Director, Adoption Strategy (Engagement Manager)

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

Job summary

Ironclad is seeking a Director of Adoption Strategy to lead the evolution and scaling of our Adoption Strategy function across the customer lifecycle. This leadership role connects pre-sales and post-sales services into a cohesive customer journey and shapes how adoption outcomes are delivered through our platform.

The Director will set direction, govern performance standards, and partner with senior leaders across Sales, Customer Success, and Product to drive lasting customer value and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in professional services, implementation, customer success, solution consulting, or related customer-facing functions within an enterprise software company.
• Demonstrated experience across both pre-sales and post-sales professional services.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Adoption Strategy team, including managers and senior individual contributors; establish clear expectations, coaching practices, career paths, and performance standards.
• Operationalize and scale the Adoption Strategy operating model, building on existing motions and methodologies while improving consistency, quality, velocity, and repeatability.
• Oversee pre-sales services strategy, including services selling, solution shaping, scoping, entitlement decisions, SOW development, and alignment with Sales and Solution Engineering.
• Define standards for proof-of-value motions, ensuring objectives, success criteria, delivery plans, and conversion paths are connected to long-term adoption outcomes.
• Provide oversight for implementation strategy and execution after a deal closes, ensuring continuity from value proof to implementation and sustained adoption.
• Create clear operating mechanisms across the customer lifecycle, including adoption stage definitions, engagement criteria, and escalation paths.

Skills

Leadership

Professional services

Implementation

Customer success

Job description

Ironclad is the leading AI contracting platform that transforms agreements into assets. Contracts move faster, insights surface instantly, and agents push work forward, all with you in control. Whether you're buying or selling, Ironclad unifies the entire process on one intelligent platform, providing leaders with the visibility they need to stay one step ahead. That's why the world's most transformative organizations, from Rivian to the World Health Organization and the Associated Press, trust Ironclad to accelerate their business.

We're consistently recognized as a leader in the industry: a Leader in the Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contract Lifecycle Management, a Fortune Great Place to Work, and one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Workplaces. Ironclad has also been named to Forbes' AI 50 and Business Insider's list of Companies to Bet Your Career On. We're backed by leading investors including Accel, Y Combinator, Sequoia, BOND, and Franklin Templeton. For more information, visit www.ironcladapp.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

The Director, Adoption Strategy will lead the evolution and scale of Ironclad's Adoption Strategy function across the customer lifecycle. This is an opportunity to build on strong, established work across presales services, proof-of-value, implementation planning, and post-sale adoption-and help shape how those experiences come together as Ironclad, our products, and our customer engagement model continue to evolve.

In this cross-functional leadership role, you'll connect pre-sales and post-sales professional services into a cohesive customer journey. You'll help ensure that services strategy and scoping, proof-of-value execution, implementation design, and long-term adoption planning are coordinated around clear customer outcomes and a path to lasting value.

As the functional leader and second-line manager for Adoption Strategy, you'll set the team's direction, operating model, quality bar, and performance standards while leading through managers and senior practitioners. You'll also provide executive oversight for complex customer engagements and serve as a trusted partner to the VP of Customer Value and leaders across Sales, Solution Engineering, Customer Success, Professional Services, Product, and other cross-functional teams.

This role is ideal for a leader who enjoys bringing clarity to complexity, developing teams, and creating the systems and partnerships that help customers realize more value from Ironclad.

What You Will Be Doing:

• Lead and develop the Adoption Strategy team, including managers and senior individual contributors; establish clear expectations, coaching practices, career paths, and performance standards.
• Operationalize and scale the Adoption Strategy operating model, building on existing motions and methodologies while improving consistency, quality, velocity, and repeatability.
• Oversee the team's role in pre-sales services strategy, including services selling, solution shaping, scoping, entitlement decisions, SOW development, and alignment with Sales and Solution Engineering.
• Establish the standards for proof-of-value motions, ensuring that customer objectives, success criteria, delivery plans, and conversion paths are clearly defined and connected to longer-term adoption outcomes.
• Provide oversight for implementation strategy and execution after a deal closes, ensuring continuity from proof of value through implementation and into foundational and sustained adoption.
• Create clear operating mechanisms across the customer lifecycle, including adoption stage definitions, engagement criteria, handoff protocols, governance forums, escalation paths, and accountability between Adoption Strategy and adjacent teams.
• Serve as a senior escalation leader for complex or at-risk customer engagements, providing executive coverage and helping teams navigate commercial, delivery, product, and adoption challenges.
• Define and own the function's performance framework, including measures such as proof-of-value conversion, quality of services scoping, implementation transition quality, time to foundational adoption, adoption milestone achievement, customer value realization, and team capacity.
• Partner with the VP of Customer Value and peer functional leaders to evolve the broader Customer Value operating model, ensuring that Adoption Strategy is integrated with implementation consulting, customer success, platform support, and partner motions.
• Continuously improve the team's methodologies, tooling, and use of AI to reduce manual coordination, improve decision quality, and accelerate customer time-to-value.

What We Are Looking For:

• 8+ years of experience in professional services, implementation, customer success, solution consulting, or related customer-facing functions within an enterprise software company. Demonstrated experience across both pre-sales and post-sales professional services. Leadership experience on both sides is ideal; deep indivi