Senior Manager, Retention Strategy & Intelligence

The Vision

At Okta, growth is our mandate, but a secure foundation is the prerequisite. To protect our critical customer relationships and empower our teams, we are enhancing our GTM function with AI capabilities as a part of our broader retention strategy.

The Role

We are looking for a technical operator with strong strategic vision and business acumen to own the development and operationalization of Guided Renewals, our AI-powered approach to proactive retention. As the Senior Manager of Retention Strategy & Intelligence, you will partner directly with our Renewals organization while collaborating with GTM functions across the customer lifecycle and our Technology, Data, and Insights (TDI) team.

In this role, you will own the intelligence layer that drives retention: identifying and tracking risk signals, partnering with teams to build AI models that surface risk and recommend personalized interventions, and leading the field cadences that turn insights into action.

Core Responsibilities

1. Risk Signal Ownership & Analysis

• Own definition, tracking, and interpretation of customer risk signals including usage, engagement, sentiment, and commercial health.
• Partner with TDI to establish signal weighting, scoring thresholds, and supporting data infrastructure.
• Translate risk analysis into clear, actionable intelligence for field teams and leadership.

2. AI Model Design & Recommendation Engine

• Define the guidelines, guardrails, and decision logic that govern AI-driven retention recommendations.
• Partner with TDI and Data Science to build models that generate personalized playbook recommendations based on account context, risk type, and lifecycle stage.
• Evaluate recommendation quality and drive model refinement where AI output and business reality diverge.

3. Tooling & Recommendations Infrastructure

• Own product requirements for risk and recommendation tooling, defining UX, workflows, and outputs that make AI recommendations actionable for field teams.
• Manage the roadmap from pilot to GA, prioritizing enhancements based on field feedback and model performance.
• Ensure integration with CRM, ERP, and existing tools to minimize friction and drive adoption.

4. Field Cadences & Risk Mitigation Leadership

• Design and lead recurring risk review cadences, including customer health reviews, that drive systematic action on AI-generated signals.
• Embed cadences into Territory Planning, WIN Labs, and renewal cycles through clear workflows and supporting materials.
• Serve as the primary field advocate, ensuring recommendations reduce cognitive load and drive decisive action.

5. Performance Intelligence & Optimization

• Track performance across signal accuracy, recommendation acceptance, tooling adoption, and retention outcomes.
• Establish feedback loops with field teams and TDI to continuously refine model logic and system design.
• Conduct root cause analysis on churn and contraction to identify gaps and inform future iterations.

Qualifications

• 7+ years across Customer Success, Renewals, Sales Enablement, or Revenue Operations with hands-on experience in data, analytics, or process automation.
• Technical Fluency: Working knowledge of AI/ML, data architecture, and APIs. Able to engage technical teams and translate business needs into solutions.
• AI Systems Thinking: Able to design the logic and guardrails that govern AI behavior and ensure outputs are accurate and operationally useful.
• Strategic Translator: Connects data signals to customer realities and understands how field teams actually work.
• Product Thinking: Experience defining requirements, managing roadmaps, and iterating on user feedback.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Able to influence and align across Engineering, Data Science, Sales, CS, and Renewals.

Measures of Success

• Model Quality: Risk scores and recommendations achieve >80% accuracy with strong field feedback on actionability.
• Tooling Adoption: High, sustained engagement across field teams.
• Recommendation Acceptance: Measurable lift in retention outcomes where AI recommendations are followed.
• Cadence Effectiveness: Cadences running consistently with improvement in early risk identification.
• Revenue Impact: ARR at risk stabilized and recovered through program interventions.

Roadmap Delivery: On-track execution against FY'27 milestones with a Phase 2 plan in place.