Location & Travel

• This role is primarily remote; however, depending on the candidate's location, a hybrid work schedule may be required.
• Up to 25% travel as business needs require

About the Role

We are seeking an accomplished Executive Director, Client Success Operations to lead the operational excellence, performance, and development of our Client Success organization. This leader will manage and develop a team of up to eight Client Success Directors and Program Managers while establishing the systems, accountability, and operational rigor necessary to deliver exceptional client experiences profitably and consistently.

This role is responsible for driving the day-to-day health of the Client Success organization by ensuring projects are properly staffed, resources are allocated effectively, processes are consistently followed, and financial targets are achieved. The Executive Director will serve as the operational leader of the department, partnering closely with Finance, Creative, Strategy, Industrial Design, Engineering, and Executive Leadership to remove barriers, improve workflows, and create a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

Rather than owning a large portfolio of client business, this individual will focus on strengthening the team behind the work. They will coach Client Success Directors and Program Managers, improve operational performance, employ strategic resourcing, ensure adoption of company processes and technology, monitor profitability, oversee forecasting accuracy, and proactively identify opportunities to improve execution across the organization.

Success in this role requires a decisive, operationally minded leader who is comfortable establishing expectations, making difficult decisions, driving accountability, and helping teams perform at their highest level.

Core Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop the Client Success Directors and Program Managers through regular one-on-ones, coaching, performance feedback, and development planning.
• Build a culture centered on accountability, operational excellence, collaboration, ownership, continuous improvement and professional development.
• Identify performance gaps and partner with leadership to implement coaching, training, hiring, or organizational changes when needed.
• Develop future leaders within the department while ensuring consistent execution across all client teams.

Operational Leadership

• Serve as the operational leader of the Client Success organization by ensuring consistent execution across all accounts.
• Responsibilities include resource planning and allocation, capacity management workflow optimization, project health reviews, risk identification, escalation management, cross-functional coordination, and delivery consistency.
• Remove organizational roadblocks that prevent teams from executing successfully.

Financial Performance & Profitability

• Partner closely with Finance to improve operational and financial performance.
• Monitor project profitability, gross margin, budget utilization, forecast accuracy, resource utilization, and revenue pacing.
• Coach the team to proactively manage budgets, hours, scope, and profitability throughout project execution.

Process Excellence & Compliance

• Champion standardized ways of working across the Client Success organization.
• Ensure consistent adoption of Asana, proposal templates, pricing tool process, SOW standards, time entry compliance, resource planning processes, and SOPs (cross-discipline collaboration, NPS survey, etc.).
• Drive accountability around process adherence while continually identifying opportunities for improvement.

Client Portfolio Health

• Provide executive oversight across the Client Success portfolio.
• Work with Client Success Directors to review client satisfaction, upcoming opportunities, resource needs, delivery risks, escalations, revenue forecasts, and growth opportunities within existing accounts.
• Partner with leadership to ensure accounts remain healthy, profitable, and strategically aligned.

Organizational Development

• Lead initiatives that strengthen the Client Success organization, including team onboarding, professional development, AI adoption, training programs, best practice development, cross-functional collaboration, team engagement, and department communications.
• Help build a high-performing culture focused on operational excellence and continuous learning.

What You Bring

• 8-10+ years of leadership experience in client service, operations, project management, resource management, or account management within an agency, consulting, or professional services environment.
• Demonstrated success leading and developing teams of at least five full-time employees, with a proven ability to coach performance, manage conflict, build accountability, and develop high-performing teams.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing profitability, forecasting, budgets, and resource planning.
• Proven ability to coach managers and build high-performing teams.
• Comfortable driving accountability, providing direct constructive feedback, and making difficult operational decisions.
• Excellent organizational, communication, and leadership skills.
• Experience implementing operational processes and technology.
• Strong understanding of project management methodologies.
• Experience working within cross-functional creative organizations preferred.
• Familiarity with Asana or similar project management platforms.