Manager I, Customer Service

Customer & Account Leadership

• Serve as the escalation point and trusted advisor for an assigned portfolio of customer accounts, building long-term relationships built on responsiveness and follow-through.
• Own customer satisfaction, retention, and account health; proactively identify risk and lead resolution before issues escalate.
• Conduct periodic account reviews (e.g., QBRs) to strengthen relationships and identify opportunities for expanded services.
• Ensure contractual obligations, service levels, and project launch timelines are consistently met.
• Educate customers on the full breadth of the organization's capabilities and actively identify and route opportunities to cross-sell services across business units to Business Development.

People Leadership, Coaching & R&R Clarity

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of customer Project Managers and Project Support staff, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement to ensure high performance.
• Set clear objectives and expectations for direct reports, and engage in ongoing, two-way conversations with the team to continuously clarify roles and responsibilities (R&Rs) as work evolves.
• Recognize and address scope creep in either direction – stepping in when a team member is absorbing work beyond their role, and coaching when someone is under-delivering against their remit – so accountability stays clear and workload stays balanced.
• Deliver regular coaching, feedback, and performance evaluations that support individual growth and team performance.
• Support recruiting, onboarding, and disciplinary processes for the Customer Success team as needed.
• Model and reinforce professional, courteous communication, sound judgment, and a customer-centric mindset across the team.
• Successfully plan for and manage organizational resources, capacity and team capability to ensure successful implementation and customer experience across complex ego system.

Process Improvement & Global Standardization

• Identify process improvement opportunities across the Customer Success function and lead initiatives from concept through execution, measuring impact along the way.
• Document processes and procedures that currently exist only informally or as tacit knowledge, creating a durable, repeatable foundation for the team.
• Actively work to globalize best practices developed within one business unit or account team so they can be adopted across the broader Customer Success organization, adapting for local nuances where genuinely necessary.
• Partner with peers across business units to reduce duplicated effort and create a more consistent customer experience globally.
• Regularly review existing SOPs and workflows for continued relevance, updating them as the business and customer expectations evolve.
• Instill a culture of continuous improvement across the team.

Business Development & Financial Support

• Work closely with Business Development to support the project handoff process, from resourcing through service launch.
• Support financial analysis and budgeting discussions in partnership with Business Development and Operations.
• Support the development of new business offerings to stay current with customer expectations.

Reporting & Operational Oversight

• Prepare and present KPI reports that assess team and account performance against both customer expectations and internal goals.
• Regularly review workload across accounts and adjust resourcing to meet current and upcoming project support needs.
• Maintain accurate records of customer and project activity within the organization's CRM or production systems.
• Perform other duties as assigned by Customer Success leadership.

Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree is required. Masters preferred; 10+ years of equivalent professional experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.
• 6+ years of experience in project management, customer success, account management, or customer service, ideally within a clinical services, life sciences, or similarly regulated environment.
• 5+ years of experience directly leading, coaching, or mentoring a team, with demonstrated ability to manage performance and clarify role expectations.
• Demonstrated experience designing, documenting, or improving business processes.
• Experience supporting or partnering with Business Development on account growth, renewals, or cross-selling is strongly preferred.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Exceptional leadership presence with the ability to inspire accountability, collaboration, and a service-first mindset across a team.
• Strong emotional intelligence and coaching skills; able to have direct, constructive conversations about role scope, performance, and expectations without damaging trust.
• Highly developed written and verbal communication skills, with comprehensive command of professional business English.
• Ability to build credibility and rapport with customers, peers, and senior leadership across multiple business units and geographies.
• Sound judgment, discretion, and the confidence to make and defend decisions independently.
• Proven ability to identify, design, and lead process improvement initiatives from idea through adoption at scale.
• Strong documentation skills – able to translate informal or undocumented practices into clear, repeatable, and globally usable process materials.
• Ability to evaluate practices used in one business unit and adapt them for successful adoption across others.
• Strong organizational and time management skills; able to balance and prioritize across multiple accounts, teams, and initiatives simultaneously.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook) and CRM or production systems.
• Ability to interpret and apply KPI and performance data to inform staffing, process, and account decisions.
• Understanding of relevant regulatory and quality requirements applicable to the business (e.g., US and international regulations, SOPs, and quality control practices).