Q1 Review: a look back at Customer Success Job Market in Q1 2026

Data was compiled from 25 Job Drops published over 13 weeks: January 6 through March 31, 2026.

Job Drops are curated. I have specific standards and jobs must meet them to be included in my newsletter. Jobs must be remote, and include a salary in the job description. I also do not share roles for companies that don’t meet my moral and cultural standards.

Each category has its own salary floor and experience threshold, which means the jobs in this report represent a filtered, quality-controlled view of the market rather than raw volume.

Salary data is based on the midpoint of each posted range, then I take the median of those midpoints. Most postings reflect base salary, though some reflect OTE when base was not available.

Experienced CSM roles require 2-4 years experience as a CSM, and I have a minimum salary floor of $70,000.

In Q1, I shared 194 jobs for Experienced CSMs, with a median salary of $101,200. That’s up 5% from the 2025 median of $96,288.

January volume was already higher than in Q4 2025, and volume picked up significantly in March. My read is that companies are investing in their Success teams now, to ready for a strong Q3/Q4.

Salary distribution shows that ranges are generally concentrated between $80,000-$120,000 for this role.

This is about where I’d expect it to be based on market signals, though I’d prefer to see less roles under $100k.

Note that this is typically the base salary for the role and doesn’t factor in variable comp.

Senior CSM roles require 5+ years experience as a CSM, and I have a minimum salary floor of $100,000.

In Q1, I shared 202 jobs for Senior CSMs, with a median salary of $145,000. That’s up 5% from the 2025 median and the highest volume of any category this quarter.

Senior CSM roles led both in volume and consistency across all three months. This reflects a tech-wide market trend: senior level talent is highly desirable and where a lot of the team growth is happening.

This could be a strong signal for opportunities for job seekers across the board. More on that below.

Salary ranges are generally concentrated between $120,000-$160,000.

I’m encouraged that the $160+ range is third, but I would like to see the $100-120k range much lower. Senior CSM roles often ask a lot of their applicants, and the market needs to meet that expectation.

Note that this category has the most mix of base and OTE roles, and this report treats those ranges as the same to calculate the median. I hope to have a better breakdown of base vs variable in future reports.

Leadership roles require experience managing a Customer Success team, and I have a minimum salary floor of $100,000.

In Q1 I shared 123 jobs for CS leaders with a median salary of $158,588. This is the only category where the median salary declined, down 3.9% from 2025’s median of $165,000.

The salary dip here is something I’m paying attention to. It could reflect companies hiring more Manager-level leaders (which pulls the median down) rather than an actual decrease in what senior leaders are being paid.

And while leadership roles were up in March over Jan/Feb, I am generally concerned about the health of the leadership roles this year. There is a tech-wide trend of reducing “middle management” and a lot of CS leadership roles fit squarely here.

That’s not to say there is no hope, but for the next few months I anticipate more competition for fewer roles in the Leadership category.

Director and Manager titles made up the majority of postings. Director has the widest salary range, but also the widest potential in the market. I aim to explore the nuance of this a bit better in future reports.

Salary ranges are generally concentrated between $120,000-$160,000. With $160k a close third.

These salaries are roughly on par with Senior CSMs, which reflects a reality in the market right now that leadership has more earning potential, but not necessarily higher earnings.

Onboarding and Implementation require any years experience in an Onboarding or Implementation role, and I have a minimum salary floor of $70,000.

In Q1 I shared 125 jobs in Onboarding & Implementation with a median salary of $107,500. That’s up 3.3% from 2025’s median of $104,080.

Onboarding is a roller coaster: some months there are a lot of jobs and some there are very little. Sometimes they are looking for early career or limited experience, and sometimes they want extremely senior experience.

What’s most interesting is that they come in waves, so while the trends change, the companies are participating in the trends together at the same time.

Salary ranges are generally concentrated between $100,000-$120,000. This reflects that in Q1, hiring for these roles is concentrated on more senior level roles.

Break Into Success roles have no specific Customer Success requirements, but look for transferable skills and industry expertise. This category can encompass roles looking for 2 years experience in customer service to 10 years in clinical healthcare.

In Q1 I posted 68 jobs with a median salary of $75,000. That’s up 7.1% from 2025’s median of $70,000.

The growth in this category can be attributed perhaps not just to a growth in the market but in my ability to find these roles. These roles are one of the most unique things about this newsletter and something I’ll continue to research and uncover.

Salary ranges are generally concentrated between $60-80k. While the number of roles over $100k is limited, I do find it encouraging that there are roles you can be qualified for even if your experience is non-traditional.

Particularly because you can get the title “Customer Success Manager” without specific CSM experience:

This can be a great stepping stone role into more money and better pay in 1-2 years.

March was the first month I started tracking Operations roles again, so we’ll have meaningful data on this in Q2.

A few things I’m watching and building around:

I started tracking these roles again because I have a prediction. I think we’re going to see a heavy push into Operations roles in Q3 of this year. There were very few Operations roles posted in 2025, but they’re starting to trickle in for 2026 so I want you to be ready.

I’m starting to track how many roles want you to own the full lifecycle from onboarding to expansion to renewal, or just parts of it.

Psst: if you would be interested in improving your commercial skills as a CSM, I’m putting together a training. Sign up to get notified.

Towards the end of 2025, I saw a massive decline in “Renewals Manager” roles, and I’m seeing more and more leaders talk about commercial skillsets as table stakes, not just nice to haves.

However: I’m also seeing a lot of CSM roles still be responsible for onboarding. So, this is the data I’m really interested in over the next few months. What are companies expecting from their CSMs, and are they being fully set up for success?

Lately I’ve been really diving into this idea of application friction: requiring logins, requiring you to copy and paste your resume to a tool, requiring long form application questions or even videos as part of the initial application.

I want to understand and help you prepare for it because, unfortunately in the world of AI Apply, I think it will get worse before it gets better.

If you can’t tell, I’m totally geeking out over here about all this data. But I don’t want it to just be data for data’s sake. I’m putting together a weekly snapshot for Insiders so they can track the job market and trends as they’re happening.

The job market is different in 2026. It’s not enough to be highly skilled in Customer Success, you have to be highly skilled at finding a job.

After years as a Director of Customer Success and almost two years putting together this newsletter, I know how hiring managers think, and I know how this market moves week after week.

As an Insider, you get:

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Nicole St. Germain is a former Director of Customer Success and hiring manager, now running Customer Success Jobs, a twice weekly newsletter delivering 75+ curated remote CS roles to over 5,000 subscribers, and strategic Playbooks to help job seekers land an incredible job.

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