Director, CX Strategy and Operations

Job description

**At Instructure**, we believe in the power of people to grow and succeed throughout their lives. Our goal is to amplify that power by creating intuitive products that simplify learning and personal development, facilitate meaningful relationships, and inspire people to go further in their education and careers. We do this by giving smart, creative, passionate people opportunities to create awesome. And that's where you come in: At Instructure, we believe in the power of people to grow and succeed throughout their lives. Our mission is to amplify that potential by developing intuitive products that simplify learning, foster meaningful relationships, and inspire individuals to advance in their education and careers. We achieve this by giving smart, creative, and passionate people the opportunity to build exceptional solutions. That's where you come in. ## **The role** **You'll build and lead the function that tells us, early and accurately, which customers are getting value and which are at risk, and then make sure we act on it.** As Director, CX Strategy and Operations, you'll report to and partner directly with our Chief Customer Officer, and own the signals, systems, and operating rhythm across our entire Customer Experience (CX) organization: Customer Success, Professional Services, Support, and Community. You'll turn product usage, service, support, and community signals into one trusted view of customer health, put AI and automation to work where they move retention, and give our executive team and board a read on our customer base they can rely on. You'll partner closely with Revenue Operations, Sales, Product, Data Science, Finance, IT, and Security. Schools, universities, and businesses rely on Canvas by Instructure and our wider product family every day. How well they succeed with us is the measure of this role. ## **What you'll own** ### **Customer health and retention signal** - Design, build, and run one account-level customer health score, with each CX team owning a sub-score that rolls up to a single view. - Bring product adoption and usage data into the score, alongside onboarding, services, support, sentiment, and community signals. - Measure signal accuracy: how often the risk and growth signals we raise predict what actually happens at renewal. - Build a single churn and loss taxonomy, so we know why customers leave or reduce spend and can act on it. - Feed a clear risk and expansion signal into the company forecast, in partnership with Revenue Operations and Sales. ### **AI and automation** - Lead our service design and automation work, so agentic AI and automation across Support, Services, and Customer Success connect back to customer health and outcomes. - Set the bar for every AI investment in CX: it has to show up in customer health and retention, not just in efficiency. - Bring signal from AI support conversations, call recordings, and product usage into one view of trends and sentiment. - Partner with IT, Security, and Privacy to move new AI tools from pilot to production safely and quickly. ### **Measurement and insight** - Own the CX dashboard: the leading and lagging indicators our leadership team runs the business on each week. - Measure value realization, including time to first value, adoption depth, and documented customer outcomes. - Turn customer survey, support, and community data into insight that shapes our roadmap, our plays, and our priorities. - Produce customer reporting that holds up in front of our executive team and board. ### **Operating rhythm and partnership** - Run the CX operating cadence, including planning, performance reviews, and a cross-functional CX operations council. - Define coverage models and capacity plans for Customer Success and Professional Services. - Publish clear roles, swim lanes, and SOPs across CX and our commercial teams, with special care at the handoffs customers feel most. - Represent CX in product enhancement requests and roadmap conversations. ### **Leading the team** - Lead a team of CX operations, systems, and insights professionals, and grow it into a group the whole company relies on. - Assess the team's strengths and gaps early, and build the bench through coaching, hiring, and clear career paths. - Remove single points of failure so critical knowledge and systems don't rest on one person. ## **What success looks like in your first year** - **First 90 days:** You've mapped how customer health is measured today, including its inputs, weighting, and data sources. You've assessed the team, built relationships across CX and our commercial, product, and data partners, and launched the CX operations council. - **Six months:** A redesigned health score is live, with product adoption as a core input and each CX team owning its piece. Leaders use the CX dashboard in their weekly rhythm. - **12 months:** We can show how accurately our signals predict renewal outcomes. Value realization is tracked for our strategic customers, and our AI and automation work has measurable results tied to customer health. ## **What you bring** - 10+ years in operations, strategy, or analytics, with significant time leading customer success or customer experience operations at a B2B SaaS company. - Experience leading operations across more than one post-sale function, such as Customer Success, Professional Services, Support, or Community. - A track record of building or rebuilding a customer health model that predicted churn and expansion, and that leaders trusted enough to act on. - Hands-on experience putting AI or automation to work in post-sale operations, with results you can measure. - Strong data fluency. You can work in SQL or BI tools yourself, or direct data science and analytics partners with confidence. - Experience with customer success platforms, CRM, and product analytics tools, including implementing and improving them. - A history of producing customer and retention reporting for executive teams and boards. - Experience leading and developing managers and individual contributors. - Clear, direct communication. You can turn complex data into a point of view and defend it with executives. ### **Bonus points** - Experience at a private equity-backed company, or in a company going through a major operating model change. - Background in education technology or another mission-driven market. - Experience designing renewal or expansion forecasting processes with Revenue Operations. - Familiarity with value realization or outcome-based customer success models. **Get in on all the awesome at Instructure!** We offer competitive, meaningful benefits in every country where we operate. While they vary by location, here's a general idea of what you can expect: - Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success. - Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location. - Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs. - Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support - Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth - The technology and tools you need to do your best work - Motivosity employee recognition program - A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection We believe in hiring great people and treating them right. The more diverse we are, the better our ideas and outcomes. Instructure is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We comply with applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws in every country where we operate. All employees must pass a background check as part of the hiring process. To help protect our teams and systems, we’ve implemented identity verification measures. Candidates may be asked to verify their legal name, current physical location, and provide a valid contact number and residential address, in accordance with local data privacy laws. Any attempt to misrepresent personal or professional information will result in disqualification.