Customer Activations Manager

What You’ll Do

• Own every new customer onboarding end-to-end — from signed contract through graduation, with clean handoff criteria to Account Management
• Execute tiered onboarding tracks calibrated to company size: lightweight self-serve oversight for small accounts, structured multi-stakeholder implementations for mid-market and enterprise
• Drive first payroll on the first eligible pay cycle — ensuring data migration accuracy, tax registrations, and bank verification are complete before a customer's next pay period closes
• Certify graduation: not just a payroll run, but confirmed stakeholder engagement, post-go-live training, and feature adoption appropriate to the customer's setup
• Manage a portfolio of concurrent implementations with precision — proactive outreach, clear timelines, and zero dropped handoffs
• Execute against tier-specific templates, escalation paths, and graduation checklists — and flag where they need to be improved
• Partner cross-functionally: Engineering for custom setups, Tax Ops on state registration dependencies, Support on go-live blockers
• Feed structured product feedback from implementation directly into the product team
• Serve as a co-owner of the playbook alongside the Activations team, iterating on templates, escalation paths, and graduation criteria as you learn what works

What You Need

• At least 3+ years of experience in implementation, customer success, or project management in a B2B SaaS organization — with a track record of hitting activation or onboarding KPIs
• Project management DNA — organized, process-driven, and calm under the pressure of juggling multiple concurrent implementations
• Strong communicator: able to move multiple customer stakeholders through a structured checklist without losing momentum or relationships
• Ability to calibrate your approach by company size — a 5-person startup and a 120-person company need fundamentally different onboarding motions
• Experience with payroll, HR tech, or fintech products — you understand the stakes of a missed pay cycle
• Builder's mindset: you've improved a process, written a playbook, or closed a gap that wasn't yours to fix
• High agency and a genuine bias for action in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with payroll platforms, or HRIS systems, accounting software (e.g. QuickBooks, Xero)
• Experience at an early-stage or high-growth company where the playbook was still being written
• Track record owning implementation metrics end-to-end with specific numbers attached

Compensation

Base salary: $100,000–$160,000 depending on experience, plus performance spiffs tied to activation speed and graduation rate, plus equity.