Customer Success Manager job description template
A template you can use, plus the part most templates skip: how to assess each requirement once candidates start applying.
Customer success managers keep customers getting value, which shows up as retention and expansion. The role balances genuine advocacy for the customer with accountability for commercial outcomes. A good customer success manager job description separates genuine must-haves from preferences, describes what the person will actually do, and defines the criteria interviewers will assess against.
About the role
Customer success managers keep customers getting value, which shows up as retention and expansion. The role balances genuine advocacy for the customer with accountability for commercial outcomes.
Also advertised as: CSM, Account Manager, Client Success Manager.
Responsibilities
- Onboard new customers and drive early adoption
- Maintain relationships across the account
- Identify and act on churn risk
- Drive renewals and expansion
- Feed customer insight back to product
Requirements
Essential
- Retention or renewal ownership
- Ability to have difficult commercial conversations
- Genuine curiosity about customer workflows
- Organised across many accounts
Nice to have
- Your product category
- Technical aptitude
- Onboarding design experience
Keep the essential list genuinely essential. Long requirement lists measurably reduce applications from candidates who would meet your actual bar, with a stronger effect among under-represented groups. Everything you can train, move to nice-to-have.
How to assess each requirement
This is the part most job description templates omit, and it is the part that determines whether the description was worth writing. Each requirement needs a way to test it:
| Requirement | How to assess it |
|---|---|
| Retention or renewal ownership | Ask: "Tell me about a customer you saved. What was actually wrong?" |
| Ability to have difficult commercial conversations | Ask: "How do you know a customer is at risk before they tell you?" |
| Genuine curiosity about customer workflows | Ask: "A customer wants a feature that is not on the roadmap. How do you handle it?" |
| Organised across many accounts | Ask: "How do you handle a renewal where the customer has not got value?" |
Full question set with strong and weak answer guidance: customer success manager interview questions.
On salary
Publish a range. Pay transparency requirements are expanding across the EU and parts of the US, candidates increasingly filter out roles without one, and omitting it mainly advantages whoever negotiates hardest — which correlates with confidence rather than contribution. See compensation bands.
Generate a version specific to your company and role with the free job description generator.