Customer Lifecycle Manager

About the Role

As the Customer Lifecycle Manager, you will own the post-sale digital customer journey end to end. This includes moving customers from purchase through onboarding, activation, adoption, retention, expansion, and renewal through coordinated programs, data-driven interventions, and the right communication channels. This is a business-ownership role accountable for outcomes such as gross revenue retention (GRR), net revenue retention (NRR), churn reduction, activation, and customer experience metrics like net promoter score (NPS). Communications and automation are the means to achieve those outcomes.

You will design, own, and continuously improve scalable post-sale programs that help customers realize value quickly, remain healthy, renew, and grow. The role combines lifecycle strategy, operational execution, customer data analysis, and cross-functional orchestration across Customer Success, Renewals, Product, Product Marketing, Support, and Sales.

In practice, you will serve as the single accountable owner for digital lifecycle performance while leveraging partner teams and subject-matter experts for messaging, systems configuration, product insights, renewal motions, and sales follow-up.

Responsibilities

• Own Onboarding Communications and Activation
  • Identify where customers get stuck after purchase by analyzing onboarding friction in Pendo, support trends, product usage, and handoff gaps.
  • Build and improve onboarding communication journeys that reduce time to first value and increase activation rates.
  • Use behavioral signals to guide customers toward the next best action.
• Design the Post-Sale Lifecycle
  • Define post-sale lifecycle stages and the entry and exit criteria for each stage, typically including onboarding, activation, adoption, retention, expansion, renewal, advocacy, and win-back where relevant.
  • Translate the lifecycle into clear plays, triggers, events, handoffs, and success criteria for each customer segment.
  • Tailor lifecycle design to customer archetype, complexity, product line, deployment model, and engagement model rather than relying on one-size-fits-all motions.
• Improve Retention and Prevent Churn and Downsell
  • Monitor lifecycle time-series events to identify churn and downsell risk early.
  • Trigger the right intervention to correct the customer journey and address emerging risk.
  • Create scalable nurture and engagement programs that keep customers progressing between renewal events rather than treating renewal as a last-minute transaction.
  • Coordinate with Customer Success, Technical Support, Onboarding, Product, Engineering, and Renewals to ensure risk, health, and value signals are acted on consistently.
• Drive Expansion and Growth
  • Detect expansion signals from adoption patterns, feature usage, account maturity, and customer behavior.
  • Drive digital expansion motions directly or surface qualified opportunities to Sales and account teams.
  • Ensure lifecycle programs support revenue growth from the installed base, not just engagement volume.
• Build Renewal Readiness
  • Own scalable renewal-readiness motions for digitally managed customers.
  • Build event-based communications and checkpoints that prepare customers for a healthy renewal outcome well before contract end dates.
  • Partner with Renewals on messaging, timing, segmentation, and escalation paths.
• Lead Communication Strategy and Program Execution
  • Select and orchestrate the right channels for each segment, including email, in-app guidance, chat or Slack-style channels, and automated nurture flows.
  • Define the program logic, message sequence, and timing for each lifecycle motion, whether or not another team launches the campaign in the relevant tool.
  • Ensure communications are personalized, behavior-based, and aligned to the customer’s lifecycle stage rather than broadcast generically.
• Measure Performance and Continuously Improve
  • Own the lifecycle time-series event scorecard and regularly review performance across activation, adoption, retention, expansion, downsell, and renewal outcomes.
  • Use CRM data, product telemetry, and program results to identify leaks, prioritize experiments, and improve lifecycle programs over time.
  • Update lifecycle event maps and playbooks as products, customer segments, and go-to-market motions evolve.

Success Measures

• Trial-to-sale conversion rate
• Gross revenue retention (GRR)
• Net revenue retention (NRR)
• Net promoter score (NPS)
• Churn rate
• Renewal rate
• Time to first value (TTFV)
• Product adoption and usage depth
• Expansion pipeline and expansion conversion
• Customer health and risk trends

How We Work

• One accountable owner: The function has a single owner, even when multiple teams contribute to execution.
• Business outcomes first: Success is defined by retention, revenue, and customer outcomes—not by the number of emails or campaigns sent.
• Segment-aware design: Lifecycle motions vary by product, deployment model, complexity, and customer behavior.
• Digital-first, not digital-only: The role scales through digital programs while recognizing when human intervention is needed for complex onboarding or elevated-risk scenarios. Human intervention should be the exception, not the default.
• Data-backed iteration: Support issues, usage patterns, and renewal outcomes continuously reshape the lifecycle playbook.

Key Partnerships

• Customer Success: Named-account context, escalations, and high-touch interventions.
• Renewals: Contract timing, retention motions, and commercial coordination.
• Product and Product Management: Product friction, onboarding blockers, adoption insights, and roadmap feedback.
• Product Marketing and Lifecycle Marketing: Messaging, program packaging, and content support.
• Support: Issue trends, onboarding pain points, and recurring customer friction patterns.
• Sales: Expansion handoffs, renewal alignment, and pre- and post-sale continuity for the right accounts.

What This Role Is Not

• Not a traditional Customer Success Manager role centered solely on named-account relationship management.
• Not a Support role focused on resolving individual product issues case by case.
• Not only a marketing automation specialist or campaign operator.
• Not solely a Renewals Manager role, even though renewal readiness is part of the remit.
• Not a product onboarding role limited to trial conversion or acquisition funnel optimization. The role begins primarily after purchase and focuses on ongoing post-sale value realization.

Requirements

We’re looking for someone who is competent and committed to the SolarWinds mission and who demonstrates a collaborative, accountable, ready, and empathetic approach.

• Experience designing and optimizing customer lifecycle, customer marketing, customer success, growth, retention, or renewal programs.
• A strong understanding of post-sale customer journeys, lifecycle stages, behavioral triggers, and digital engagement programs.
• Analytical depth and the ability to interpret CRM data, product telemetry, customer health signals, and program performance.
• Technical fluency to understand product friction, systems dependencies, data quality, and automation requirements.
• Business judgment to prioritize revenue, retention, and customer outcomes over activity metrics.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and the ability to mobilize subject-matter experts without relying on direct authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex ideas into clear programs, plays, and recommendations.
• A curious, inventive, and improvement-oriented mindset, with the ability to execute with urgency and adapt to changing priorities.
• Sound judgment, high emotional intelligence, and a customer-focused approach.

You do not need to be the deepest expert in every step of the customer journey. You do need to synthesize signals across systems, identify the right intervention, mobilize the right experts, and turn insights into repeatable programs that improve customer and revenue outcomes at scale.