Principal Strategic Customer Success Account Manager (AI Enabled, High-Touch)

The Principal Strategic Customer Success Account Manager (CSAM) partners with Vertex’s most strategic customers to drive value realization, retention, and growth. This role serves as a trusted advisor, combining human judgment with AI-driven insights to proactively guide customer outcomes.  
  
The Principal CSAM owns the end-to-end relationship across a portfolio of high-touch accounts, using predictive health signals and engagement data to identify risks, prioritize actions, and drive expansion. The role leads executive engagement and cross-functional collaboration across Sales, Support, Professional Services, Product Management, Research, Development, and Engineering to accelerate adoption, support renewals, and deliver a seamless customer experience.  
  
This position focuses on delivering high-impact engagement at critical moments while enabling scale and consistency through AI-driven strategies.  

Essential Job Functions & Responsibilities 

• Serve as the primary strategic relationship owner for high-value accounts, acting as a trusted advisor and escalation point for complex situations.  

• Own customer lifecycle outcomes, including value realization, retention (GRR), and expansion (NRR), aligned to customer business objectives.  

• Translate technical signals, adoption trends, and engagement data into clear business impact and executive-level insights.  

• Proactively leverage AI-generated insights, predictive health signals, and product usage data to identify risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.  

• Lead cross-functional 'path to green' plans for at-risk accounts and ensure mitigation execution.  

• Lead executive-level engagements, including business reviews, value realization checkpoints, and risk mitigation discussions.  

• Drive product adoption, sustained usage, renewals, and referenceability through outcome-based planning.  

• Identify and develop expansion opportunities aligned to customer value, partnering with Sales to influence pipeline development and deal progression.  

• Ensure alignment between high-touch engagement and AI-powered digital journeys to deliver continuous, proactive customer coverage.  

• Capture and elevate customer feedback, insights, and use cases to influence product strategy and overall customer experience improvements.  

• Lead and sponsor strategic initiatives to improve scalability, consistency, and customer outcomes.  

• Partner across teams to enhance customer experience and accelerate account growth.  

• Utilize Salesforce, Gainsight, and AI-enabled tools to document customer health, engagement, risks, and outcomes.  

• Balance customer needs with Vertex capabilities to drive sustainable, long-term outcomes.  

Supervisory & Leadership Responsibilities 

• Provide coaching and develop support to team members, where applicable. 

• Lead cross-functional driving accountability for outcomes without direct authority   

• Establish best practices for AI-enabled customer engagement, value realization, and risk management. 

• Support workforce planning and portfolio strategy aligned to business priorities. 

• Contribute to initiatives that scale Customer Success coverage, improve operational efficiency, and reduce cost-to-serve. 

Required Qualifications 

• 10+ years of experience, including 8+ years in Customer Success or related roles. 

• Experience managing strategic, high-value customer relationships. 

• Strong business acumen and ability to use data to manage risk and growth. 

• Strong communication, executive presentation, collaboration, and influencing skills. 

• Experience with Salesforce, Gainsight, or similar platforms. 

• Equivalent experience may be accepted in place of a degree. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Technology, or a related field. 

• Experience with AI-enabled or data-driven Customer Success models. 

• Familiarity with enterprise SaaS, ERP, or tax/compliance solutions. 

• Consulting or strategic advisory experience is preferred. 

• Understanding of value realization and customer-driven product strategy.