Customer Success Manager

About PowerSchoolAt PowerSchool, we power education for students around the world. As the global leader in cloud-based K-12 software, we support the full education ecosystem—from the central office to the classroom to the home. Joining PowerSchool means being part of a mission-driven team that is transforming K-12 education by helping schools operate more effectively and deliver better outcomes for educators, students, and families.

Our Success team ensures our partners in educational technology achieve their desired outcomes, serving as champions of our customers' needs. Through collaboration, strong relationships, and advocacy, the Success team positively impacts customer retention through proactive engagement and delivering excellence to our customers.

Description The Customer Success Manager is an expert in uncovering customer needs, risks, and opportunities through structured conversations and data-driven analysis. This role is responsible for ensuring customers achieve successful outcomes, driving proactive retention strategies, and partnering closely with internal teams to strengthen renewal readiness and expansion opportunities. 

This is an individual contributor role requiring strong critical thinking, influence without authority, and exceptional communication. 

Your day-to-day job will consist of: 

• Customer Discovery & Insight Development:  

• Lead deep‑dive investigative conversations with customer stakeholders to uncover goals, constraints, risks, and growth opportunities.  

• Connect qualitative input with usage trends, support patterns, and operational data to form actionable insights. 

• Value Orchestration & Retention Strategy:  

• Partner with cross-functional teams (Support, Services, Product, Sales, and State/Partner teams) to execute retention playbooks and accelerate issue resolution. 

• Ensure customers achieve measurable outcomes tied to renewal timelines and district priorities. 

• Adoption & Engagement Ownership:  

• Guide customers through structured adoption programs mapped to maturity and product footprint. 

• Identify and close adoption gaps, increase stakeholder engagement, and drive improvements in CSAT/NPS. 

• Risk Identification & Mitigation:  

• Continuously evaluate customer health through data signals and leadership engagement quality. 

• Proactively surface risks early and lead the creation of “Get to Green” plans with clear actions, owners, and success metrics. 

• Executive Alignment & Value Storytelling:  

• Co-lead Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) with Sales to communicate business outcomes, product value, risk posture, and forward-looking initiatives. 

• Growth & Expansion Partnership 

• Identify expansion signals through investigative discovery and usage insights. 

• Collaborate with Sales to build value‑based cases for expansion — Sales manages commercial negotiation; you provide insight and advocacy. 

• Forecasting & Reporting:  

• Maintain accurate health and risk forecasts that inform renewal readiness. 

• Deliver data-driven recommendations to leadership on trending risks, adoption gaps, and strategic opportunities. 

• Process Improvement & Change Agility 

• Contribute to refining scalable CSM processes and best practices. 

• Navigate ambiguity with structured thinking, clear prioritization, and outcome-driven decision-making. 

• Customer Advocacy:  

• Serve as a senior point of escalation for adoption, value, or experience challenges. 

• Advocate internally for durable solutions that strengthen long-term partnership. 

Qualifications 

Minimum Qualifications 

• Minimum of 2 years in Customer Success, Account Management, Consulting, or related roles in SaaS or technology-enabled environments. 

• Proven experience leading investigative customer conversations that reveal underlying needs, risks, and expansion opportunities. 

• Demonstrated ability to orchestrate cross-functional initiatives without direct authority. 

• Experience with health/risk forecasting, renewal readiness, and account planning. 

• Strong analytical and storytelling skills — ability to translate data into actionable insights. 
• Ability to travel regionally 30%-45%

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience with EdTech SaaS, K‑12 districts, public sector, or enterprise accounts. 

• Familiarity with renewal motions and value-based selling concepts; ability to craft outcome aligned narratives. 

• Experience with Salesforce CRM, Co-Pilot and other AI tools, and Customer Success platforms for health scoring, usage analysis, and risk management. 

Along with our highly market competitive base compensation, PowerSchool offers the following benefits:

• Comprehensive Insurance Coverage (including Medical, Dental, Vision, Pharmacy benefits, Life Insurance and AD&D)

• Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Accounts

• Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability

• Comprehensive 401(k) plan

• Generous Parental Leave

• Unrestricted paid time off (known as Discretionary Time Off - DTO)

• Wellness Program, including ClassPass & Employee Assistance Program

• Tuition Reimbursement

• Optional Benefits: Pet Insurance, Identity Theft Protection, Student Debt Repayment Program and Prepaid Legal coverage

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].