VP Customer Success

Sapiens; Johannesburg; Hybrid; ZAR 1,500,000 - 2,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Sapiens International is hiring a VP Customer Success to manage a book of insurance customers in a hybrid setup based in Johannesburg. You will lead a playbook-led CS motion, be the named point of contact, and ensure retention and renewal at scale.

You will own account health, drive product adoption, coordinate across Sales, Support, Delivery, Product and Enablement, and identify expansion opportunities. Strong leadership, strategic thinking, and customer-centric delivery are essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in a customer-facing role managing portfolios of accounts.
• Insurance domain experience (P&C, Life & Pensions, or Reinsurance) or enterprise software serving insurers.
• Proven track record building Customer Success plans and improving retention.
• Experience running playbook-led CS motions across many accounts.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with ability to influence stakeholders.
• Commercial acumen to understand customers' business drivers.
• Ability to work autonomously with ownership and accountability.

Responsibilities

• Deliver CS motion for your book per defined framework and playbooks.
• Maintain named CS relationship from go-live onward at a steady cadence.
• Own account health and product adoption across the book; track adoption and health metrics.
• Run standardized review cycles and templated CS plans tied to customer goals.
• Protect retention by identifying at-risk accounts and coordinating escalation.

Skills

Customer Success

Account Management

Consulting

Communication

Stakeholder Influence

Problem Solving

Autonomy

Delivery Excellence

Tools

CS Tooling

AI Monitoring Tools

Job description

We are building a new Customer Success team and are hiring a VP Customer Success to look after a portfolio of our commercial insurance customers through a consistent, playbook-led motion. You will be the named contact for a larger book of accounts, accountable for keeping them healthy and renewable at scale. This is a one-to-few role for people who run a disciplined, repeatable Customer Success motion and work with customers' operational owners day to day, rather than at C-suite level.

Working model & location: Hybrid (Flexible), Johannesburg

About Sapiens

Sapiens International is a global provider of core software for the insurance industry, serving Property & Casualty, Life & Pensions, and Reinsurance carriers worldwide. Our Customer Success team keeps and grows our customers beyond go-live.

What You Will Do

• Deliver Sapiens' Customer Success motion for your book in line with the defined framework, playbooks, and tier coverage model.
• Be the named Customer Success Manager and maintain strong customer relationships built on credibility, consistency, and value, from go-live onward at a steady cadence.
• Own account health and product adoption across the book; track and report on adoption, usage, and health metrics, and act early where an account starts to slip.
• Run a consistent, standardised review cycle and build templated Customer Success plans that connect each customer's business goals to the value they get from Sapiens.
• Protect the retention floor: identify at-risk accounts early and orchestrate and mediate escalation resolution by pulling in the right internal stakeholders.
• Orchestrate Sales, Support, Delivery, Product, and Enablement so the customer experiences one coordinated relationship, coordinating training and resources as needed.
• Identify expansion (cross-sell and upsell) opportunities aligned to the customer's strategy and pass them to Sales to progress. You own the signal, not the sale.
• Use AI-assisted monitoring and standard health triggers to run a larger book efficiently.

Scope

You own the customer's success and growth from point of sale onward. You do not carry a sales quota or close deals, run support tickets, or run implementation projects – Sales, Support, and Delivery own those. You protect retention, flag expansion, and elevate on the customer's behalf.

What You Will Bring (essential)

• 8+ years in a customer-facing role (Customer Success, account management, consulting, or customer support) managing a portfolio of accounts, including relationship management and issue resolution.
• Insurance domain experience (P&C, Life & Pensions, or Reinsurance), or enterprise software serving insurers.
• A track record of building Customer Success plans and delivering measurable retention and account-health outcomes (e.g. gross retention, NPS).
• Experience running a consistent, playbook-led Customer Success motion across many accounts at once.
• Strong communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, negotiate, and challenge stakeholders.
• Commercial and business acumen – able to understand and speak to customers' business drivers.
• Strong prioritisation and reporting skills; able to synthesise and communicate key insights.
• Able to work autonomously with ownership and accountability, with a design-thinking, root-cause approach to problem-solving.

What You Will Bring (desirable)

• Familiarity with core insurance platforms (policy administration, claims, or billing).
• Experience with Customer Success tooling and AI-assisted health monitoring.
• Experience with cloud-native or SaaS delivery and managed solutions.

Sapiens is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and strive to create an inclusive work environment that embraces individuals from diverse backgrounds.