Director of Customer Success Management (Higher Ed /EdTech)

Department: Strategic Partnerships

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Various

Reporting To: Jennifer Albrecht, VP Partner Success

Compensation: $140,000 - $170,000 / year

Description

Riipen’s mission is big: eliminate underemployment. We believe we can do this by providing equitable access to project based learning opportunities to learners and earners across the world. To fulfill this mission, we need to be obsessed with how we are serving and growing our academic partnerships. 

Riipen is hiring a Director of Partner Relationship Management to help us get there. This individual will be a key member of the Partner Success leadership team, work closely with internal partners and customers on a day to day basis, and lead an existing team of Academic Account Managers (internally referred to as Partner Relationship Managers, or PRMs). 

This role is fully remote and open to candidates in Canada or the United States. 

Primary areas of ownership for this role:

1. Customer Retention
2. Renewals and Growth
3. People and Team Leadership
4. Account Ownership

Alignment for how we engage with and deliver value for our customers is critical for this leader to be successful. The right candidate is committed to:

• Having a deep understanding of customer use cases and how Riipen’s solution addresses those use cases
• Having a relentless focus on measuring customer outcomes to demonstrate Riipen’s value
• Being laser-focused on retention of existing accounts and users to unlock growth opportunities
• Modelling high standards for continuous improvement and excellence in how we deliver value to our customers

Key Responsibilities

Delivering on the primary areas of ownership will require you to:

• Develop and maintain expert level platform and product knowledge 
• Design and implement best practices for customer engagement to ensure optimal, predictable and growing adoption of the Riipen solution with existing and new users
• Own and monitor account health and implement repeatable adoption strategies, interventions and save plays
• Cultivate advocacy across Riipen customers in increasing references and co-created thought leadership 
• Maintain accurate renewal and expansion forecasts and pipelines
• Own a book of strategic customer accounts and model excellence for the team in your approaches to retain, renew and grow your accounts
• Recruit, retain and mentor high performing Partner Relationship Managers (Account Managers)
• Ensure the team is routinely sharing, iterating and optimizing best practices for relationship management
• Standardize repeatable renewal motions
• Identify and qualify cross-sell opportunities in partnership with sales
• Identify and execute customer upsell opportunities
• Provide coaching and guidance for negotiating customer renewals and upsells
• Act as a point of escalation for customer issues
• Champion operational standards for customer data management in our CRM
• Leverage best practices and innovative approaches in use of technology tools for customer engagement and supporting processes
• Advocate for customer needs within Riipen

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• 5+ years of experience in an account management role, ideally focused on account growth and expansion, either as an individual contributor or lead/manager;
• 3+ years of experience leading and managing a sales or account management team required;
• Experience in Ed-Tech or experience working in a SaaS organization;
• Experience and comfort forming deep relationships with customers over the phone, email, and in person;
• Excel working in a sales minded role, enabling the entire team to meet and exceed revenue targets through delivering exceptional, value add relationships with our accounts; 
• Have a data driven spirit; you understand metrics and KPI’s and this motivates you to achieve your goals;
• Have an entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy working in a fast-paced, start-up environment where change is necessary for growth and success;
• Possess strong problem-solving, organizational, and analytical skills;
• Embrace Riipen’s values and model resilience in your leadership style.

Bonus Points:

• Knowledge of or experience with project-based experiential learning; 
• Experience with HubSpot.

Benefits

• Remote/travel working opportunities (when appropriate)
• 4 weeks of annual vacation 
• Extended Health and Dental benefits from your first day for the duration of your contract
• 401K matching for US Riipen team members
• Work From Home Stipend and a Learning & Development fund after 6 months of employment

A note on compensation for the role: the range listed is in USD and CAD for candidates based in either geography, and is inclusive of variable compensation. All compensation is benchmarked internally and externally. Compensation offered is commensurate with experience and aligned with our pay equity practices.