Senior Director, Renewals and Retention Role overview The Senior Director, Renewals and Retention is a strategic leadership role responsible for defining and leading Blackbaud's next-generation renewals motion across a large, multi-product installed base. This leader will own retention as a business outcome and reimagine the customer renewal experience, moving from a fragmented set of contracts, dates, and conversations toward a simple, unified, and predictable renewal relationship.
This role moves beyond traditional renewal management. The Senior Director, Renewals and Retention will design and operationalize a scalable, data-driven renewals model aligned to customer segmentation, product strategy, and long-term revenue growth. They will also build and evolve the capabilities, strategy, standards, systems, and team required to support a modern renewals organization. This role has a direct impact on recurring revenue, retention, and expansion outcomes.
We are looking for a transformational leader who will set the strategy, build and develop the renewals motion, and lead the organization through change while driving towards required business outcomes.
What you'll bring Transformation, strategy & execution - Move quickly to assess the current renewals motion and develop a new transformation strategy - then own its implementation and execution end to end.
- Rebuild the renewals motion, team, and processes for scale and predictability, retaining revenue for customers while improving churn.
- Establish scalable processes, governance, and the standards that keep simplification disciplined.
- Tackle partial churn directly, including changing how the organization negotiates with customers at renewal to reduce downsell and contract erosion.
- Operationalize the strategy: translate it into implemented changes to team structure, tools, workflows, and customer-facing motions, and sustain the change through execution.
- Lead organizational change with clarity and pace, evolving the motion in step with product and go-to-market shifts.
- Build the measurement and instrumentation that show whether the transformation is working.
Strategic leadership and renewals strategy- Define and lead the end-to-end renewals and retention strategy across the installed base.
- Reimagine the customer's renewal experience and lead the commercial simplification required to get there.
- Shape offering, bundling, and packaging strategy as a driver of retention, expansion, and customer value.
AI, data, and innovation - Design a next-generation motion that pairs named coverage with scaled, automated coverage for the broader base.
- Apply AI and data science to the transformation - using them to redesign workflows, segment the base, and scale coverage, not just as reporting tools.
- Leverage AI, predictive analytics, and data science to segment customers, anticipate churn risk, and surface expansion opportunities.
- Champion automation and intelligent tooling to improve scalability, efficiency, and customer experience.
- Continuously evaluate emerging technology to keep the motion ahead of the market.
Revenue ownership and performance - Own performance against gross retention, net revenue retention, renewal rates, and expansion.
- Deliver expansion as a single, relevant offer at renewal rather than several uncoordinated ones.
- Personally engage on high-value, complex renewals and bring executive presence to close.
- Partner with Finance to forecast recurring revenue and inform long-range planning.
- Protect margin and commercial value while driving performance.
Cross-functional influence and matrixed leadership - Build alignment and accountability across Product, Finance, Legal, Sales, and Customer Success without relying on direct authority.
- Coordinate the motions that reach the same customer, so teams reinforce one another rather than compete for attention.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives tied to retention and lifecycle optimization.
Customer strategy and engagement - Engage senior customer executives on complex renewals and expansion.
- Shape tailored renewal strategies based on customer health and strategic value.
- Recognize when an opportunity is really an unrealized-value problem, and route it to onboarding and enablement rather than to a seller.
Team leadership and development - Restructure the team and organizational model to match the new motion, including roles, coverage models, and reporting lines.
- Recruit, develop, and retain a strong team and leadership bench through a period of change.
- Set clear priorities, expectations, and accountability.
- Build a culture of high performance, agility, and continuous improvement, and a team people want to work for.
What you'll bring - 12+ years of experience in renewals, customer success, revenue operations, commercial operations, account management, or related leadership roles, including ownership of recurring revenue performance, customer retention, and large-scale business transformation initiatives.
- Transformational leadership experience in renewals or commercial organizations at scale, including oversight of thousands of customer accounts and significant recurring revenue across both named and scaled customer engagement models.
- Proven experience rebuilding and transforming a renewals organization, operating model, or motion, with measurable improvements in GRR, NRR, retention, and churn.
- Demonstrated success owning and improving gross retention performance, with a deep understanding of the drivers behind retention outcomes.
- Experience leveraging automation, AI, and data-driven insights to segment customers, identify risk, and optimize engagement strategies at scale.
- Strong understanding of pricing, packaging, and bundling strategies, including their impact on ARR, customer cohorts, retention, and growth.
- Experience working with enterprise customers and leading complex renewal, expansion, or commercial discussions.
- Proven ability to lead organizational change, evolve team structures, and maintain high levels of engagement and performance through transformation.
- Demonstrated ability to drive alignment and results across a matrixed organization where ownership is shared across multiple teams.
- Strong commercial acumen combined with a customer-centric approach, balancing revenue performance, customer value, and long-term retention.
The starting base pay is $133,700.00 to $173,800.00. Blackbaud may pay more or less based on employee qualifications, market value, Company finances, and other operational considerations.
Benefits Include:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Remote-flexible workforce
- Wellness Programs
- 401(k) program with employer match
- Flexible paid time off
- Generous Parental Leave
- Donations for Doers
- Pet insurance, legal and identity protection
- Tuition reimbursement program
