Client Success Manager

Norstella; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical & Prescription Drug Benefits

Health Savings Account (HSA) / FSA

Dental & Vision Benefits

Company 401k with Match

Paid Parental Leave

Paid Time Off & Holidays

Job summary

Norstella is seeking a high-energy CSM/AM to own the full commercial lifecycle for a portfolio of existing customers in a dynamic pharma marketplace.

You will lead health, adoption, renewals, and expansions, coordinating Sales, Product, Strategy, and Legal while leveraging AI to boost efficiency and client outcomes.

Qualifications

• 4–8 years in CS, Account Management, or a combination of both.
• Proven track record carrying and hitting an individual quota, including closing and negotiating renewals and expansion across multi-stakeholder contracts.
• Commercially fluent: comfortable with pricing, contract terms, legal redlines, and revenue math.

Responsibilities

• Lead and close your own renewals, including multi-year deals.
• Negotiate commercial terms and contract structures, including with Procurement, partnering with Legal on redlines and T&Cs
• Build business cases for expansion with your champions
• Partner with Sales on joint account strategy, handoffs, and expansion plays
• Run executive QBRs and maintain account plans for your top accounts, refreshed monthly

Skills

Quota carrier

Account Management

Negotiation

Pricing & terms

AI in workflow

Relationship management

Tools

Gainsight

Job description

Description

Job Description CSM/AM

Job Description

CSM/AM

Individual contributor

• Quota carrier
• Full-time

Reporting line: VP, Customer Success & Revenue

THE ROLE

This is not your typical CSM/AM role. You own the full commercial lifecycle of a book of existing customers; from health and adoption all the way through negotiation, renewal, and expansion, across a complex product suite sold into a pharma marketplace that is itself complex and changing fast. You own the account relationship post-sale, freeing up our sellers to focus on selling additional bookings. You are equal parts relationship builder, deal closer, and operator.

You bring the instincts of a great account manager, the commercial edge of a closer, and the mindset of a CSM. You think of yourself as conducting the orchestra across your accounts; coordinating Sales, Product, Strategy, and Legal around the customer. You are energised by using AI to make yourself and your clients more effective, because AI is going to reshape this function & we are hiring people who want to be part of figuring this out.

What success looks like in your first 12 months

• You own the renewal and expansion forecast for your book, and it's accurate.
• You hit your NRR and GRR targets, including expansion & multi-year renewals.
• You've changed at least one thing about how you work that moved a metric; a new use of AI in your workflow, a sharper account plan, a better QBR motion.

What You Own

• Revenue accountability for your book
• Net Revenue Retention
• Gross Retention
• Expansion ARR
• Renewal Rate
• Contraction & Churn
• Upsell Pipeline

Responsibilities

Commercial execution

• Lead and close your own renewals, including multi-year deals
• Negotiate commercial terms and contract structures, including with Procurement, partnering with Legal on redlines and T&Cs
• Build business cases for expansion with your champions
• Partner with Sales on joint account strategy, handoffs, and expansion plays
• Run executive QBRs and maintain account plans for your top accounts, refreshed monthly

Customer outcomes

• Drive adoption and customer health across your book using the team's framework
• Own onboarding for new customers in your portfolio
• Identify at‑risk accounts early and drive mitigation, captured in Gainsight, always 2 quarters + ahead.
• Develop advocates and references from your strongest customers
• Capture value delivered with clients to support ROI conversations and renewal

Operational rigour

• Deliver accurate monthly renewal & expansion forecasts
• Keep your CRM, account plans, and customer health data current.
• Run Gainsight as the source of truth; CTAs closed on time, value statements logged, and the timeline up to date
• Drive alignment with Sales, Product, and Finance on your accounts

Team contribution

• Operate as a peer to the rest of the CSM/AM team; share what works, pressure-test playbooks, raise the bar collectively
• Bring field signal back to CS Strategy & Ops on what's working and what isn't

AI AND THE FUTURE OF CS

This matters as much for this role as it does for your manager's.

No one knows what CS looks like in two or three years, and we're hiring people who are energised by that, not threatened by it. Renewal agents aren't live in our org today, but they're coming fast. It's unknown yet which segments they'll reshape or how the CSM/AM role evolves alongside them. We need people in the field who are actively looking for ways to be innovative — to hit the number and help us build a leaner, smarter team.

What We Need From You

• You're a personal early adopter & already using AI in your own workflow; prep, forecasting, account research, communication, not waiting to be handed a tool.
• You're a thought partner to your VP and our Strategy lead on what the CSM/AM role looks like in an agent-augmented model; bringing field signal back, pressure-testing ideas, and being willing to reinvent your own role.
• You're motivated by using AI to move faster and smarter, not to protect how things used to work.

If you need a fully-formed playbook before you can move, or if you're attached to a specific vision of how CS "should" work, this won't be the right seat.

What You Bring

• 4–8 years in CS, Account Management, or a combination of both
• Proven track record carrying and hitting an individual quota, including closing and negotiating renewals and expansion across multi-stakeholder contracts
• Commercially fluent: comfortable with pricing, contract terms, legal redlines, and revenue math
• Strong executive presence. You can go deep with a technical champion and wide with C-suite executives in your accounts
• Fluency selling or supporting complex product suites, ideally into pharma or life sciences. You can navigate a fast-moving, regulated marketplace and speak the customer's language

THE PROFILE WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Relationship-first, revenue-minded
• Comfortable at the negotiating table
• Accountable to NRR, not just NPS
• Runs their book by the numbers
• Change-curious, not change-resistant
• AI-confident: products & daily workflows

YOU WON'T SUCCEED HERE IF YOU

• Think CS is just support with a nicer name
• Avoid commercial conversations
• Need a fully-built playbook to operate
• Wait for your manager to tell you what to prioritise
• Are uncomfortable owning a number
• Resist change or dismiss AI as a tool

Our Guiding Principles for success at Norstella:

1. 01: Bold, Passionate, and Mission-First
2. 02: Integrity, Truth, and Reality
3. 03: Kindness, Empathy, and Grace
4. 04: Resilience, Mettle, and Perseverance
5. 05: Humility, Gratitude, and Learning

Benefits

• Medical & Prescription Drug Benefits
• Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Dental & Vision Benefits
• Basic Life and AD&DD Benefits
• 401k Retirement Plan with Company Match
• Company Paid Short & Long-Term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Time Off & Company Holidays

Norstella is an equal opportunity employer. All job applicants will receive equal treatment regardless of race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, physical or mental disability or handicap, medical condition, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), marital or domestic partner status, military or veteran status, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, reproductive health decision making, or any other protected characteristic as established by federal, state, or local law.

Sometimes the best opportunities are hidden by self-doubt. We disqualify ourselves before we have the opportunity to be considered. Regardless of where you came from, how you identify, or the path that led you here- you are welcome. If you read this job description and feel passion and excitement, we’re just as excited about you.