VP Customer Success

Career Guide

A VP of Customer Success leads the strategy and teams that help customers achieve results with a company’s product or service. The role focuses on retention, renewals, expansion revenue, and improving the overall customer experience by aligning onboarding, support partnerships, and ongoing value delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Set the customer success strategy and operating model
Lead and develop customer success managers and team leaders
Own retention performance and renewal forecasting
Drive customer expansion and upsell programs in partnership with sales
Establish onboarding standards and time to value targets
Create customer health scoring and risk management processes
Build executive relationships with key customer stakeholders
Run customer business reviews and success planning
Partner with product on customer feedback and roadmap priorities
Improve customer journey consistency across touchpoints
Define team goals, roles, and capacity planning
Manage budgets, tooling, and vendor relationships
Report performance metrics to executive leadership

Top Skills for Success

Leadership

Coaching

Stakeholder Management

Executive Communication

Negotiation

Customer Empathy

Strategic Planning

Change Management

Metrics Management

Renewal Management

Expansion Strategy

Customer Journey Design

Onboarding Design

Escalation Management

Risk Management

Forecasting

Customer Success Operations

Voice of Customer Program Management

Subscription Business Knowledge

Sales Partnership

Career Progression

Can Lead To

Chief Customer Officer

SVP Customer Success

Chief Revenue Officer

VP Revenue Operations

VP Client Services

Transition Opportunities

VP Sales

VP Account Management

VP Product

General Manager

Head of Partnerships

Common Skill Gaps

Often Missing Skills

Renewal ForecastingCustomer Health ScoringCustomer Success OperationsExecutive StorytellingCompensation DesignCross Functional Operating CadenceExpansion Program Design

Development SuggestionsStrengthen forecasting by standardizing renewal stages and inputs. Build a simple customer health model that blends product usage, support signals, and business outcomes. Create a weekly operating rhythm with sales, support, and product. Practice executive updates that tie customer outcomes to revenue impact. Learn compensation basics to align incentives with retention and expansion.

Salary & Demand

Median Salary Range

Entry LevelRare title at entry level. Typical total pay equivalent is 170000 to 240000 USD

Mid LevelBase salary 180000 to 250000 USD with total compensation 250000 to 400000 USD

Senior LevelBase salary 230000 to 320000 USD with total compensation 350000 to 600000 USD

Growth Trend

Stable to growing demand, especially in subscription and service businesses where renewals and retention drive revenue. Hiring increases when companies prioritize efficiency and net revenue retention.

Companies Hiring

Major Employers

SalesforceMicrosoftAdobeHubSpotServiceNowZendeskAtlassianWorkdaySnowflakeDatadogStripeShopify

Industry Sectors

Software as a ServiceCloud ServicesFinancial TechnologyEcommerceCybersecurityData and AnalyticsHealthcare TechnologyBusiness ServicesTelecommunications

Recommended Next Steps

Create a one page customer success strategy with goals, metrics, and team structure

Audit churn drivers and define a top five risk playbook

Implement a renewal forecast process and review cadence

Define customer journey stages and success milestones

Build a customer health score and validate it against churn history

Partner with sales on a clear account ownership and handoff model

Establish quarterly executive business reviews for top accounts

Set up a voice of customer loop with product and support

Benchmark compensation and roles against market standards

Create a leadership development plan for managers and high potential team members