Director Customer Modernization

PowerToFly; New York (NY); On-site; USD 158,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, life and disability

401(k) matching

Paid holidays

Job summary

Medidata is seeking a transformational leader to establish and head a newly formed Customer Modernization team within CS3 Operations. This role focuses on proactively identifying and reducing technical debt across customer environments, modernizing Medidata platform ecosystems, and driving strategic, cross-functional initiatives to improve stability, scalability, and customer outcomes.

The ideal candidate brings 10+ years in leadership across SaaS operations, customer success, and enterprise

Qualifications

• 10+ years of leadership experience in SaaS operations, customer success, professional services, or enterprise modernization.
• Proven experience leading large-scale software modernization, upgrade, or technical debt remediation programs.
• Strong executive communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a high-performing modernization and technical debt remediation organization.
• Define operating model, processes, governance, KPIs, and engagement framework.
• Develop multi-year remediation and modernization roadmaps aligned to customer success and risk reduction.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Support, and Professional Services to align modernization with roadmaps.
• Communicate modernization risks and remediation strategies to stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership experience

SaaS operations

Customer success

Technical operations

Enterprise modernization

Job description

Location

This is a hybrid remote/in-office role.

Medidata follows a hybrid office policy in which employees who are hired for an in-person position are expected to work on site a certain number of days per week following Company policy.

About our Company

Medidata is powering smarter treatments and healthier people through digital solutions to support clinical trials. Celebrating over 25 years of ground-breaking technological innovation across more than 38,000 trials and 12 million patients, Medidata offers industry-leading expertise, analytics-powered insights, and one of the largest clinical trial data sets in the industry. More than 1 million registered users across approximately 2,300 customers trust Medidata's seamless, end-to-end platform to improve patient experiences, accelerate clinical breakthroughs, and bring therapies to market faster. A Dassault Systèmes brand (Euronext Paris: FR0014003TT8, DSY.PA), Medidata is headquartered in New York City and has been recognized as a Leader by Everest Group and IDC. Discover more at www.medidata.com. Listen to our latest podcast, from Dreamers to Disruptors, and follow us at @Medidata.

About the Team

We are seeking a transformational leader to establish and lead a newly formed Customer Modernization team within the CS3 Operations organization. This strategic team will focus on proactively identifying, planning, and executing initiatives to reduce long-standing technical debt across customer environments.

The leader will drive programs focused on modernizing customer ecosystems, including upgrades to the company's Medidata platform, surrounding infrastructure, integrations, middleware, databases, operating systems, and other ancillary technologies that impact platform stability, scalability, security, and customer outcomes.

This role requires a blend of operational leadership, customer engagement, technical strategy, program execution, and cross-functional influence. The ideal candidate is highly collaborative, data-driven, customer-focused, and experienced leading large-scale initiatives in complex environments.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Strategy

• Build and lead a high-performing modernization and technical debt remediation organization.
• Define the operating model, processes, governance, KPIs, and engagement framework for the team.
• Establish a scalable strategy to proactively identify and prioritize customer environments requiring modernization.
• Develop multi-year remediation and modernization roadmaps aligned to customer success and operational risk reduction objectives.
• Foster a culture of accountability, operational excellence, customer partnership, and continuous improvement.

Customer Environment Modernization

• Oversee initiatives focused on upgrading outdated customer environments, including:
  • Medidata platform versions and configurations
  • Integrations and APIs
  • Middleware and supporting applications
  • Databases and operating systems
  • Infrastructure dependencies
  • Compliance-related components
• Drive standardization and modernization strategies that improve customer stability, performance, scalability, and supportability.
• Partner with Product Management, Strategy, Engineering, Support, and Professional Services team members to align modernization efforts with product roadmaps and customer priorities.

Customer Engagement & Communication

• Develop executive-level customer engagement strategies around technical debt reduction and modernization planning.
• Communicate modernization risks, business impacts, and remediation strategies to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Serve as an escalation point for strategic modernization initiatives and complex customer situations.
• Build trusted relationships with customer executives, IT leadership, and operational stakeholders.

Program & Operational Management

• Establish operational processes for identifying at-risk or outdated customer environments using telemetry, lifecycle management data, support trends, and operational metrics.
• Create governance frameworks for modernization tracking, prioritization, risk management, and reporting.
• Develop dashboards and executive reporting for modernization progress, customer adoption, operational risk reduction, and program outcomes.
• Drive execution discipline across large portfolios of concurrent modernization initiatives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with:
  • Product Management on lifecycle strategy and end-of-support planning
  • Engineering on upgrade paths and technical dependencies
  • Support organizations on recurring customer issues tied to technical debt
  • Professional Services on execution delivery models
  • Strategy on adoption and customer engagement frameworks
  • Sales and Account Management on customer planning and commercial alignment
• Influence enterprise-wide operational strategy related to platform currency and customer ecosystem health.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• 10+ years of leadership experience in SaaS operations, customer success, professional services, technical operations, or enterprise technology modernization.
• Proven experience leading large-scale software implementation/modernization efforts, upgrade, transformation, or technical debt remediation programs.
• Strong understanding of enterprise architectures and supporting technologies.
• Experience managing complex cross-functional initiatives involving enterprise customers.
• Demonstrated ability to build and scale operational teams and processes.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills.

Technical & Operational Expertise

• Deep understanding of:
  • Enterprise software lifecycle management
  • Cloud/SaaS operating models
  • Systems integrations and APIs
  • Infrastructure and platform dependencies
  • Security and compliance considerations
  • Operational risk management
• Experience leveraging operational data and analytics to drive prioritization and decision making.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic thinker with strong operational execution capabilities.
• Ability to influence across organizational boundaries without direct authority.
• Customer-first mindset with strong commercial awareness.
• Strong problem-solving and organizational change management skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, highly matrixed environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading initiatives for large enterprise customer bases.
• Familiarity with ITIL, SaaS service management, or enterprise governance frameworks.
• Experience with customer lifecycle management and adoption strategies.

As with all roles, Medidata sets ranges based on a number of factors including function, level, candidate expertise and experience, and geographic location. Pay ranges for candidates in locations other than New York City, may differ based on the local market data in that region.

The salary range for positions that will be physically based in New York is $157,500- $210,000.

Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Medidata provides to compensate and recognize employees for their work. Most sales positions are eligible for a commission on the terms of applicable plan documents, and many of Medidata's non-sales positions are eligible for annual bonuses. Medidata believes that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most and provides benefits, including medical, dental, life and disability insurance, 401(k) matching, family leave, flexible paid time off; and 10 paid holidays per year.

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Equal Employment Opportunity

In order to provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals, employment decisions at Medidata are based on merit, qualifications and abilities. Medidata is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or medical or common conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, familial status, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, veteran status, military service, application for military service, genetic information, receipt of free medical care, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law. Medidata will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.

We will accept applications on an ongoing basis until we fill the position.