Head of Customer Success

Clera; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Clera, a B2B SaaS startup, seeks a senior Customer Success Leader to own the entire customer lifecycle—from onboarding through renewal and expansion. You will work with the founding team to shape product direction while building scalable CS systems and teams that support rapid growth.

You'll manage renewals, retention, and expansion, and lead executive relationships, with a hands-on, data-driven approach in a hybrid role.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Customer Success, Account Management, Revenue Ops, or related role at an early-stage startup.
• Proven track record building CS functions from scratch in B2B SaaS.
• Experience owning renewals and retention metrics with strong commercial judgment.
• Ability to identify and execute expansion opportunities across a customer base.
• Skilled at managing complex customer relationships and executive stakeholders.
• Operational expertise with scalable processes and systems.
• Strong analytical skills to track health and drive decisions.
• High ownership mindset and comfort in ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Own long-term health of the customer base, renewals, retention, and expansion.
• Build ROI-driven business cases and guide customers toward growing investment.
• Lead business reviews, identify risks, and build trusted stakeholder relationships.
• Design scalable playbooks, metrics, and operating rhythms for growth.
• Onboard, renewals, expansion, and advocate customers while building the team.
• Develop scalable health monitoring, reporting, and account planning approaches.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to resolve technical challenges.
• Analyze data to surface insights and drive continuous improvement.

Skills

Customer success leadership

Renewals & retention

SaaS business acumen

Data analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive stakeholder management

Tools

CRM tools

Data dashboards

Job description

About the Role

This is a senior, hands-on leadership role at a B2B SaaS startup where you will own the entire customer experience end-to-end, from onboarding through renewal and expansion. You will work closely with the founding team to shape product direction while building the systems, playbooks, and team that will scale the Customer Success function. The role is equally strategic and operational, meaning you will be in direct customer conversations every day while also designing the infrastructure that supports long-term growth.

What You'll Do

• Own the long-term health of the customer base, driving renewals, retention, and account expansion.

• Build ROI-driven business cases, identify upsell opportunities, and guide customers toward growing their investment over time.

• Lead business reviews, understand evolving customer goals, proactively identify risks, and build trusted relationships with key stakeholders.

• Design scalable playbooks, metrics, and operating rhythms that form the foundation of Customer Success as the company grows.

• Personally manage onboarding, renewals, expansion, and customer advocacy while building out the team and function.

• Develop scalable approaches to customer health monitoring, reporting, and account planning.

• Partner with Product and Engineering to help customers navigate technical challenges and drive resolution.

• Analyze data and metrics to identify trends, track customer health, and surface insights for continuous improvement.

What We're Looking For

• 5 or more years of experience in Customer Success, Account Management, Revenue Operations, or a related customer-facing role at an early-stage startup.

• Proven track record building Customer Success functions from scratch at B2B SaaS companies, including the processes and workflows the function operates on.

• Experience owning renewals and customer retention metrics with strong commercial judgment.

• Demonstrated ability to identify and execute expansion opportunities across a customer base.

• Skilled at managing complex customer relationships and executive stakeholders.

• Operational expertise with a track record of improving processes and building scalable systems.

• Strong analytical skills to track customer health and drive data-informed decisions.

• High ownership mindset with comfort working in ambiguity and solving problems independently.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary range: $170,000 to $220,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Location

Hybrid, with 3 days per week in-person in San Francisco, CA.