SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Cornerstone is establishing a dedicated Critical Account Programs capability to manage the company's most complex, high-impact customer situations. The Senior Manager, Critical Account Programs will build this function from the ground up and operate it in practice, owning situations where the largest, most strategically important accounts face challenges spanning multiple functions (Sales, Services, Product, Partners, Support, Customer Success).
Key responsibilities include:
**Building the Operating Model**: Define Cornerstone's end-to-end framework for managing critical customer situations, including qualification criteria, severity levels, escalation paths, decision rights, and governance. Establish repeatable mechanisms for intake, prioritization, ownership, action tracking, communication, and closure. Connect Critical Account Programs with existing customer, product, support, and executive escalation processes to surface situations early and route them appropriately. Continuously evolve the model based on learnings.
**Leading Complex Customer Situations**: Serve as the single point of accountability for outcomes of situations involving significant customer, retention, financial, operational, or reputational risk that span multiple functions. Rapidly assess impact, urgency, and business risk, then establish the right cross-functional response. Marshal company-wide resources, align stakeholders around clear ownership, decisions, timelines, and actions. Identify where leadership intervention or executive decisions are required. Drive situations through stabilization, resolution, and closure, remaining hands-on as the capability matures.
**Executive and Customer Communication**: Manage up to the executive leadership team with confidence and clarity, providing candid views of impact, progress, risks, decisions needed, and recovery plans. Prepare executive-level readouts and recommendations supporting fast, informed decisions. Anticipate what leadership needs to know before they ask. Lead customer-facing communications during critical situations, partnering with account teams and personally leading executive-level communication with customers to demonstrate Cornerstone as coordinated, transparent, and accountable.
**Systemic Improvement**: Lead post-situation reviews to identify root causes, contributing factors, and process breakdowns. Translate findings into corrective actions with clear accountability. Identify recurring patterns across customers, products, implementations, and internal handoffs, partnering with leaders across the business to prevent recurrence.
**Scaling the Capability**: Design for scale and repeatability while preserving judgment for complex situations. Challenge traditional escalation models and identify where new operating approaches, technology, and automation can improve outcomes. Develop a strong point of view on how AI should transform situation management, including risk detection, situational awareness, decision support, coordination, and proactive intervention. Build playbooks, tooling, governance, and readiness mechanisms required to scale.
**Core Competencies Required**: 10+ years of experience in customer escalations, critical account or program management, customer success, technical program management, services, or comparable enterprise environment. Experience building systems and processes to improve customer experience. Proven ability to personally lead complex, executive-visible customer situations involving technical and business stakeholders. Exceptional executive communication skills, including managing up to senior leadership and leading executive-level customer communication under pressure. Track record of bringing structure and momentum to ambiguous, cross-functional problems. Experience partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Services, and Support, with sufficient technical fluency to navigate complex issues and translate across audiences. Experience turning root-cause findings into durable process or operating-model improvements. Strong judgment, organizational discipline, and ability to remain calm and action-oriented under pressure. Ability to influence outcomes without direct authority. Builder mindset and curiosity to understand customers, products, and organization. Clear point of view on how AI, automation, and new operating models can reinvent situation management and move organizations from reactive response toward earlier detection, faster decisions, and scalable intervention.
