Director of Customer Success, Scaled Strategy

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 do this by giving smart, creative, passionate people opportunities to create awesome. And that's where you come in: We are seeking a Director of Customer Success, Scaled Strategy to lead our NORAM scaled Customer Success team, to define how we partner with our scaled and digital customers worldwide, and to own how we reach every customer at scale. This is a new role. The managers and teams serving scaled customers sit in business units today, and part of your job is bringing them together into one team with one strategy, aligning to one customer experience vision. Our scaled customers are the largest part of our base by count, and personalization often gets lost in the scaled approach. We also rely on every CSM, including the ones covering our highest ARR customers, to write and send their own outreach for company initiatives and standard lifecycle moments. That’s where you come in. You'll own the strategy across our full Scaled and Digital customer base, and drive the strategy of our 1:many outreach for our entire global customer base, across every segment, region, and business unit. You will partner closely with the Director of Customer Success, Digital to design this strategy, leveraging AI and automation to deliver at scale. You'll also sit on the strategy leadership team as one of the architects of the Global Customer Success strategy, which means the model you build has to work everywhere, not only in North America. WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING: Building and leading the NORAM scaled Customer Success team: - Align a new team from managers and Customer Success professionals who sit in business units today, and run the transition so customers see continuity rather than a reorganization. - Lead a team of Managers who own the scaled segments, coaching them to upskill and grow their teams. - Own hiring, onboarding, performance, career development, and succession planning for the team, and build a bench that can absorb growth. - Set the coaching standard for scaled work: what good looks like in a persona-based plan, a 1:many engagement, a risk signal, and a value conversation that happens at volume. - Design the organization: headcount, team structures, coverage ratios, and reporting lines that fit the strategy. - Hold a consistent operating rhythm that keeps managers accountable and connects a team drawn from several business units. - Partner with Sales and the Renewals team on forecast, renewal execution, and expansion across a book measured in thousands of accounts rather than dozens. Architecting the Global Customer Success strategy: - Sit on the strategy leadership team as one of the architects of the Global Customer Success strategy, and own the scaled perspective in every decision it makes. - Make sure the foundational strategy holds across dedicated and scaled relationships even though the activities look different, so we have one approach rather than two. - Partner with the Customer Success Strategy team on plays, playbooks, value frameworks, and enablement built for scaled delivery from the start. - Collaborate with Customer Success leaders across regions and business units to keep the approach consistent where it should be and different where it needs to be. - Define what good looks like globally for scaled coverage, including expectations and accountability frameworks. - Own the OKRs for the Customer Success organization, in partnership with other Customer Success leaders. Setting the global Scaled and Digital strategy: - Define how Instructure partners with the entire scaled and digital customer base, and own that strategy end to end. - Partner with the Director of Customer Success, Digital, who owns digital execution and feeds into this strategy. One customer base, one journey, two motions. - Design how we operate across the scaled customer journey: what happens synchronously and what happens asynchronously, where a person is required and where a program serves the customer better, and what the handoffs look like as a customer moves between dedicated, scaled, and digital coverage. - Build persona-based plans and 1:many programs that deliver real value realization, so scaled customers get a partnership rather than a lighter version of one. - Use AI and automation to multiply what a small team can cover, ensuring alignment with current company policies. - Build the model so it works across every region and business unit, and pressure-test it with regional leaders before it ships rather than after. Owning 1:many outreach for every customer: - Own how Customer Success reaches customers at scale across the entire global base, for every product, in every segment, region, and business unit. - Take company initiative communications and standard lifecycle communications off CSMs, so the CSMs covering our highest ARR customers spend their time on deep value realization rather than writing their own outreach. - Design lifecycle communications tied to the customer journey: onboarding, adoption milestones, release moments, renewal runway, and risk signals. - Own the calendar and the governance behind it. Decide who sends what, to whom, and when, so a customer receives a coherent sequence rather than five teams landing in the same inbox in the same week. - Partner with Marketing, Product Marketing, Communications, and Enablement so Customer Success outreach fits the wider customer communication plan instead of competing with it. - Account for regional and segment differences in language, regulations, and academic calendars, so the right message lands at the right time. - Give CSMs a way to personalize or hold an account back when the relationship calls for it, and make the default path good enough that they rarely need to. - Measure what you send: reach, engagement, whether it moved adoption, and how much CSM time it gave back. Retire what does not earn its place. Delivering retention and growth across the scaled and digital customer base: - Work in cohorts, not accounts: find the patterns that predict risk and expansion at volume, and aim the team's effort where it changes the number. - Define what the scaled team needs from adoption analytics and partner with CX Ops to get it built. - Report on the health of the scaled base in terms leadership can act on, and bring data-driven business cases when the model needs investment. HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW/HAVE: Successful candidates will have the following education, experience, and skills: - Experience designing and running a scaled, pooled, or digital Customer Success model at volume, and evidence that it delivered outcomes rather than just coverage. - A track record of leading managers, not only individual contributors, and growing leaders who decide without you. - Experience standing up a new team or centralizing a function out of business units, including the transition work that protects customers while it happens. - Experience building team structures, coverage models, and segmentation that fit a strategy, and making the case for changing them. - Strong leadership presence with both customers and internal executives, including the ability to influence decisions without formal authority. - Experience holding retention and bookings targets across a large portfolio, and the analytical judgment to work in cohorts rather than account by account. - Experience designing customer journeys and 1:many programs, including the handoffs between human and digital coverage. - Using AI to fundamentally change how teams operate. - Strong analytical skills, with the ability to work in Gainsight, Salesforce, product analytics, and reporting tools to turn data into a decision. - Experience building initiatives that work in every region rather than only your own. - Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate customer detail into business impact for executives. - A calm, decisive presence under pressure, with the judgment to manage ambiguous, high-stakes situations across multiple stakeholders at once. - Willingness to travel to customer sites, conferences, and team onsites. - A bachelor's degree or equivalent experience. Get in on all the awesome at Instructure! We offer competitive, meaningful benefits in every country where we operate. While they vary by location, here's a general idea of what you can expect: - Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success. - Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location. - Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs. - Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support - Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth - The technology and tools you need to do your best work - Motivosity employee recognition program - A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection We believe in hiring great people and treating them right. The more diverse we are, the better our ideas and outcomes. Instructure is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We comply with applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws in every country where we operate. All employees must pass a background check as part of the hiring process. To help protect our teams and systems, we’ve implemented identity verification measures. Candidates may be asked to verify their legal name, current physical location, and provide a valid contact number and residential address, in accordance with local data privacy laws. Any attempt to misrepresent personal or professional information will result in disqualification.