Director - Client Success and Business Planning

About the Role
The Director, Client Success and Business Planning is a lead individual contributor responsible for managing the holistic post-sale Client Services relationship for assigned clients and delivering operational solutions to support business growth. Acting as a trusted client advocate, this role proactively enables new capabilities, supports geographic expansion, and promotes product adoption. The Director provides strategic guidance and thought leadership during solution development to ensure exceptional client service, requiring professionalism and strong interpersonal skills to influence and manage relationships with internal and client stakeholders.

This position is pivotal in driving portfolio strategy, business planning, and operational execution across the client portfolio. The role partners with senior stakeholders to translate strategic priorities into actionable plans, drive performance outcomes, and support sustainable business growth. Additionally, it serves as a key advisor to leadership on portfolio health, investment priorities, organizational effectiveness, and long-term business objectives.

The Director will be at the forefront of the Client Success transformation, working closely with key clients to maximize benefits realization and value from the company's products by optimizing performance. Collaborating with Account Team members from Sales and Product, the Director drives Client Success outcomes aligned with the broader business agenda and defines client support and service implementation strategies that deliver value. This role is essential in representing the client’s voice on operational initiatives and issues with internal functional and regional partners.

This position is located in [CEMEA/KSA] and reports to the KBO CSM lead. All roles require digital fluency, including the ability to work with emerging technologies such as Generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude) to support everyday work.

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive portfolio governance and performance tracking, including Signed Not Live (SNL) pipeline oversight, readiness case management, risk identification, and escalation of off-track opportunities.
• Support business planning and reporting processes, including OKR tracking, performance scorecards, reporting packs, and preparation for leadership reviews and business cadences.
• Coordinate cross-functional execution of strategic priorities, partnering with CSMs, product teams, readiness teams, and sales stakeholders to drive accountability, remove blockers, and improve operational outcomes.
• Provide analytical and operational support to the leadership team, delivering insights, deep-dive analysis, and recommendations to improve activation, revenue realization, and overall business performance.
• Oversee implementation of new company products by coordinating Client and company teams to expedite readiness and maximize adoption.
• Build and sustain trusted client advocate status by executing Client Success Plans and tracking client-specific outcomes, including product adoption and performance.
• Drive initiatives to improve client adoption of products and use of the company's self-service tools.
• Provide thought leadership on market trends, payment processing, company solutions, and technologies to enhance the Client experience and generate new sales leads.
• Establish working relationships with Client Services and cross-functional subject matter experts to resolve complex client issues and optimize performance.
• Develop client education and training materials to communicate new company Rules, mandates, and business enhancement releases.
• Lead periodic operational reviews with clients and company stakeholders.
• Act as an escalation point for significant issues and major incident/crisis responses.
• Support cross-functional initiatives to improve the Client experience, incorporating automated solutions for efficiency and productivity.
• Proactively identify and drive opportunities to optimize client performance by monitoring client health and liaising with specialist company teams.
• Coordinate and collaborate with global, regional, and in-market Client Success team members to maintain a continuous 360-degree view of the Client.
• Lead implementation of key strategic initiatives in support of global Client Success transformation.

The company requires at least 3 days in the office, and the expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 10 years of work experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g., Masters/MBA/JD/MD) or 3 years of work experience with a PhD.
• Experience analyzing data and translating findings into actionable business solutions.
• Experience in communicating complex technical terms and processes in business language tailored to the client.
• Experience prioritizing and multi-tasking under deadlines.
• Experience with Artificial Intelligence (AI) concepts and applications to create value for the company and its clients.
• Experience representing technical and business issues and solutions to influence audiences at multiple levels of an organization, including senior executives.
• Experience in the payment industry, including trends, threats, competitors, and regulatory environments.
• Experience leading cross-functional team members through high-impact, complex business issues.
• Certifications or qualifications in Client/Customer Success, project management, or related areas.
• Advanced proficiency in building client relationships, customer-centric approaches, success planning, client engagement, proactiveness, and critical thinking.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g., Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD.
• Experience developing and delivering client education and training materials.
• Experience leading implementation of strategic initiatives in support of transformation programs.
• Experience collaborating with global, regional, and in-market teams to deliver consistent operational relationship experiences.