Vice President Customer Success

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is a company-defining leadership role. As VP of Customer Success at Black Kite, you own the CS capability in full: strategy, organization design, segmentation, resourcing, and executive representation. You are accountable for retention, expansion, and customer health outcomes at the company level, not for any single region or segment.

You’ll come in as a day-one leader with real infrastructure: a direct line to the Chief Operating Officer, two Senior Directors of Customer Success reporting to you, and established teams of CSMs underneath each of them. At Black Kite, our CSMs own the full customer lifecycle: onboarding, enablement, adoption, renewal, and shared responsibility for expansion. You’ll bring the strategic architecture to scale that model, defining how the team is structured, how accounts are tiered and engaged, and how success is measured, then building the leadership bench to execute against it. 

Black Kite is actively investing in AI across the business, and Customer Success is a core part of that strategy. We expect the VP of Customer Success to champion AI adoption within the team, embedding AI tools and workflows into how CSMs engage customers, manage health, and scale their impact day to day. This is not a future-state aspiration; it is a current organizational priority.

This is the right role if you’ve built and scaled a CS organization before, you lead with data and customer outcomes, and you’re ready to own a function and not just manage a team.

• A CS organization that is already operational across commercial and enterprise segments; your job is to scale it, not start from scratch
• A CSM model where your team owns the full customer lifecycle: onboarding, enablement, adoption, and renewal, with shared responsibility for expansion and no handoffs to separate post-sale functions
• A product that solves a board-level problem; third-party cyber risk is a regulatory and business imperative for the organizations we serve
• A seat at the executive table with direct influence over company-wide strategy and cross-functional priorities
• A leadership team that is data-driven, transparent, and actively investing in AI to scale how we work
• Competitive executive compensation with performance-based incentives tied to GDR, NDR, and company growth

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Strategy and Organization Design

• Define and own Black Kite’s company-wide CS strategy: tiering model, segmentation, engagement frameworks, and scaled program design across the full customer lifecycle
• Build and continuously refine the playbooks, milestones, and success metrics that govern how CSMs onboard, enable, drive adoption, and close renewals
• Set the long-term vision for how the CS organization grows as the customer base and company scale
• Own organization structure decisions, including how Team Lead and Director scope is defined across the function
• Hold final budget and headcount authority for the CS organization
• Lead the CS team’s AI adoption strategy; identify, evaluate, and embed AI tools into day-to-day CSM workflows to improve efficiency, customer engagement, and scalability across every stage of the lifecycle

Revenue and Customer Health

• Own company-wide retention (GDR) and expansion (NDR) outcomes; the function’s core business metrics
• Establish and enforce customer health-score methodology and early-warning systems across all segments and lifecycle stages
• Hold final escalation authority for the function, including strategic account risk and named-account escalations
• Ensure the CS team operates as a value function: onboarding sets the foundation for adoption, adoption drives renewal confidence, and renewal conversations surface value-creation opportunities

Leadership and Talent Development

• Directly manage two Senior Directors of Customer Success, each leading their own team of CSMs and team leads across a defined scope of the organization
• Own the organization-wide talent strategy for CS
• Coach and calibrate senior CS leaders across scopes; build succession depth at every level of the management track
• Set the standard for how CS leaders develop, evaluate, and grow their own teams
• Model and reinforce a culture of AI fluency across the CS organization; set expectations that AI tools are part of how the team works, not optional add-ons

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Represent CS at the executive and leadership team level in company-wide planning, board-adjacent conversations, and external forums
• Serve as the strategic counterpart to Sales, Product, Marketing, and Finance on initiatives that touch the customer lifecycle
• Own the CS function’s contribution to product feedback loops, expansion pipeline, and customer advocacy programs
• Partner with Product and Engineering on how Black Kite’s own AI capabilities translate into customer outcomes and CS talking points

WHAT YOU BRING

• 10+ years of progressive Customer Success leadership experience in B2B SaaS, with at least 3 to 5 years owning a CS function at the VP level or equivalent
• Demonstrated track record of owning and improving NDR and GDR at scale; you can point to specific outcomes, not just programs
• Deep experience leading a full lifecycle CSM model: onboarding, enablement, adoption, expansion, and renewal owned by a single team without handoffs to separate post-sale functions
• Deep experience designing CS organization structures, tiering models, and segmentation frameworks for a growing SaaS business
• Proven ability to build and develop a multi-layer management team; you’ve grown Directors and Sr. Directors, not just individual contributors
• Strong cross-functional leadership: credible and effective partner to Sales, Product, Marketing, and Finance executives
• Executive presence and communication skills; comfortable representing the function to a board, a C-suite, or a strategic customer
• Financial acumen across CS unit economics: NDR, GDR, CAC payback, and expansion margin
• Data-driven decision maker; you set metrics, build dashboards, and hold the organization accountable to outcomes
• Demonstrated comfort with AI tools in a professional context; you use AI in your own workflow and have experience driving adoption across a team
• Experience in cybersecurity, risk management, compliance, or a technically complex SaaS environment is a strong plus

The expected total compensation range for this role is $300,000–$320,000 (base pay + variable), commensurate with demonstrated skills and experience. Compensation at Black Kite extends well beyond base pay — our total rewards program includes performance-based bonuses, equity, flexible healthcare options, paid time off, and retirement savings. This range reflects a nationwide market spectrum and will vary based on qualifications, role scope, complexity, and location.