Director, Customer Success Management (Chicago)

To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.Job CategoryCustomer SuccessJob DetailsAbout SalesforceSalesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.Our customers who drive the most value out of Salesforce rely on the Signature Success program and team. Signature Success aligns on each customer’s needs, strategic objectives, and maturity. Customers are then supported through long-term plans that align the right people, skills, coaching, and oversight to help customers achieve tangible results through Salesforce products. Insights and analysis are provided along the way to drive comprehensive support. The primary orchestrators driving Signature delivery are our versatile Customer Success Managers (CSM).The CSM Director leads the strategy for Signature Success Plan delivery across their team of CSMs. The ideal candidate should have a strong background in Customer Success strategies, trends, and outcomes at the enterprise level. CSM Directors are able to research, synthesize, and develop insights and actions from market intelligence & customer feedback. They will also hire, coach, manage, and support a team of individuals with a variety of backgrounds. The primary responsibility of the CSM Director is to accomplish Signature delivery across a given book of business, through their CSM team.This role requires customer centricity, partnership, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a highly driven demeanor. Success in this role is measured by customer and employee sentiment, retention of business, customer adoption and growth of customers through their business objectives.The following is a list of characteristics that make a great leader at Salesforce. We expect our next Director, Customer Success Manager to exhibit each of these characteristics:Get it Done – Drives processes that scale. Challenges the organization to think with a beginner’s mind and act efficiently to achieve the desired outcome. Calm, organized, positive, and can-do attitude. Results-driven, tenacious, drive to succeed in a fast-paced environment.Courageous Communicator – Superb interpersonal skills including a demonstrated ability to communicate, present, and influence credibly and effectively at all levels in an organization including executive and C-level. Tailors message and style to the audience, uses storytelling to deliver effective presentations and messages.Motivate and Champion – Invests in and tries new things in the talent and career development of our people. Holds self and team accountable to expectations.Salesforce Smart – Explains the vision and “the why” behind changes. Keeps teams focused and moving forward, even in an absence of concrete information, by rallying them around a vision.Win as a Team – Puts the collective benefit of the company first. Brings teams together to take-on shared goals. Seeks and embraces different points of view and experiences to unlock the collective potential of people across Salesforce.”Requirements & SkillsStrong communication skills, both written and verbal. Clear, concise communication of customer success strategy, business value, and escalation guidance.Strong presentation skills. Confidently represent the team and strategy in executive forums and customer engagements.Proven ability to manage schedules, customer portfolios, and capacity planning. You should be comfortable using data to advocate for resources, process improvements, or customer-facing changes.Skilled at engaging and aligning with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, Sales, Services, and Success.An understanding of enterprise customer lifecycle management, Salesforce cloud platforms, and scalable success delivery models.Experience leading and growing high-performing CSM teams with a focus on coaching, upskilling, and succession planning.Strong collaboration and negotiation skills to drive outcomes in a matrixed environment.Familiarity with Salesforce products, capabilities, and customer success methodology.Familiarity with customer success best practices, health scoring frameworks, and adoption metrics.Ability to represent customer outcomes and product value to diverse audiences (field, partners, customers, executives).Knowledge of how to translate complex customer challenges into actionable success plans and enablement content.Industry and Product-Specific Requirements:​Consumer Business Services (CBS) – Supports companies in professional services, hospitality, travel, transportation, and business services sectors, helping them optimize customer engagement and operational efficiency across complex service delivery models.Digital (Commerce Cloud & Marketing Cloud):Deep familiarity with Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud capabilities, including storefront management, personalization, journey building, and campaign automation.Understanding of digital commerce and marketing operations, including B2B and B2C customer journeys.Experience guiding customers through Commerce and Marketing Cloud adoption, integration, and value realization.Minimum Qualifications10+ years of experience in Customer Success, Account Management, Solution Consulting, or related fields.3–5 years of people management or leadership experience, including managing high-performing Customer Success teams.Proven experience managing customer portfolios and resource planning across complex, multi-segment customer bases.Demonstrated success in driving cross-functional alignment with Product, Sales, Services, and Engineering teams.Experience leading high-priority customer initiatives or programs with executive visibility and business-critical outcomes.Strong knowledge of Salesforce products and platform — features, capabilities, best practices, and how customers derive value from them, including knowledge of the Salesforce ecosystem.Strong analytical and operational abilities, especially around team performance, customer health metrics, prioritization, and efficiency.For Core Clouds: Demonstrated experience working with or supporting Sales Cloud and/or Service Cloud at an enterprise level, with a strong understanding of CRM-driven sales and service motions.For Digital: Demonstrated experience working with or supporting Commerce Cloud and/or Marketing Cloud at an enterprise level, with a strong understanding of digital commerce and marketing automation strategies.Note: this role is office-flexible, and the expectation is to be in-office a minimum of three (3) days per week.Unleash Your PotentialWhen you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.AccommodationsIf you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.Posting StatementSalesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. 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