Director, Customer Retention

Turn/River Capital is a private equity firm that applies a proprietary growth engineering strategy to investing, partnering with software businesses to accelerate growth and build enduring value. The firm’s team of equal parts investors and operators provides hands-on operational support and the flexible capital to systematically scale marketing, sales and customer success at its portfolio companies. Founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco, Turn/River has $5.6bn in committed capital and invests globally with a focus on North America and Europe.

About the Role

Turn/River is seeking a Director, Customer Retention to work directly with the leadership teams at our portfolio companies to build and execute retention and growth strategies. This hire will focus on diagnosing where net revenue retention is leaking, deploying the systems that fix it, and installing those systems across 2–3 companies at a time.

You will bring deep operating expertise across every core CS function — renewals, customer success, onboarding, support, and professional services — and apply it in service of one outcome: portfolio companies that retain and grow their customer base better than they did before we invested. You know how to read a cohort curve and tell the difference between a product problem and a coverage problem. You know how to rebuild an onboarding motion that isn't producing measurable value . And you have enough fluency in pricing, packaging, and CS tooling to earn the trust of a CCO and a CFO in the same conversation.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role for someone who works through other people's teams, thrives in ambiguity, and can move between diligence, strategy, and in-the-weeds execution in the same week.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Revenue, Product, and CS leaders at 2-3 portfolio companies to diagnose retention performance and deploy prioritized, known good tactics.

• Install operational best practices across the CS organization — segmentation, coverage models, health scoring, escalation paths, and renewal motions.

• Define the CS reporting and tracking layer: the metrics, dashboards, and cadence leadership uses to run the business and that Turn/River uses to measure progress.

• Advise on pricing and packaging changes, and partner with CS leaders to execute the customer-facing rollout without eroding retention.

• Deploy and iterate onboarding and adoption programs, including the collateral, playbooks, and enablement assets required to make them repeatable.

• Partner with CS leaders to recruit, assess, and develop their teams — including defining role profiles, interview processes, and performance expectations.

• Contribute new playbooks and content to the Turn/River CS library so wins at one company become defaults across the portfolio.

Qualifications

• 8+ years leading customer success organizations, with direct ownership across all core CS pillars: renewals, expansion, onboarding, support, and professional services.

• 4+ years in B2B SaaS, with a demonstrable track record of improving gross and net revenue retention — specific numbers, before and after.

• Proven experience executing and iterating onboarding programs, recurring guided success / adoption cycles, and retention processes end to end, not just advising on them.

• Ability to enter an unfamiliar business, diagnose the drivers of churn and retention, and deploy our playbooks based on the needs and priorities of each customer base.

• Demonstrated ability to influence without authority — driving change through leadership teams you don't manage.

• Depth in the CS tooling stack sufficient to evaluate, select, and implement systems, not just operate within them.

Location

• San Francisco, hybrid work model

Compensation

• The annual base salary range for this role is $280,000 - $290,000, taking into account numerous variable factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets, experience, training, licensure, certifications, and organizational requirements.

• This role is eligible to participate in the Turn/River carry program and a discretionary bonus program.

The below benefits are offered to full-time employees based out of our San Francisco office:

• An opportunity to make an impact across multiple high-growth tech firms

• Competitive salary and discretionary bonus

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance covered 100% for employee & dependents

• Flexible vacation policy

• 401K matching

• Paid parental leave

• Commuter benefits

• Health and Wellness benefits

• Household Services benefits

• Home Office benefits

• Annual Home Office Equipment Reimbursement

• Donation matching

• Work from home Monday & Friday

• Energetic work environment with snacks and weekly team lunches 3x per week, centrally located near multiple public transit lines

• A company that enjoys having fun: holiday parties, annual company offsite and retreat, annual summer "work from anywhere" month

Turn/River provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), national origin, ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition (including cancer and genetic characteristics), genetic information, marital status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, natural hair styles, age (40 years and over), sexual orientation, veteran and/or military status, protected medical leaves (requesting or approved for leave under any applicable state, or federal leave act), domestic violence victim status, political affiliation, and any other characteristic or status protected by state or federal law.