Senior Manager, Lifecycle Marketing & Customer Advocacy

As the Senior Manager, Lifecycle Marketing & Customer Advocacy, you will drive Sage's customer advocacy strategy and programs across North America, transforming customer advocacy into a scalable engine for brand growth, market credibility, and pipeline generation. This role sits at the intersection of customer marketing and new customer acquisition, responsible for leveraging the voice of our customers to strengthen our brand, accelerate demand generation, and influence revenue growth. You will own and evolve Sage's advocacy ecosystem, including customer references, reviews, referrals, customer stories, executive engagement programs, and advocacy events. As Sage's customer advocacy subject matter expert, you'll join our North America Customer Marketing team of 14, reporting to our Senior Director of Customer Marketing, you'll lead a high-performing team of 3 direct reports, helping to shape customer journey strategy while ensuring customer voices are embedded across marketing, sales, product, and executive initiatives. Success in this role requires a combination of strategic thinking, program innovation, executive communication, and effective people leadership. You will lead the team responsible for executing customer advocacy programs while partnering closely with Sales, Customer Success, Product Marketing, Corporate Marketing, and Executive Leadership to maximize the business impact of customer engagement. The successful candidate understands that customer advocacy is more than a customer marketing function - it is a growth strategy that drives trust, accelerates sales cycles, increases market influence, strengthens customer retention, and creates sustainable competitive advantage. Location Requirement: Hybrid 3 days per week from our Atlanta office (Ponce City Market) Minimum Qualifications 7+ years of experience in customer marketing, customer advocacy, customer engagement, or growth marketing within B2B software or SaaS environments. At least 2 years of experience as a people manager (direct reports) leading and developing a high-performing team of marketers. Proven experience building, scaling, and optimizing customer advocacy programs that drive measurable business outcomes. Demonstrated success leading customer reference, review, referral, customer story, or ambassador programs. Strong understanding of how advocacy supports brand growth, demand generation, pipeline acceleration, customer retention, and expansion. Experience developing customer engagement strategies and creating scalable advocacy journeys. Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels of the organization. Strong analytical mindset with experience measuring advocacy impact and communicating business results. Proven ability to influence cross-functional partners and drive alignment across complex organizations. Strategic thinker with a customer-first mindset and passion for customer-led growth. Key Responsibilities Team Leadership Lead, coach, and develop the customer advocacy team across reviews, references, referrals, customer stories, advocacy events, and executive engagement programs. Set priorities, operating rhythms, and performance expectations that drive measurable business outcomes. Build a culture of accountability, innovation, customer focus, and continuous improvement. Serve as Sage’s advocacy subject matter expert helping shape customer journey strategy and customer-led growth. Advocacy Strategy & Program Leadership Own the strategy, optimization, and performance of Sage’s customer advocacy portfolio, increasing customer participation, business impact, operational efficiency, and alignment to company growth goals. Position advocacy as a measurable growth lever supporting pipeline generation, customer proof, retention, and expansion opportunities. Partner with Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and Product to connect advocacy to broader customer journey and go-to-market priorities. Customer References Oversee the customer reference program, supporting strategic sales opportunities, revenue growth, priority industries, products, strategic accounts, and key business initiatives. Improve reference program processes, governance, reporting, scalability, and customer experience. Reviews, Referrals & Customer-Led Acquisition Lead review and referral programs across key industry platforms and communities, improving review quality, participation, engagement, visibility, customer acquisition, and pipeline generation. Partner with Demand Generation, Brand, and Product Marketing to amplify customer voices across campaigns, content, and market-facing initiatives. Customer Stories & Customer Proof Set the strategy and priorities for customer success stories, executive testimonials, case studies, videos, and thought leadership content. Ensure customer proof points support awareness, demand generation, sales enablement, customer retention, executive communications, and broader business use. Establish governance that increases the reach, quality, utilization, and business value of customer stories. Customer Engagement & Advocacy Experiences Lead customer advocacy events, advisory boards, executive roundtables, customer councils, and recognition programs. Build engagement programs that strengthen relationships, elevate strategic customer voices, and create meaningful advocacy opportunities. Partner with Customer Success, Product, and Executive stakeholders to identify and engage influential customers tied to key business objectives. Insights & Performance Establish KPIs across advocacy programs, including advocate engagement, review volume, referral contribution, reference utilization, advocacy-sourced pipeline, advocacy-influenced revenue, and retention impact. Analyze performance and participation trends to identify opportunities for optimization, scale, and increased business impact. Deliver executive-level reporting and insights that demonstrate advocacy value and inform future investment decisions. Benefits 100% paid premiums for health, dental, and vision coverage RRSP contribution match (100% up to 4%) 35 days paid time off (11 holidays, 16 vacation days, 3 personal days, 5 sick days) Work Away, an opportunity to work & play for 10 weeks in a country of your choice (from a Sage-approved list) 18 weeks of paid parental leave for birth, adoption, or surrogacy offered 1 year after your start date 5 days paid yearly to volunteer (through Sage Foundation) $5,250 tuition reimbursement per calendar year starting 6 months after your hire date Sage Wellness Rewards Program (annual fitness reimbursement) Library of on-demand career development options and ongoing training offerings Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Sage is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and/or mental disabilities. In order to provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals, employment decisions at Sage will be based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Sage does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. #J-18808-Ljbffr Sage