Director Client Experience

Harbor IT is a leading Managed Service Provider (MSP) specializing in delivering cutting edge Cybersecurity, IT, and Cloud Services to a diverse portfolio of clients. We pride ourselves on our commitment to excellence, innovation, and customer satisfaction. Harbor IT is backed by investment firm Worklyn Partners since 2022 and has built a national platform through acquisition and rapid organic growth. Our mission is to manage our clients’ technology and mitigate their cyber risks, so that they don’t have to.

The Director of Client Experience (D-CX) is Harbor IT's most senior client-facing leadership role below the President. This individual owns the entire client experience organization every POD-CIO, every Client Success Manager, every recontracting conversation, and every retention outcome. They are the standard-setter for how Harbor IT shows up for its clients at scale.

This is an operator's role, not a strategist's role. The Director of CX builds team rhythm, makes fast talent decisions, steps directly into high-stakes client situations, and drives post-acquisition recontracting from integration through signed agreements. They report directly to the President and are a critical part of Harbor IT's growth and exit strategy.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

People Leadership & Talent Management

• Directly manage all POD-CIOs and Client Success Managers across Harbor IT's Shuttle structure

• Set clear performance expectations for each direct report; hold them accountable to individual KPIs on a monthly cadence

• Conduct structured 1:1s, performance reviews, and development conversations — proactively, not reactively

• Make fast, independent hiring and termination decisions; do not tolerate sustained underperformance

• Build the bench: identify future POD-CIO and CSM candidates, develop internal talent, and maintain a pipeline

• Mentor POD-CIOs in client strategy, escalation handling, and commercial execution

Post-Acquisition Recontracting

• Serve as the operational owner of the Recontracting Execution phase following every acquisition

• Coordinate POD-CIOs and exec sponsors through client outreach, objection handling, and agreement closure

• Track the recontracting pipeline on a weekly basis; report directly to the President with status and risks

• Own walk-away and loss protocols for clients who decline recontracting; document all outcomes

• Partner with the President, CTO, and M&A team during Pre-Integration and SysOps Sprint phases to prepare recontracting rubrics, client tiers, and executive sponsor assignments

• Ensure opportunistic recontracting is executed where appropriate at the President's direction

Client Retention & Revenue Performance

• Own GRR at 90%+ and NRR at 107%+ across the full client portfolio

• Monitor client health across all PODs; flag at-risk accounts early and deploy mitigation plans before churn becomes a conversation

• Review POD-CIO and CSM KPIs monthly: PNU, controllable churn, portfolio health, PS quota attainment, and contract profitability

• Step directly into high-stakes client situations — escalations, churn risks, exec relationship issues — as the senior Harbor IT representative

• Oversee QBR/SBR execution across all PODs; ensure consistency, quality, and executive participation

Operational Cadence & Standards

• Establish and enforce the operating rhythm of the client experience org: team meetings, reporting cadences, escalation paths, and handoffs

• Ensure onboarding quality, at-risk tracking, health scoring, and CRM hygiene are operating consistently across all PODs

• Develop and maintain client experience playbooks, escalation frameworks, and recontracting rubrics

• Ensure CSMs are trained on rubrics, workflows, and Harbor IT's service model following every acquisition

• Contribute to Harbor IT's PSA hygiene, billing accuracy, and utilization standards by holding the team accountable to clean data inputs

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with the President on strategic direction, team structure, and key account decisions

• Work closely with the VP of Managed Services, DealDesk, CTO, and M&A to ensure alignment across delivery, commercial, and client experience functions

• Represent the voice of the client in internal planning discussions — surface patterns, risks, and opportunities from the portfolio

• Support Harbor IT's exit readiness by building a client organization that performs predictably, is well-documented, and demonstrates durable retention

CORE COMPETENCIES

• People Leadership & Accountability — builds high-performing teams, sets standards, makes hard calls fast

• Recontacting & Commercial Instinct — understands the levers of client retention and revenue protection in an MSP model

• Risk Sensing — reads client situations early, connects dots others miss, never surprised by churn

• Criticality — runs toward problems; energized by fire drills and high-stakes situations

• Multi-Stakeholder Communication — credible with PE sponsors, client executives, POD-CIOs, and CSMs simultaneously

• Operational Discipline — installs rhythm, enforces standards, and holds the team to measurable outcomes

• Hyper-Growth Resilience — thrives in ambiguity, builds the plane while flying it, does not need a clean playbook

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Bachelor's degree required

Experience

• 8+ years of progressive leadership in client success, account management, or managed services delivery

• Demonstrated experience managing multi-level teams (managing managers preferred)

• Proven ownership of GRR and NRR at a portfolio level — with specific numbers to back it up

• Experience in PE-backed or hypergrowth companies strongly preferred

• MSP, managed services, or professional services background preferred

• Post-acquisition recontracting or client integration experience a significant plus

Technical & Professional

• Familiarity with PSA tools (ConnectWise preferred) and CRM systems (HubSpot preferred)

• Comfortable with data — knows how to read a portfolio health dashboard and act on it

• Strong executive presence and communication skills across audiences

• Exceptional ability to deliver hard news, hold difficult conversations, and maintain relationships under pressure