Manager of Renewals, SMB

About the Position

Manager of Renewals, SMB

Ashby is seeking a Manager of Renewals, SMB to lead a team of global Startup Contract Managers. This role is pivotal in guiding customers through renewals, pricing conversations, negotiations, and long-term partnership planning. The ideal candidate will help the team navigate complex commercial conversations while building scalable processes and operational rigor.

Location

Remote - US; Remote - Canada

Employment Type

Full time

Department

Customer Success & Contract Management

Compensation

• US Avg OTE $145K – $171K • Offers Equity • Offers Commission
• SF & NYC OTE $166K – $196K • Offers Equity • Offers Commission
• CAD OTE $145K – $171K • Offers Equity • Offers Commission

About the Role

As the Manager of Contract Management, you’ll lead a team of global Startup Contract Managers responsible for renewal strategy, customer retention, and commercial partnership management across Ashby’s customer base. You’ll act as a coach, operator, and strategic thought partner - helping the team grow their commercial acumen, negotiation capabilities, and customer judgment while also building scalable systems and processes that allow the organization to operate effectively at scale.

In this role, you will:

• Lead and coach a team of 6 Startup Contract Managers (4 in America and 2 in EMEA) responsible for renewals, contract negotiations, and commercial partnership conversations.
• Up-level team performance through thoughtful coaching, operational discipline, and skill development across negotiation strategy, forecasting, customer communication, and stakeholder management.
• Help build scalable renewal processes, systems, and operational workflows that improve efficiency while preserving a high-touch customer experience.
• Partner cross-functionally with Customer Success, Sales, Product, Finance, Legal, Support, and RevOps to align on customer strategy and commercial outcomes.
• Drive consistency in renewal execution, forecasting accuracy, CRM hygiene, and pricing governance across the team.
• Support the team in navigating complex negotiations involving procurement, legal, executive stakeholders, pricing transitions, and multi-product commercial conversations.
• Translate successful negotiation strategies and customer patterns into repeatable frameworks, playbooks, and enablement materials for the broader organization.
• Help shape the long-term vision and operational strategy for the Contract Management function as Ashby continues to scale.

Requirements

Team Leadership & Coaching

• Experience leading and developing high-performing customer-facing teams in a B2B SaaS environment.
• Foster a culture centered around empathy, accountability, creativity, and transparency.

Commercial Acumen & Negotiation Strategy

• Deep experience managing or overseeing complex renewals, pricing conversations, and contract negotiations.
• Ability to balance customer partnership with commercial integrity.

Renewal Strategy & Forecasting

• Understanding of how to proactively manage renewal risk, expansion opportunities, forecasting accuracy, and long-term account planning.

Operational Mindset

• Experience building or improving scalable systems, workflows, and processes that allow teams to operate effectively at scale.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Comfortable partnering across Sales, Customer Success, Product, RevOps, Legal, Finance, and Support.

Customer & Executive Communication

• Excellent communicator who can navigate challenging conversations with empathy, professionalism, and clarity.

Problem-Solving Orientation

• Thoughtful, adaptable, and solutions-oriented with the ability to navigate ambiguity and develop creative approaches to complex commercial challenges.

Data-Driven & Strategic

• Comfortable using data, trends, customer insights, and operational metrics to drive decision-making and improve both team performance and customer outcomes.

You’ll Be a Great Fit If You:

• Communicate with clarity and empathy.
• Enjoy coaching and see every negotiation, renewal, and customer interaction as an opportunity to help your team learn and grow.
• Value strong internal systems, accurate forecasting, clean data, and scalable process design.
• Thrive in dynamic environments and are energized by solving complex problems and adapting processes as the business evolves.
• Balance customer advocacy with business integrity.
• Enjoy building and are excited about helping shape the future of the Contract Management organization and scaling its impact across Ashby.

You Might Not Be a Fit If:

• You prefer highly rigid, unchanging processes and environments.
• You are uncomfortable navigating pricing conversations, negotiations, or commercial ambiguity.
• You prefer operating independently rather than through cross-functional collaboration and team development.
• You are more interested in defining high-level strategy than owning execution alongside your team.
• You avoid operational detail, forecasting rigor, or system/process improvement work.
• You are uncomfortable balancing customer empathy with accountability and commercial discipline.
• You prefer transactional customer interactions over long-term strategic partnership building.

Our Philosophy

• We spend a lot of time building best-in-class products since we believe a highly differentiated product is easier to position and support in commercial conversations.
• We believe deeply in pairing customer empathy with accountability and operational excellence.
• We value thoughtful communication, principled decision-making, and strong ownership across every function.
• We strongly believe that small teams with very talented people deliver significantly better outcomes than large teams with unclear ownership or low accountability.
• We care deeply about helping customers succeed while also building a sustainable, scalable business.

Interview Process

At Ashby, our interview process is designed to help you show your best self while also giving you insight into how we operate as a team. The process typically includes:

• Recruiter Screen - 30 minutes
• Hiring Manager Interview - 45 minutes
• Strategic Exercise - Take-home assignment
• Final Round - 2 hours
  • Rather than a traditional panel interview with a large group, we structure our panel into a series of smaller conversations. This gives you the opportunity to meet with multiple team members in a more conversational setting focused on specific topics, instead of a formal Q&A. You'll discuss how you approach problem solving, how you work with sales, and dive into a product complexity exercise.

Benefits

• Emphasis on high-quality work and avoiding quick hacks.
• 10-year exercise window for stock options.
• Unlimited PTO with four weeks recommended per year.
• Twelve weeks of fully paid family leave in the US.
• Generous equipment, software, and office furniture budget.
• $100/month education budget with more expensive items covered with manager approval.

Ashby provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.

Ashby is committed to a fair and transparent hiring process. We confirm that this advertisement is for an active, existing vacancy within our organization. Please be advised that we may use artificial intelligence-driven tools to assist our recruitment team in screening, assessing, and selecting candidates for this position.

Compensation Range: $145K - $196K