Senior Director, Renewals and Retention

Senior Director, Renewals and Retention 

Role overview 

The Senior Director, Renewals and Retention is a strategic leadership role responsible for defining and leading Blackbaud’s next-generation renewals motion across a large, multi-product installed base. This leader will own retention as a business outcome and reimagine the customer renewal experience, moving from a fragmented set of contracts, dates, and conversations toward a simple, unified, and predictable renewal relationship. 

This role moves beyond traditional renewal management. The Senior Director, Renewals and Retention will design and operationalize a scalable, data-driven renewals model aligned to customer segmentation, product strategy, and long-term revenue growth. They will also build and evolve the capabilities, strategy, standards, systems, and team required to support a modern renewals organization. This role has a direct impact on recurring revenue, retention, and expansion outcomes. 

We are looking for a transformational leader who will set the strategy, build and develop the renewals motion, and lead the organization through change while driving towards required business outcomes. 

What you’ll bring   

Transformation, strategy & execution 

• Move quickly to assess the current renewals motion and develop a new transformation strategy — then own its implementation and execution end to end. 

• Rebuild the renewals motion, team, and processes for scale and predictability, retaining revenue for customers while improving churn. 

• Establish scalable processes, governance, and the standards that keep simplification disciplined. 

• Tackle partial churn directly, including changing how the organization negotiates with customers at renewal to reduce downsell and contract erosion.  

• Operationalize the strategy: translate it into implemented changes to team structure, tools, workflows, and customer-facing motions, and sustain the change through execution. 

• Lead organizational change with clarity and pace, evolving the motion in step with product and go-to-market shifts. 

• Build the measurement and instrumentation that show whether the transformation is working. 

Strategic leadership and renewals strategy 

• Define and lead the end-to-end renewals and retention strategy across the installed base. 

• Reimagine the customer’s renewal experience and lead the commercial simplification required to get there. 

• Shape offering, bundling, and packaging strategy as a driver of retention, expansion, and customer value. 

AI, data, and innovation 

• Design a next-generation motion that pairs named coverage with scaled, automated coverage for the broader base. 

• Apply AI and data science to the transformation — using them to redesign workflows, segment the base, and scale coverage, not just as reporting tools. 

• Leverage AI, predictive analytics, and data science to segment customers, anticipate churn risk, and surface expansion opportunities. 

• Champion automation and intelligent tooling to improve scalability, efficiency, and customer experience. 

• Continuously evaluate emerging technology to keep the motion ahead of the market. 

Revenue ownership and performance 

• Own performance against gross retention, net revenue retention, renewal rates, and expansion. 

• Deliver expansion as a single, relevant offer at renewal rather than several uncoordinated ones. 

• Personally engage on high-value, complex renewals and bring executive presence to close. 

• Partner with Finance to forecast recurring revenue and inform long-range planning. 

• Protect margin and commercial value while driving performance. 

Cross-functional influence and matrixed leadership 

• Build alignment and accountability across Product, Finance, Legal, Sales, and Customer Success without relying on direct authority. 

• Coordinate the motions that reach the same customer, so teams reinforce one another rather than compete for attention. 

• Lead cross-functional initiatives tied to retention and lifecycle optimization. 

Customer strategy and engagement 

• Engage senior customer executives on complex renewals and expansion. 

• Shape tailored renewal strategies based on customer health and strategic value. 

• Recognize when an opportunity is really an unrealized-value problem, and route it to onboarding and enablement rather than to a seller. 

Team leadership and development 

• Restructure the team and organizational model to match the new motion, including roles, coverage models, and reporting lines.  

• Recruit, develop, and retain a strong team and leadership bench through a period of change. 

• Set clear priorities, expectations, and accountability. 

• Build a culture of high performance, agility, and continuous improvement, and a team people want to work for. 

What you’ll bring 

• 12+ years of experience in renewals, customer success, revenue operations, commercial operations, account management, or related leadership roles, including ownership of recurring revenue performance, customer retention, and large-scale business transformation initiatives. 

• Transformational leadership experience in renewals or commercial organizations at scale, including oversight of thousands of customer accounts and significant recurring revenue across both named and scaled customer engagement models. 

• Proven experience rebuilding and transforming a renewals organization, operating model, or motion, with measurable improvements in GRR, NRR, retention, and churn. 

• Demonstrated success owning and improving gross retention performance, with a deep understanding of the drivers behind retention outcomes. 

• Experience leveraging automation, AI, and data-driven insights to segment customers, identify risk, and optimize engagement strategies at scale. 

• Strong understanding of pricing, packaging, and bundling strategies, including their impact on ARR, customer cohorts, retention, and growth. 

• Experience working with enterprise customers and leading complex renewal, expansion, or commercial discussions. 

• Proven ability to lead organizational change, evolve team structures, and maintain high levels of engagement and performance through transformation. 

• Demonstrated ability to drive alignment and results across a matrixed organization where ownership is shared across multiple teams. 

• Strong commercial acumen combined with a customer-centric approach, balancing revenue performance, customer value, and long-term retention. 

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Blackbaud is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or veteran status or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.

Benefits Include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Remote-flexible workforce

• Wellness Programs

• 401(k) program with employer match

• Flexible paid time off

• Generous Parental Leave

• Donations for Doers

• Pet insurance, legal and identity protection

• Tuition reimbursement program