Manager, Customer Success

The Manager, Customer Success is responsible for leading a high performing team. Working in the Higher Education segment across North America, this leadership role will oversee and coach the team of Customer Success Managers and Specialists team members to continually strive to exceed loyalty and retention and growth targets. This role will continue our culture of customer first and work cross functionally to ensure the client is at the centre of all that we do.  This leader is analytical, and data driven and manages risk and opportunities through metrics and tools to drive strategy and planning of their portfolio.  The leader should have sound critical problem-solving skills, driven to action and be able to effectively manage change and motivate their team.

Major Responsibilities (How Will I Make an Impact?):

• Coaching, leading, and developing team members by setting the strategy and prioritizing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs); hiring, training, and developing a high performing team
• Align Customer Success activities to growth initiatives, revenue goals that drive adoption, loyalty, and retention of Brightspace
• Develop sound risk management and mitigation initiatives
• Responsible for influencing future lifetime value of Brightspace through proven execution and tracking of account planning
• Responsible for forecasting and achieving quarterly/annual customer retention and lead targets
• Develop and foster executive level relationships with key accounts
• Foster a culture of customer empathy, partnership, and continuous value creation
• Expand revenue in accounts through cross-sell and up-sell in partnership with sales
• Advance initiatives to build long term customer advocacy

People Leadership and Performance

• Manage a team of D2Lers and champion a high-performing culture.
• Connect your team’s day-to-day accountabilities to D2L’s mission by setting clear objectives and performance expectations with your team members.
• Coach, provide regular feedback, provide career path and development or growth opportunities, and create a collaborative and open environment.
• Collaborate through cross-functional teams to accomplish established corporate and team goals and effectively manage relationships with other D2L teams
• Responsible for supporting vision, planning, and defining team objectives, and leading execution of objectives
• Support coaching and professional development specific opportunities to maintain the domain expertise needed support our diverse customers
• Work with your peers and leaders to drive productivity, efficiency, and hold the team accountable for high-quality outcomes
• Play a key role in interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new team members. Provide expertise and coaching/mentorship to the team members.
• Produce and actively participate in knowledge sharing as well as professional development initiatives

Competencies (What you’ll bring to the role):

• 5+ years’ experience in a Customer Success (or equivalent) role; with experience leading teams and managing client portfolios of varying sizes
  • Experience hiring, onboarding, managing, and developing high-performing teams while still contributing to the team’s deliverables
• Previous experience and focus on customer advocacy, risk management, retention and adoption programs
• Ability to effectively communicate to stakeholders at all levels of the organization – with excellent written, oral, and presentation skills
• Ability to quickly establish rapport with all levels of personnel up to and including C-Suite executives
• Model high energy level, demonstrated drive to succeed, with a sense of urgency
• Strong experience collaborating with cross-functional, multidisciplinary teams
• Ability to anticipate and adapt to shifting priorities in a fast-paced and rapidly growing organization
• Experience within a growth-oriented SaaS companies is ideal
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Thorough understanding of business management, forecasting strategy and techniques
• Experience working in education technology or knowledge of business drivers for Higher Education organizations is a plus
• At least 5 years’ experience in related industry or acting as a consultant on a major strategic planning program specifically with Customer Success

D2L Leadership Competencies

• Leads by Example with personal and professional integrity, high accountability, and say/do ratio
• Boundaryless collaboration and influence skills both within team, peer group and broader organization. Effective communicator with a proven track record of
• Delivers Awesome Outcomes: Strategic mindset and business acumen, with strong prioritization skills and a focus on organizational outcomes vs. team tasks. Effective problem solver, able to achieve results individually and through others, in fast paced, deadline-driven environments.
• Talent Magnet: Talent-focused leader, with demonstrated ability to coach, build and lead a high performing, diverse team.
• Better, Smarter, Faster: An agile learner, with a growth mindset, attention to detail and organizational skills. An operationally minded leader, with a focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
• Wins Hearts and Minds: An effective communicator, with the ability to connect the why and the what. A change agent, with proven delegation, motivation, and team building skills

D2L is committed to a fair and inclusive work environment. We are an equal opportunity employer that hires and attracts talent regardless of age, race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, nationality, sex, status as a protected veteran or any other legally protected grounds and will not discriminate on these bases. We draw on diversity of thought and experience to reflect the rich array of cultures representing our broad customer base and we seek talent with diversity of life experiences and perspectives from around the world. If you have special accessibility requirements that need to be considered during the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected] and a member of our HR team will get back to you. Information received relating to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially. D2L maintains a drug-free workplace.