Sr. Customer Success Manager

At Instructure, we believe in the power of people to grow and succeed throughout their lives. Our goal is to amplify that power by creating intuitive products that simplify learning and personal development, facilitate meaningful relationships, and inspire people to go further in their education and careers.

We're looking for an experienced Sr. Customer Success Manager to drive retention and growth of our customers through targeted customer engagements, deep relationship building, and expanding our scope of influence across a district or account.

As a Sr. Customer Success Manager you will own a book of business of approximately 30–35 K12 accounts, representing about $3 million in annual recurring revenue. You'll manage complex, multi-stakeholder customer relationships from the district level up through the superintendent's office, and you'll take the lead on retention, expansion, and market growth across your territory.

This role goes beyond managing individual accounts. You'll drive cross-functional alignment across Sales, Renewals, Product, and Support, lead executive-level conversations, and mentor other customer success managers as you help build a stronger team.

What you'll do:

• Own territory and account plans for your book of K12 customers, anticipating risk early and driving internal alignment to keep outcomes on track.

• Lead complex, multi-stakeholder account motions, balancing competing priorities and influencing alignment across Sales, Renewals, Product, and Support.

• Build executive-ready narratives for QBRs and EBRs, align stakeholders, anticipate objections, and secure commitments that move accounts forward.

• Develop multi-threaded relationships that earn trusted-advisor status, and expand executive access within your accounts.

• Convert customer value into advocacy through references, case studies, and EBR stories, while managing political risk within the account.

• Partner cross-functionally to refine handoffs and lifecycle processes, and lead process improvements that reduce friction for customers and internal teams alike.

• Connect product capabilities to customer outcomes, advise on adoption paths, and flag integration needs and risks before they become problems.

• Own renewal strategy and forecast accuracy for your book of business; run risk reviews and tie value to business outcomes to protect retention.

• Track account health, pipeline, and customer engagement in Gainsight, Salesforce, and Gong.

• Build account-level expansion plans, quantify ROI, and advance opportunities with Sales to close.

• Mentor other customer success managers, model best practices, and contribute to onboarding and enablement across the team.

• Take on stretch projects that support your customers and the broader customer success team.

• Act as the voice of the customer, sharing insights and challenges with Instructure's product and strategy teams.

What you'll need to know/have:

• A bachelor's degree, or four or more years of account management experience.

• A proven track record of understanding customer goals and partnering with customers to achieve them.

• Experience managing renewal retention, pipeline generation, and non-recurring revenue against a quota.

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to executives.

• Experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder relationships and navigating organizational change.

• The ability to set clear expectations and manage issues through to completion.

• The ability to multitask and reprioritize as circumstances change.

• A customer-facing background in the software industry.

• Experience with CRM and customer success platforms such as Gainsight, Salesforce, or Gong is a plus.

• A strong team mentality and a track record of mentoring or coaching peers.

• Strong problem-solving skills and a bias toward finding solutions.