VP of Customer Success, AMER at Upguard

Job description

WHO ARE WE? At UpGuard, we are replacing manual security bottlenecks with AI-driven precision. Fresh off a US$75M Series C, we are scaling our infrastructure to process 100 billion risk signals daily. This isn’t just growth; it’s a total reimagining of how the world manages cyber risk. We build the Cyber Risk Posture Management (CRPM) platform that security teams actually love. By integrating security ratings, threat intel, and agentic AI, we empower organisations to stay ahead of an ever evolving attack surface. We aren’t just building another tool; we’re defining a category. We provide the autonomy to ship world-class technology and the resources to do it at a global scale. WHY ARE WE HIRING FOR THIS ROLE? UpGuard is scaling toward $100M+ ARR, and the Americas is our largest region. We are hiring a Vice President of Customer Success to own the AMER customer base end to end and to build the operating model that carries it through that growth. You will report to the Global Vice President, Customer Success and lead an organization of two CSM Managers, a Digital CS Manager and their teams. Each CSM works in an account team with an Account Manager, and you will run that model with the AMER Account Management leader. You will be the senior post-sale leader for the region, accountable for gross and net retention. This is a builder's role. We need a leader who has already scaled a Customer Success organization through a comparable growth stage and has personally driven the implementation of a customer maturity framework and a value-based executive business review program. WHAT WILL YOU DO? Lead and scale the AMER Customer Success organization - Lead, coach and develop two CSM Managers and a Digital CS Manager, and through them 15 CSMs across the Principal, Senior and CSM levels and the Digital CS team - Own the AMER CS capacity model, including book sizing, segmentation, coverage ratios and the split between high-touch and digital coverage, and build the hiring plan that scales the team as ARR grows - Define career paths, leveling and performance standards across the CSM ladder, and run quarterly and annual performance reviews and compensation recommendations for your organization - Build a culture of accountability where every CSM knows the health, value delivered and renewal path of every account in their book Build and embed a customer maturity framework - Design and roll out a customer maturity framework that defines the stages a customer moves through, from initial adoption to fully embedded risk program, with clear entry criteria for each stage - Tie maturity stages to success plans, engagement motions and product adoption milestones so CSMs know the next best action for every account - Use maturity data to inform segmentation, health scoring, expansion targeting and the product roadmap Make value-based EBRs the standard - Establish a value-based executive business review program that quantifies risk reduction, efficiency gains and program outcomes for each customer's executive sponsor - Set the EBR cadence, template and quality bar by segment, and personally lead EBRs with the region's most strategic accounts - Use EBRs to multi-thread into the executive level, secure renewals early and surface expansion opportunities Turn customer signals into next best actions with AI - Build the system that takes customer signals, including product usage, health scores, Gong conversations, support activity and champion changes, and turns them into a prioritized next best action for each CSM - Use AI automation to run CS plays at scale, generate account insights and prepare CSMs and AMs for renewals, EBRs and expansion conversations - Measure which plays and actions move retention and expansion, and retire the ones that do not - Extend the same signal-to-action model to Digital CS so lower-touch accounts get timely, automated engagement Own retention and drive expansion - Own AMER GRR and NRR targets, with accountability for forecast accuracy on every renewal in the region from the CSM perspective - Drive the team to develop healthy, adopted customers, with clear adoption milestones and health targets for every book. - Make the team accountable for identifying upsell and growth opportunities and handing them to Account Management as CSQLs, with CSQL volume, conversion and pipeline value tracked as core CS metrics. - Run the CSM and and partner with AMER Account Management, jointly owning account plans, renewals, expansion and new product attach across the installed base - Run a disciplined at-risk process: early detection, documented save plans, executive escalation and post-mortems on every loss - Actively monitor customer satisfaction through NPS, CSAT and health data, and work with Product, Support and Engineering to close the gaps that drive churn Operate as a revenue executive - Define the KPIs, dashboards and operating cadence for the region, and present regular performance updates and executive summaries to revenue leadership - Partner with RevOps to improve CS tooling and data, including HubSpot, ChurnZero and Gong, so health, engagement and value metrics are reliable and actionable - Collaborate with CS leaders in APAC, EMEA and India to standardize global processes, playbooks and tooling - Represent the voice of the customer to Product and executive leadership, including through customer advisory boards WHAT WILL YOU BRING? - 12+ years in customer success, account management or post-sale leadership in B2B SaaS, including 5+ years leading managers of CSMs - A track record of scaling a Customer Success organization through a significant growth stage, including building the capacity model, hiring plan, segmentation and management layer - Hands-on experience designing and implementing a customer maturity framework, and evidence of how it changed retention, adoption or expansion outcomes - Hands-on experience building a value-based EBR or QBR program that executives on the customer side attend and act on - A system you have built that turns customer signals into next best actions for CSMs, using AI automation for CS plays and account insights, with results you can quantify - Experience with Customer Success platforms such as ChurnZero or Gainsight, and with HubSpot or Salesforce - Experience running high-touch and digital CS motions together - Experience running CSM and AM (or partnering with) account teams with shared accountability for renewal and expansion - Proven ownership of GRR and NRR for a book of $25M+ ARR, with measurable improvement during your tenure - Command of SaaS retention metrics, renewal forecasting and the data behind them; you are comfortable working directly in dashboards and data models - Executive presence with customers and internal leadership WHAT WILL GIVE YOU AN EDGE? - Experience in cybersecurity, risk management or GRC software - Experience building AI agents or LLM-based workflows for customer-facing teams - Experience running a unified CSM model that combines adoption and commercial accountability - Experience building customer advisory boards or advocacy programs - Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Cybersecurity or a related field WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU? - Monthly Lifestyle subsidy: Use this for financial, physical, and mental well-being - WFH set-up allowance: To ensure you have the right environment to work in, we will help you get set up within your first 3 months at UpGuard - $1500 USD annual Learning & Development allowance: To support your career development, all team members will be able to expense development opportunities against this allowance - Annual leave: PTO plus two additional UpGuardian leave days to give you time to recharge your batteries. - 18 weeks paid Parental Leave: Irrespective of parenting role - Personal Leave Allowance: This includes sick & carer’s leave - Fully remote working environment: While we have physical offices in Sydney & Hobart, we do not mandate compulsory attendance - Top-spec hardware: All team members will be provided with top-spec laptops for their role - Generative AI subsidy: UpGuard provides paid subscriptions for all team members to access generative AI tools to support their work UpGuard is a Certified Great Place to Work® in the US, Australia, UK and India, establishing its position as a leading global technology employer. 99% of team members agree that UpGuard is a great place to work! Apply now to find out why! As an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status. Please Note: Not all roles can be performed from the United States. Please check your specific job listing to confirm its advertised location. If the role you are applying for is listed as based in the US, we are currently only able to support hiring in the following locations: CA, CO, FL, IL, MA, MD, MO, OR, PA, TX, WA, and DC. Before starting work with us, you will need to undertake a national police history check and reference checks.

Requirements

Must-haves

We aren’t just building another tool; we’re defining a category. We provide the autonomy to ship world-class technology and the resources to do it at a global scale.
WHY ARE WE HIRING FOR THIS ROLE?
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Lead and scale the AMER Customer Success organization
Lead, coach and develop two CSM Managers and a Digital CS Manager, and through them 15 CSMs across the Principal, Senior and CSM levels and the Digital CS team
Own the AMER CS capacity model, including book sizing, segmentation, coverage ratios and the split between high-touch and digital coverage, and build the hiring plan that scales the team as ARR grows
Define career paths, leveling and performance standards across the CSM ladder, and run quarterly and annual performance reviews and compensation recommendations for your organization
Build a culture of accountability where every CSM knows the health, value delivered and renewal path of every account in their book
Build and embed a customer maturity framework
Design and roll out a customer maturity framework that defines the stages a customer moves through, from initial adoption to fully embedded risk program, with clear entry criteria for each stage
Tie maturity stages to success plans, engagement motions and product adoption milestones so CSMs know the next best action for every account
Use maturity data to inform segmentation, health scoring, expansion targeting and the product roadmap
Make value-based EBRs the standard
Establish a value-based executive business review program that quantifies risk reduction, efficiency gains and program outcomes for each customer's executive sponsor
Set the EBR cadence, template and quality bar by segment, and personally lead EBRs with the region's most strategic accounts
Use EBRs to multi-thread into the executive level, secure renewals early and surface expansion opportunities
Turn customer signals into next best actions with AI
Build the system that takes customer signals, including product usage, health scores, Gong conversations, support activity and champion changes, and turns them into a prioritized next best action for each CSM
Use AI automation to run CS plays at scale, generate account insights and prepare CSMs and AMs for renewals, EBRs and expansion conversations
Measure which plays and actions move retention and expansion, and retire the ones that do not
Extend the same signal-to-action model to Digital CS so lower-touch accounts get timely, automated engagement
Own retention and drive expansion
Own AMER GRR and NRR targets, with accountability for forecast accuracy on every renewal in the region from the CSM perspective
Drive the team to develop healthy, adopted customers, with clear adoption milestones and health targets for every book.

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Parental Leave