Vice President, Customer Success

Elsevier • Full-time • Remote (Remote from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) • $136,100 - $303,300 / year • 2h ago

Fast Facts

Join Elsevier as the Vice President of Customer Success, where you’ll shape customer experiences for top academic and government institutions in the Americas while leading a global transformation in post-sales operations.

Responsibilities: Drive strategic leadership in customer success, oversee team development, enhance customer retention strategies, and lead operational excellence initiatives to improve customer experience.

Skills: Proven track record in SaaS customer success, senior executive management, strategic thinking, excellent communication, and data-driven decision-making skills are essential.

Qualifications: 12+ years in customer success leadership and experience managing global teams; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Location: This is a home-based position in Philadelphia, PA, with potential for remote work across the USA.

Compensation: $136100 - $303300 / Annually

Do you enjoy shaping the customer experience for some of the most influential academic and government institutions across the Americas—while leading a large‑scale transformation with global visibility?

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a global information analytics company that helps institutions and professionals progress science, advance healthcare, and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. We serve the research, academic, and clinical communities by applying technology and analytics to content — enabling social progress and expanding the breadth of human progress.

About the Role

As Vice President of Customer Success for the Academic & Government (A&G) organization in the Americas you will be at the forefront of scaling and optimizing our global post-sales organization. This is a highly visible, strategic leadership role that will shape and drive customer experience across onboarding, adoption, retention, expansion, and advocacy.

This role is part of the senior A&G leadership team and reports to the SVP of Customer Success. The VP will partner closely with stakeholders across Product, Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Technology. You will lead transformational initiatives, mentor and develop a world-class team, and serve as a key succession candidate for broader executive leadership within Elsevier.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Organizational Scale

• Review existing processes and continue to iterate and implement a customer success strategy focused on CSM contributions to value realization, renewals, and growth.

• Advance the organization toward a tech-enabled, solutions-focused model inspired by best practices in the technology industry.

• Evolve the current structure into a mature, scalable operating model for a global Customer Success organization.

• Serve as a thought partner to the SVP and senior leadership, contributing to the long[1]term roadmap for Customer Success at Elsevier.

Team Development

• Lead and inspire a high-performing team of regional leaders and their organizations; provide mentorship, performance management, and professional growth paths.

• Foster a strong culture of accountability, innovation, and customer-centricity.

• Oversee organizational change management to support scale, role clarity, and performance optimization. Customer Retention, Growth & Advocacy

• Partner with Sales, Marketing and Product leaders to drive engagement strategies that reduce churn, increase renewal rates, and expand customer footprint.

• Ensure teams build strategic relationships with institutional customers, functioning as trusted advisors to product champions, senior academic and government stakeholders.

• Drive customer advocacy, NPS, and customer health metrics through data-informed decision-making and proactive engagement strategies. Operational Excellence & Enablement

• Lead and contribute to cross-functional initiatives in CSM enablement, Operations, Success Planning, and Customer Impact Management

• Champion the development of tooling, dashboards, and processes to measure customer success outcomes globally.

• Use metrics, analytics, and feedback loops to continuously refine engagement strategy and customer experience across regions.

Qualifications

• Proven track record (12+ years) in SaaS customer success, post-sales, or professional services leadership, including global, matrixed team management.

• Minimum of 5 years in a senior executive role (VP or equivalent) managing regional or global CS organizations.

• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale customer success/engagement teams and managing managers/leaders in a high-growth SaaS environment.

• Demonstrated success driving renewals and expansion in a B2B SaaS or analytics[1]driven environment, ideally within academic, scientific, or governmental sectors.

• Excellent executive presence, influencing, and communication skills — comfortable engaging at the C-level internally and externally.

• Strategic systems thinker with a data-driven approach to decision-making, operational design, and leadership.

• Deep knowledge of customer success best practices, digital engagement models, and success platforms (Gainsight, Salesforce)

• Technology-forward mindset with fluency in CS platforms and automation tools; able to collaborate with Product and Engineering on data-driven solutions.

• Experience operating effectively within an international, matrixed organization.

• MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Why Join Us

This is a pivotal role at a transformative moment in Elsevier’s evolution. You’ll join a newly formed, high-impact team charged with building a best-in-class customer success function. With strong support from senior leadership, a global customer base, and an ambitious roadmap ahead, you’ll play a central role in defining the next era of value delivery — and potentially help lead that future as a successor to the SVP role.

We promote a healthy work/life balance and provide various well-being initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance, and sabbaticals to help you meet both your immediate responsibilities and long-term goals.

U.S. National Base Pay Range: $136,100 - $252,800. Geographic differentials may apply in some locations to better reflect local market rates. Base Pay Range for CO is $136,100 - $252,800. Base Pay Range for IL is $142,900 - $265,400. Base Pay Range for Chicago, IL is $149,600 - $278,100. Base Pay Range for MD is $142,900 - $265,400. Base Pay Range for NY is $149,600 - $278,100. Base Pay Range for New York City is $163,300 - $303,300. Base Pay Range for Rochester, NY is $136,100 - $252,800. Base Pay Range for OH is $129,200 - $240,100. Base Pay Range for NJ is $172,172- $275,028. This job is eligible for an annual incentive bonus. Application deadline is 03/27/2026.

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