success team connects onboarding, adoption, renewal confidence, and value-creation opportunities.
Directly manage two Senior Directors of Customer Success.
Own the organization-wide talent strategy for Customer Success.
Coach and calibrate senior Customer Success leaders and build succession depth across management levels.
Set standards for how Customer Success leaders develop, evaluate, and grow their teams.
Model and reinforce AI fluency across the Customer Success organization.
Represent Customer Success in executive and leadership planning, board-adjacent conversations, and external forums.
Serve as a strategic counterpart to Sales, Product, Marketing, and Finance on customer lifecycle initiatives.
Own Customer Success’s contribution to product feedback loops, expansion pipeline, and customer advocacy programs.
Partner with Product and Engineering to translate Black Kite’s AI capabilities into customer outcomes and Customer Success talking points.