Principal Customer Success Manager

Workiva provides an AI-powered platform that unifies finance, risk, and sustainability for complex organizations. The Principal Customer Success Manager owns strategic enterprise accounts, drives platform adoption and business outcomes, leads renewals and escalations, and serves as a senior advisor to executives. The role also mentors customer success professionals and shapes organizational practices and methodologies.

Responsibilities:

• Build and maintain a comprehensive picture of each account's organizational structure, business priorities, and long-term strategic goals, then develop multi-year account plans that connect those realities to Workiva capabilities
• Cultivate relationships across every stakeholder layer including business owners, finance leaders, IT contacts, and C-suite executives, as an ongoing partnership rather than a contract-driven engagement
• Identify platform adoption opportunities by mapping Workiva capabilities against each customer's evolving needs and priorities, anticipating where their business is headed rather than reacting to where it is today
• Lead Business Reviews that speak to enterprise-level outcomes: operational efficiency, compliance readiness, reporting accuracy, and business impact
• Use product usage data and health signals to diagnose what's working and what isn't across the most complex accounts, then design targeted interventions that address the root causes of adoption gaps
• Ask consultative questions to uncover workflow gaps and build enablement plans that drive lasting behavior change rather than short-term usage spikes, applying a deep understanding of how enterprise teams learn and adopt new capabilities
• Look past the current adoption playbook to spot where it will break next: emerging use cases, shifting customer expectations, or platform capabilities the team doesn't yet have a model for driving adoption on. Build the frameworks that get ahead of those gaps before they show up broadly
• Identify expansion opportunities through structured whitespace analysis and bring well-qualified signals to your AE with a clear business case, driving a higher win rate on the opportunities you surface
• Provide renewal forecasts well ahead of deadlines, flag risk early with a mitigation plan attached, and navigate the most complex commercial conversations with confidence
• Engage consistently with senior-level stakeholders and communicate in terms that resonate with business leaders: operational risk, efficiency, compliance confidence, and measurable impact
• Equip internal executive sponsors with the necessary context before high-stakes customer conversations and serve as the person internal leaders turn to for insight on your most strategic accounts
• Identify risk themes by analyzing health trends, engagement signals, and relationship dynamics proactively, and act before issues surface with customers
• Own escalations from identification through resolution: document the root cause, coordinate across functions, and keep the customer informed throughout
• Anticipate the next category of risk before the organization has a name for it, whether that's a shift in the market, a new competitive threat, or a structural change in how customers evaluate the platform. Shape how the CS team thinks about and prepares for risks it hasn't encountered yet
• Share account patterns and insights with your CPX team and AE partners to build collective knowledge of what works across the organization, and lead the development of team-wide practices that make excellent execution repeatable
• Orchestrate specialists across Solution Success, Product Success, Data Management, Support, and other functions on your most complex, multi-location accounts, and set the standard for how the broader organization coordinates specialist engagement so it feels seamless to the customer
• Partner with CS leadership to shape how the function evolves, including methodology, automation and efficiency, and best practices, so your impact extends beyond your own book of business

Requirements:

• 10+ years in B2B SaaS Customer Success, Account Management, or Consulting
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• Willingness to travel up to 20% for team and corporate meetings, fostering relationships and representing company interests
• Reliable internet access for any period of time working remotely, as we embrace flexible work arrangements
• A track record of retaining and growing multi-stakeholder enterprise accounts across multiple renewal cycles, including experience leading the most difficult renewals and negotiations
• Commercial instincts and the ability to build a business case that resonates with buyers and navigate complex renewal conversations at the highest level
• The ability to read adoption and health data, identify what matters, and translate it into a clear account narrative and action plan that drives decisions at the executive level
• Exceptional communication skills across organizational levels, from end users to department leaders to C-suite executives
• Experience leading or coordinating cross-functional work without direct authority, bringing together the right people across Sales, Support, Product, and other teams to drive outcomes for your accounts
• A demonstrated history of developing other CS professionals, whether through formal mentorship, deal coaching, or contributing to team practices
• CRM discipline that makes your forecasts reliable, your work visible, and your accounts transferable