Senior Customer Success Manager

Overview

 

Role Overview  

 

The Customer Success Manager (CSM) is responsible for ensuring customers realize and sustain measurable value from their PowerSchool investment. This role goes beyond relationship management and adoption support to focus on outcome alignment, value realization, renewal readiness, and long-term partnership growth. The CSM serves as a trusted advisor, value orchestrator, and internal quarterback - aligning customers’ strategic goals with PowerSchool’s solutions and cross-functional capabilities. 

Responsibilities

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  

Value Definition & Planning 

• Partner with customers and the Account Team to clearly define desired outcomes, success criteria, and value metrics aligned to district goals, and strategic initiatives. 

Value Orchestration & Delivery 

• Orchestrate cross-functional teams (Support, Professional Services/EIC, Product, Sales, State/Alliance teams) to ensure timely issue resolution, adoption progress, and value delivery. 

• Lead structured adoption programs tailored to customer maturity, product footprint, and implementation stage. 

• Proactively identify adoption gaps, usage trends, and risks, and coordinate get to green plans with internal stakeholders. 

Value Sustainment & Relationship Health 

• In close partnership with Sales, co-lead Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) focused on value delivered, usage insights, customer health, risks, and forward-looking initiatives. 

• Forecast customer health and risk of attrition using usage data, support trends, stakeholder engagement, and sentiment. 

• Act as a strong customer advocate, providing actionable insights and feedback to influence product and service improvements. 

Renewal Readiness & Growth Enablement 

• Drive renewal readiness by ensuring accurate health signals, documented value realization, clear risks, and mitigation plans in advance of renewal cycles. 

• Strategize renewals in close partnership with Sales, supporting retention through value-based narratives. 

• Surface, shape, and support expansion opportunities through insight-led conversations, adoption analysis, and unmet needs identification, with Sales owning commercial execution. 

Operational Excellence & Governance 

• Maintain disciplined CRM and/ OR Customer Success Platform (CSP) hygiene for customer health, contacts, activities, adoption status, risks, and next steps. 

• Lead internal risk and account reviews to improve relationship health, reduce escalations, and accelerate issue resolution. 

 

What Success Looks Like 

You are successful in this role when: 

• Customers consistently reach or exceed adoption, usage, and value-realization goals across their PowerSchool solution footprint. 

• Customer health scores trend positively, with reduced risk, engaged executive sponsors, and strong alignment to district outcomes. 

• Renewal readiness is consistently achieved, with early risk identification, accurate health forecasting, and compelling value documentation provided to the account team. 

• Expansion opportunities are proactively identified and progressed through value-based insights and partnership with Sales. 

• Cross-functional workflows operate efficiently, with decreasing escalations, aging issues, and reactive fire drills. 

• Customer Success Plans and EBRs are current, delivered on time, and aligned with product roadmaps and district initiatives. 

• CRM/CSP data is accurate, complete, and ready for inspection at any time. 

Qualifications

Required Qualifications 

To be considered for and to perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty and responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Knowledge 

• Strong understanding of Customer Success principles, including value realization, adoption management, customer health, and lifecycle management in a SaaS environment. 

• Experience working within complex, multi-stakeholder customer organizations, preferably in K–12, public sector, or enterprise environments. 

• Familiarity with renewal motions, value-based selling concepts, and expansion enablement in partnership with Sales. 

• Working knowledge of CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce) and customer success tools for health scoring, usage analysis, and risk management. 

Skills 

• Ability to define, articulate, and measure customer value, translating product capabilities into customer outcomes. 

• Strong orchestration and influence skills to align cross-functional teams (Sales, Support, Services, Product) without direct authority. 

• Executive-level communication and presentation skills, including leading value-focused QBRs/EBRs and strategic planning discussions. 

• Analytical skills to interpret usage data, support trends, and sentiment signals to proactively identify risk and opportunity. 

• Strong planning and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple strategic accounts and priorities simultaneously. 

• Clear, disciplined documentation and CRM hygiene practices. 

Abilities 

• Ability to build trust-based relationships with executive sponsors and day-to-day stakeholders. 

• Ability to anticipate customer needs, identify gaps, and proactively drive action. 

• Ability to navigate ambiguity and operate effectively in a fast-paced, evolving environment. 

• Ability to balance customer advocacy with company objectives and commercial realities. 

• Ability to collaborate effectively across teams and adapt communication style to varied audiences. 

Experience & Education 

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience required. 

• 5+ years of experience in Customer Success, Account Management, Consulting, or a related customer-facing role in a SaaS or technology-enabled environment. 

• Experience managing renewals, strategic accounts, and executive stakeholders strongly preferred.  

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation & Benefits

PowerSchool Canada offers the following:

• Comprehensive Benefits Plan (including Health, Dental, Vision, EAP, Life Insurance, AD&D, STD and LTD)
• Pension plan (with employer matching options) + additional RRSP plan
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Paid Community and Volunteer Time Off
• Health & Wellness Programs
• Tuition and Professional Development reimbursement

A reasonable estimate of the base compensation range for this position is $84,600 - $105,800 CAD. This compensation range is specific to Canada and it incorporates many factors including but not limited to an applicant's skills and prior relevant experience and training; licensures, degrees, and certifications; internal equity; internal pay ranges; and market data/range parameters.

EEO Commitment

EEO Commitment

PowerSchool is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. PowerSchool is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. Our inclusive culture empowers PowerSchoolers to deliver the best results for our customers. We not only celebrate the diversity of our workforce, we celebrate the diverse ways we work. If you have a disability and need an accommodation regarding our recruiting process, please let us know by emailing [email protected].