Senior Director, Public Sector Customer Success

An overview of this role

As the Senior Director, Public Sector Customer Success, you'll play a critical role in how mission-focused government and public sector organizations realize value from GitLab's AI-powered DevSecOps platform. You'll set the vision and lead a high-performing, distributed customer success organization that drives adoption, delivers an exceptional customer experience, and improves gross renewals and net retention across public sector accounts. You'll report to the Associate Vice President (AVP) of Public Sector Sales and own the strategy and execution of customer success motions tailored to military, federal agencies, and intelligence community customers. You'll also build strong relationships with senior customer and internal stakeholders. In your first year, you'll refine and scale customer lifecycle programs, strengthen collaboration models with Sales, Regional Directors, and services teams, and establish clear, data-driven practices for forecasting, performance tracking, and risk management. It's a unique opportunity to guide how mission-critical public sector organizations modernize software delivery with GitLab while you co-create the future of customer success at GitLab.

What you’ll do

• Set the overall vision and strategic plan for Public Sector Customer Success, focusing on product adoption, an exceptional customer experience, and growth through improved gross renewals and net revenue retention across public sector accounts.
• Lead and support managers across Customer Success Management, Renewals Management, Solutions Architecture, US-based customer support, Professional Services, and cleared personnel, ensuring these teams are aligned to public sector customer needs and GitLab's go-to-market strategy.
• Define, track, and continuously refine key performance indicators (KPIs) for the public sector customer lifecycle, including health scores, support CSAT scores, adoption, renewals, first order growth, and net ARR expansion, using data to guide strategy and resourcing decisions.
• Build and maintain strong executive-level relationships with military, federal agency, and intelligence community customers, serving as an escalation point for critical issues and ensuring rapid, coordinated responses that protect and grow customer relationships.
• Own the design and evolution of public sector customer lifecycle programs, from onboarding and success planning to expansion plays and renewal motions, ensuring clear processes, documentation, and accountability at each stage.
• Represent Public Sector Customer Success, Solutions Architecture, Renewals, and Support with global GitLab teams, sharing best practices from public sector customers and incorporating global learnings, while advocating for product and process changes that address public sector requirements.
• Partner closely with Sales leadership and Regional Directors to align on coverage models, account plans, renewal and expansion forecasting, and strategies that drive new business, upsell, cross-sell, and increased advocacy within public sector accounts.
• Own responsibility for public sector security-oriented programs for FedRAMP, GOVRAMP, and TXRAMP, leading the Field Security Officer and cleared personnel, and ensuring that customer success motions and customer engagements meet applicable security and compliance expectations.
• Designing and scaling public sector customer success programs focused on product adoption, mission outcomes, and improvements in gross renewals and net retention across military, federal, and intelligence community accounts
• Partnering with sales, pre-sales, professional services, and support to build and execute joint account plans for public sector customers, including onboarding programs, executive business reviews, and structured escalation management

What you’ll bring

• Due to the nature of this role supporting U.S. public sector and government customers, experience working in highly regulated or secure government environments—including navigating security, compliance, and data-handling requirements—is required, along with an active United States Secret or Top Secret Security Clearance in accordance with applicable regulations and customer requirements.
• Demonstrated progressive experience leading managers of customer success, account management, and/or sales teams in a SaaS or subscription enterprise software company, with a focus on public sector customers.
• Ability to navigate and influence complex organizations, balancing the needs of sales, marketing, product, professional services, operations, and executive stakeholders while adapting to evolving business priorities.
• Proven leadership skills suitable for a senior director-level role, with experience recruiting, managing, mentoring, and developing high-performing, globally distributed teams across multiple regions and cultures.
• Strong understanding of how customer success, product adoption, and executive relationships drive gross renewal, net revenue retention, expansion, and long-term customer health in public sector accounts.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills to build trusted relationships with senior Public Sector customers and internal leaders, including comfort engaging at the executive level and handling sensitive or escalated situations.
• Capacity to work autonomously and asynchronously in an all-remote environment while staying aligned to shared goals, processes, and priorities across the broader GitLab team.
• Familiarity with defining and optimizing customer lifecycle programs, tracking performance through data and metrics, and using insights to inform go-to-market strategies, account growth plans, and risk management for public sector customers.

About the team

The Public Sector Customer Success team at GitLab helps government and public sector organizations achieve mission-aligned outcomes with GitLab's AI-powered DevSecOps platform. We're a distributed group of customer success, account management, solutions architecture, support, and services professionals who work asynchronously across multiple regions to support customers with varied mission, security, and compliance needs. We collaborate closely with partners across GitLab, use clear processes and documentation, and keep improving how we work to meet the unique needs of a rapidly growing public sector business.