The Senior Director of Client Services will lead and scale Phoenix's client-facing support organization, overseeing customer experience, operational excellence, and retention strategy.
This role is responsible for building a high-performing Client Services organization that combines customer support, technical troubleshooting, onboarding, and proactive account management. The Senior Director will lead the team while partnering closely with Product, Engineering, CRM, Payments, and Checkout teams to ensure merchants receive exceptional service and measurable business outcomes.
This is both an operational leadership role and a strategic business role. The right leader will help merchants maximize retention, checkout performance, platform adoption, and long-term value while building the internal systems, processes, metrics, and accountability needed to scale.
Note: Clients are often referred to as Merchants.
What You'll OwnClient Services Leadership- Lead, mentor, and develop the Client Services organization.
- Establish service standards, response expectations, escalation frameworks, and customer success processes.
- Create a high-accountability, merchant-first culture focused on responsiveness, retention, and merchant growth.
- Monitor team performance, utilization, SLAs, satisfaction metrics, and operational efficiency.
- Build scalable workflows for onboarding, support, account management, and proactive client engagement.
Onboarding & Implementation- Own scalable onboarding and implementation frameworks for new merchants.
- Establish launch readiness standards, activation KPIs, and time-to-value goals.
- Coordinate across Integrations, Checkout, CRM, and Payments to ensure successful merchant launches.
- Identify friction points in onboarding and build processes that improve speed, consistency, and merchant experience.
Technical Escalations & Support Operations- Lead resolution of critical merchant escalations and platform incidents.
- Own severity management, root-cause analysis, escalation governance, and cross-functional communication during outages or service disruptions.
- Oversee resolution of complex client issues related to Shopify integrations, checkout functionality, subscription billing, payment processing, funnel logic, tracking discrepancies, and third-party application conflicts.
- Improve documentation standards, escalation processes, and communication between technical and client-facing teams.
- Ensure the Client Services organization develops a strong operational understanding of ecommerce systems and platform architecture.
Metrics, Reporting & Operational Strategy- Own operational visibility across client health and support operations.
- Develop customer health scoring and reporting frameworks.
- Track and analyze MRR, churn, retention, NRR, NPS/CSAT, response times, resolution times, and merchant engagement.
- Build dashboards that provide visibility into client health, operational bottlenecks, and revenue opportunities.
- Identify opportunities for automation, AI-assisted support, self-service tooling, and process improvement.
Cross-Functional Leadership- Partner closely with Product, Engineering, CRM, Payments, Checkout, and Growth teams.
- Serve as the primary operational liaison between merchants and internal teams.
- Translate merchant feedback, operational pain points, and revenue-impacting issues into actionable product priorities.
- Partner with Product and Engineering on release planning, beta programs, feature adoption, rollout communication, and change management.
- Help shape customer education, onboarding materials, support documentation, and best-practice resources.
What We're Looking ForRequired- 7+ years of experience in Customer Success, Client Services, Account Management, or Support leadership.
- 3+ years managing high-performing customer-facing teams.
- Strong experience within ecommerce, SaaS, subscription commerce, payments, or Shopify ecosystems.
- Deep understanding of ecommerce operations, checkout systems, subscription billing, payment flows, and merchant success metrics.
- Experience managing technical escalations and cross-functional operational workflows.
- Strong analytical and operational mindset with experience using data to drive decisions.
- Exceptional communication, leadership, and organizational skills.
- Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced startup environment.
Preferred- Experience building or scaling a Customer Success, Client Services, or Support organization.
- Experience with DTC ecommerce, direct response, subscriptions, checkout optimization, or payments.
- Experience developing customer health scoring, SLA frameworks, onboarding processes, and operational dashboards.
- Familiarity with automation, AI-assisted support, self-service tooling, or customer education systems.
Leadership Traits We Value- High ownership
- Decisiveness
- Strong recruiting and talent development capabilities
- Accountability
- Product judgment
- Calm under pressure
- Builder mentality
CultureThese are the values that guide how we operate:
- All In to Win - Operate with urgency, intensity, and a relentless bar for excellence.
- A Players Only - Only hire, develop, and keep A players. Protect talent density.
- Merchant First - Merchants are why we exist. Every decision measured by merchant impact.
- Entrepreneurial Spirit - Move like a Day One company. Fast, scrappy, hungry. Everyone owns.
- Execution Over Ego - Best ideas win regardless of source. Status and titles do not matter.
