Director of Customer Success
Posted Updated
Description
- Instacart’s Enterprise Solutions team partners with North America’s largest grocery and retail chains to power their digital commerce through StorefrontPro, the Enterprise API (Fulfillment and Ads), CarrotAds, and adjacent software products
- We’re seeking a Director, Customer Success to lead the commercial Retailer Success organization — accountable for post-live growth, retention, and expansion across the enterprise software portfolio
- In this highly visible role, you will lead a team of senior managers, Account Growth Managers (AGMs), and L7 Principal Growth Strategists who serve as the strategic and commercial face of Instacart to retailer executives
- You’ll own the outcomes that matter: net revenue retention (NRR), gross revenue retention (GRR), expansion GTV, adoption velocity, and CSAT
- You’ll partner closely with Business Development on commercial leadership, with the Sr Director on portfolio-level strategy, with the Director of Enterprise Architecture & Engineering (the technical CS / PSM function) on shared accounts, and with Product on retailer signal and roadmap adoption
- This is a roll-up-your-sleeves leadership opportunity for someone who has personally led the transformation of CS from reactive enablement toward proactive business advisory, can hire and develop senior consultative talent, and thrives in a fast-paced, BD-led commercial environment with shared standards rather than rigid process
- The role reports to the Senior Director, Enterprise Delivery and Growth, and is remote across the United States and Canada with a preference for proximity to Toronto for key cross-functional collaboration
- Lead the Retailer Success organization for the enterprise software portfolio — owning commercial CS outcomes end to end, including NRR, GRR, expansion GTV, adoption velocity, CSAT, and renewal performance
- Build and develop a senior consultative CS bench by hiring, sponsoring, and ramping L7 Principal Growth Strategists who engage retailer executives on ecommerce strategy, merchandising, and operations — not platform configuration — and who can credibly influence retailer P&L outcomes and roadmap adoption
- Manage senior managers leading AGM (Account Growth Manager) pods, setting standards for what good looks like across the L7, AGM, and account team layers — including QBR quality, growth planning, executive engagement, and renewal execution
- Operate in a BD-led commercial environment as a true commercial peer to BD — preserving BD’s ownership of the primary commercial relationship while owning post-sale accountability and surfacing churn, expansion, and escalation signal early and clearly
- Partner with the Director of Enterprise Architecture & Engineering on shared-account coordination — ensuring the cross-org account team (commercial CS + technical CS / PSM) functions as one team to the retailer despite the org split, with co-authored protocols and clean escalation paths
- Define and enforce the L7 boundary: L7s as routers and strategists, not resolvers — ensuring AGMs and PSMs absorb operational and technical execution so L7 capacity remains focused on retailer-executive engagement and growth strategy
- Own the consultative transformation roadmap — talent strategy, comp structure, operating cadence, and tooling shifts required to evolve CS from a feature-enablement function into a strategic business advisory function for Tier A and B accounts
- Partner with the Director of Retailer Delivery on the implementation-to-success motion as a managed lifecycle (not a document handoff) — ensuring CS is engaged early, named handoff criteria are met, and accounts transition cleanly into early-lifecycle growth ownership
- Operationalize the tier model in CS — applying high-touch (L7 + AGM + PSM) coverage for Tier A/B and scaled/digital-first models for Tier C/D, with clear exception protocols and capacity guardrails
- Build a structured retailer-signal feedback loop into Product — using CS engagements to surface durable patterns (not anecdotes), instrument adoption of roadmap items, and hold CS accountable for adoption outcomes
- Apply AI augmentation to scale CS coverage and quality without linear headcount growth — including health monitoring, account-prep automation, QBR/insight generation, and signal triage — partnering with the Technical org on tooling roadmap and adoption
- Represent the post-sale narrative for the portfolio to senior leadership — integrating retention, growth, churn risk, executive-account temperature, and pipeline outlook — and serve as the Director-level escalation point for retailer relationships when AGM-led engagement is insufficient
- Hands-on experience hiring senior consultative talent — Principal CS, Strategy, or equivalent — with a clear point of view on profile, comp, and ramp
- Track record of managing managers (M2/Senior Manager layer), with demonstrated ability to set standards and develop senior leaders without micromanagement
- Demonstrated executive presence with enterprise customer counterparts (VP / SVP / C-level), including the ability to deliver hard news, navigate escalations, and rebuild trust after issues
- 8+ years of enterprise customer success, account management, or post-sale leadership at a B2B SaaS or enterprise technology company
- Strong working knowledge of the implementation-to-success seam — how delivery and CS hand off (or, ideally, run in parallel) on the same accounts, and what breaks when they don’t
- Ownership of a CS book or post-sale P&L of meaningful scale (e.g., $50M+ ARR) with documented outcomes on NRR, GRR, or expansion
- Experience designing and operating tiered CS coverage models (high-touch for strategic accounts, scaled/digital for the long tail), including capacity planning and exception handling
- Direct, accountable leadership of a customer success organization responsible for post-live growth, NRR, and expansion — owning the number, not just contributing to it
- Proven success operating in a BD- or Sales-led commercial environment — clear instinct for where the CS lane begins and ends, comfort with shared standards rather than rigid RACI/process
- Experience transforming a CS function from reactive enablement into proactive business advisory, including the talent, comp, operating-model, and tooling changes required (not a renaming exercise)
- Track record of building or scaling Principal-level / strategist roles inside a CS org — including hiring profile, ramp, comp design, and integration with the rest of the account team
- Experience operating with a separate technical CS / PSM / TAM function on shared enterprise accounts — including co-authoring cross-org protocols and managing escalations across an org boundary
- Background applying AI to CS workflows — health monitoring, account preparation, QBR generation, signal triage — with measurable impact on coverage, throughput, or quality
- Familiarity with the BD/CS interface in commercially complex enterprise sales motions, including renewals, multi-product expansion, and shared-account operating norms
- Deep familiarity with enterprise retail, grocery, ecommerce platforms, retail media, or adjacent complex B2B domains — including how large retailers evaluate, adopt, and scale technology solutions
- Experience instrumenting retailer signal into structured product feedback (not anecdotal) and partnering with Product leaders on adoption accountability