In most SaaS organizations, customer-driven growth is the norm—74% of leaders report that most revenue now comes from existing customers. That makes post-sale roles the engine of topline performance.
Below is a practical overview of the key roles in customer success—what they do, the responsibilities tied to NRR and GRR, and U.S. salary figures.
Chief Customer Officer
Job description
The CCO role is now a well-established role. The CCO provides an enterprise-wide view of the customer and sets strategy to maximize acquisition, retention, expansion, and profitability. CCOs set the vision, strategy, budget, and KPIs for the customer organization; build and scale the team and leadership bench; partner with product, sales, marketing, and technology to execute growth plans, and oversee digital/tech-touch programs, customer education, and value/ROI instrumentation.
Responsibilities
- Co-own NRR targets with Sales/AM per GTM design; renewal ownership varies by segment.
- Build profitable customer experiences focused on prioritization, retention, loyalty, satisfaction, and lifecycle improvements.
- Create a customer-centric culture with clear journey governance and cross-functional accountability.
- Drive change with data and AI: transform the customer experience at scale, increase efficiency, and consistently grow revenue.
- Define operating cadences and leadership development programs; coach front-line leaders; and set measurable KPIs for onboarding, adoption, renewals, and advocacy.
Salary
Compensation varies widely by size/stage and equity mix.
- Glassdoor (avg. base ~$455K): Chief Customer Officer salary.
- PayScale (avg. base ~$180K): Chief Customer Officer salary.
Customer Success Director or Vice President
Job description
A vice president or director of customer success typically reports to the CCO (or CEO) and sets strategy across onboarding, adoption, advocacy, renewals, and expansion programs. They build, coach, and scale high-performing CSM teams; standardize core processes (onboarding checkpoints, QBR/value reviews, renewal playbooks); and enforce operating cadences aligned to GRR/NRR targets. They also stand up digital/tech-touch programs, instrument value/ROI, and partner closely with customer success and revenue operations.
Responsibilities
- Deliver outcomes: renewals, expansions, and NRR.
- Define and optimize the customer lifecycle (journey mapping, playbooks, GRR & NRR dashboards).
- Own the CS tech stack (e.g., ChurnZero + CRM + product analytics); and use AI to increase personalization and impact.
- Forecast renewals and expansions; monitor health scoring, renewal pipeline, and expansion signals; and act as the executive escalation point for complex customer challenges.
- Drive cross-functional initiatives with implementation, sales, product, marketing, and support to remove friction and improve adoption and time-to-value.
- Inspire a customer-centric approach throughout the organization and serve as a liaison between departments, representing the best interests of customers.
Salary
Compensation varies widely by size/stage and equity mix.
- Glassdoor (avg. ~$304K): VP of Customer Success salary.
- Glassdoor (avg. ~$219K): Director of Customer Success salary.
Customer Success Manager
Job description
The CSM ensures customers realize measurable value from your product. Modern CSMs blend relationship skills with product fluency, data literacy, and business acumen. They drive adoption, prove ROI, surface expansion signals, execute standardized success processes (onboarding milestones, value reviews, renewal playbooks), and propose process improvements that increase team efficiency and customer outcomes.
Responsibilities
- Establish trust, set desired outcomes, and manage change to accelerate time-to-value.
- Prioritize portfolios with health scores, product telemetry, and risk/opportunity signals.
- Orchestrate value reviews, advocacy, and expansion referrals.
- Use AI assistants and automation to build and drive customer journeys and success plans, and determine overall account health.
- Capture structured product feedback from customer conversations and coordinate with implementation, sales, product, and marketing teams to resolve blockers and advance outcomes.
- Communicate with the customer to establish rapport, identify customer expectations, and facilitate change management to drive product adoption and renewals.
- Drive customer advocacy in the form of references, referrals, and case studies.
Salary
- Salary.com (avg ~$114K): Customer success manager salary.
- PayScale (avg ~$77.9K): Customer success manager salary.
Customer Success Operations Manager
Job description
The CS Ops Manager drives efficiency and effectiveness for the CS org by standardizing operating procedures (onboarding templates, QBRs, renewal stages, health scoring criteria) and publishing reports that leaders use for accurate GRR/NRR forecasting and capacity planning. Backgrounds often include RevOps/analytics; CS domain knowledge is increasingly preferred for health-modeling and lifecycle orchestration.
Responsibilities
- Own customer data/analytics (segmentation, adoption, NPS/VOC, forecasting).
- Build lifecycle playbooks and automation (digital touch, in-app guides, triggered outreach).
- Manage the CS tech stack and data governance; partner with RevOps on pipeline→post-sale alignment.
- Lead health-score modernization and AI tooling governance.
- Maintain a performance dashboard for the CS org; document processes and drive continuous improvement to scale efficiently.
Salary
- Glassdoor (avg. ~$148K): Customer Success Operations Manager salary.
Implementation or Onboarding Manager
Job description
Responsible for guiding customers from contract to go-live, translating goals into configuration, coordinating integrations, and enabling early value. Measured on time-to-value (TTV), implementation NPS/CSAT, and handoff quality to CSM. Typically leads a blended team of configuration and data specialists; balances hands-on project leadership with process innovation to support complex launches at scale.
Responsibilities
- Own plan-to-launch delivery (project plan, integrations, migration).
- Translate technical requirements for non-technical stakeholders.
- Define and document best practices for onboarding, configuration, and data setup.
- Coordinate internal teams and manage timelines/risks.
- Deliver training and customer education for self-sufficiency.
- Use implementation analytics to predict risk; automate steps with in-app guides.
- Monitor implementation KPIs (TTV, CSAT, first-year GRR) and run post-launch retrospectives to drive continuous improvement.
Salary
- Glassdoor (avg. ~$120K): Implementation Manager salary.
Customer Enablement
Job description
Builds and scales programs that accelerate onboarding, improve activation/time-to-value, deepen product skills, and mobilize advocates (education, certifications, community). Owns instructional design and program production; operates the LMS; and creates in-product education suited for non-technical audiences.
Responsibilities
- Design education curriculum and certification paths; run webinars, office hours, and in-app guidance.
- Operate community programs; source champions and references; measure participation and impact on NRR.
- Partner with CS Ops to instrument activation/TTV and with product/support to close knowledge gaps.
Salary
- Glassdoor (avg. ~$168K): Customer Enablement Manager salary.
Looking for a new role in Customer Success? Check out the ChurnZero careers page, as we are always looking for talent.
