[Remote] Senior Manager, Customer Success

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Zendesk is revolutionizing customer experience through their AI-powered Resolution Platform. They are seeking a Senior Manager of Customer Success to lead a team of Customer Success Managers, ensuring customer satisfaction and maximizing team performance while integrating AI tools.


Responsibilities

  • Lead a team of up to 10 Customer Success Managers supporting our segments
  • Make Zendesk’s customers so successful they want to buy more, stay longer, and advocate fiercely
  • Build a team that blends financial acumen, technical product knowledge, and data-driven experimentation into a customer outcomes powerhouse
  • Drive Strategic Adoption and Integration of AI-Enabled Customer Success Tools
  • Maximize Team Performance and Customer Outcomes
  • Cultivate Continuous AI Fluency and Enablement within the Team
  • Hire, coach, and grow a diverse team, fostering a culture of curiosity, candor, and courageous experimentation
  • Accelerate your team's product and overall CX technology proficiency, ensuring deep technology and AI fluency to lead customer conversations
  • Set and communicate crystal-clear goals, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual KPIs, and clear accountability frameworks
  • Attend in-person customer meetings, assist with deep multi-threading, and use Gong consistently to coach the team, identify trends, and stay ahead of the market
  • Empower your teams while driving operational consistency and rigorous execution to exceed financial targets and contribute to complex cross-functional initiatives
  • Inspire CSMs to act as “mini-CEOs”—owning portfolio strategies, customer prioritization planning, eliminating blockers and opportunities end-to-end
  • Lead internal monthly/quarterly business reviews (MBRs/QBRs), ensure success plans are built, adopted, and regularly refreshed based on driving customer outcomes that matter
  • Actively manage churn and expansion playbooks, pipeline health and renewal forecasting accuracy, and run the business by the numbers
  • Relentlessly drive adoption and sophistication of AI-powered tools for risk flagging, customer insights, automation, and customer engagement
  • Partner with Product/AI teams, pilot new tools, and aggressively iterate based on real-world feedback
  • Own forecasting, retention and growth strategies (partnering heavily with sales and renewals teams), and portfolio reporting for your team—ensuring accuracy, transparency, and proactive management of risk
  • Optimize workload distribution and manage capacity with agile, data-driven resource allocation
  • Champion rigorous performance results through: regular 1:1s, career development, and actionable feedback that makes Zendesk a CS destination of choice
  • Act as the business owner for the assigned segment, taking responsibility for revenue outcomes, resource planning, operational health, and ensuring CS feedback influences the Zendesk product roadmap via proactive cross-functional collaboration
  • Coach for high performance and secure team success through prompt performance management, actionable feedback loops, routine team health checks, skills assessments, and championing promotions for high potential talent
  • Recruit, interview, and onboard new Customer Success Managers, with a focus on building a diverse team in terms of thought and skill
  • Personally drive resolution for high-impact or strategic customer situations and document learnings to promote continuous improvement across the team

Skills

  • 9+ years in Customer Success, or relevant customer-facing roles in SaaS or technology companies, with at least 5+ years managing teams
  • Strong expertise in leveraging AI-driven tools, analytics, and automation to positively impact customer success outcomes
  • Direct experience with AI or next-gen tooling, and the ability to build or manipulate data pipelines and automated reporting
  • Proven experience leading high-performing Customer Success teams segmented by customer size/complexity (SMB to Strategic)
  • Deep understanding of core CS principles, including retention, engagement models, and performance measurement
  • Track record of collaborating effectively at a leadership level with product, sales, marketing, and AI/technology teams
  • Comfort running QBRs, NRR/GRR analyses, and forecasting with confidence
  • A data-driven approach is essential for demonstrating impact (outcomes, not just org charts)
  • Insatiable curiosity, high adaptability, and a proven history of upskilling and delivering results in ambiguous, rapid-paced, and dynamic environments
  • Early adopter and optimizer of workflow automation, generative AI, and digital engagement tooling—able to guide teams through adoption, troubleshoot issues, and help design new use cases
  • Proficiency with CRM and CS platforms (Zendesk, Gainsight, Salesforce, etc.), analytics platforms (Looker, Tableau, or similar), and hands-on skills with data analysis, reporting, and building dashboards for insight-driven action
  • Ability to connect operational levers to revenue outcomes; confident navigating revenue retention, renewal/expansion analysis, forecasting, and ARR/MRR modeling
  • Design and implement standard operating procedures, success plans, customer health scoring models, and scalable playbooks across segments
  • Ability to conduct root cause analysis for customer escalations, build early warning systems, and mobilize 'all hands' to resolve risk
  • Tailor engagement strategies to SMB, Commercial, Enterprise, and Strategic accounts—using structured frameworks that drive repeatable excellence across segments
  • Bachelor's degree in Business or Technology preferred
  • Advanced degrees or certifications in Customer Success or AI Application being a significant plus

Benefits

  • Bonus
  • Benefits
  • Related incentives

Company Overview

  • Zendesk develops a customizable customer service platform for organizations. It was founded in 2007, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, with a workforce of 5001-10000 employees. Its website is http://zendesk.com.

    • Company H1B Sponsorship

  • Zendesk has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 41 in 2025, 69 in 2024, 37 in 2023, 92 in 2022, 93 in 2021, 44 in 2020. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.

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