Senior Director, Customer Advocacy

Here at Appian, our values of Intensity and Excellence define who we are. We set high standards and live up to them, ensuring that everything we do is done with care and quality. We approach every challenge with ambition and commitment, holding ourselves and each other accountable to achieve the best results. When you join Appian, you’ll be part of a passionate team dedicated to accomplishing hard things, together.

Appian is seeking a Senior Director of Customer Advocacy to lead and expand our global customer advocacy function. This highly visible role is ideal for an experienced leader, relationship builder, and world-class storyteller who is deeply passionate about customers and skilled at transforming their successes into compelling narratives. This individual will define the vision for Appian’s customer reference program, strengthen relationships with our most engaged and successful customers, and create opportunities for them to share the value they have achieved through public references, events, media opportunities, peer-review platforms, and customer-facing assets.

The Senior Director will work across the organization to identify powerful customer stories, secure participation and external-use permissions, and activate those narratives across channels. This leader will manage a team of two and collaborate closely with Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, executive ambassadors, Investor Relations, Product Marketing, Communications, Analyst Relations, Creative, Digital, Field Marketing, and other key stakeholders.

This role is based at our ​headquarters in ​McLean, Virginia. Appian was built on a culture of in-person collaboration, which we believe is a key driver of our mission to be the best. Employees hired for this position are expected to be in the office 5 days a week to foster that culture and ensure we continue to thrive through shared ideas and teamwork. We believe being in the office provides more opportunities to come together and celebrate working with the exceptional people across Appian.

In this role, you will:

• Define the vision and strategy for Appian’s global customer advocacy and reference program in support of Sales and Marketing objectives.
• Manage and grow a strong pipeline of customer champions who are willing to participate in advocacy opportunities.
• Build compelling customer narratives that can be activated through written and video case studies, speaking engagements, media opportunities, social media, campaigns, and other channels.
• Develop and oversee the customer reference pipeline by partnering consistently with internal teams, executive ambassadors, and customer-facing stakeholders.
• Work transparently across the organization to identify customer successes, capture impactful stories, and secure permission to use those stories externally.
• Maintain a deep understanding of customer use cases and partner closely with customer value creation teams to identify measurable outcomes and proof points.
• Provide customer insights and proof points that strengthen broader marketing strategies across industries, regions, and buyer audiences.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing teams to enable customer champions and incorporate customer evidence into campaigns, presentations, sales plays, and executive communications.
• Lead the development of written case studies, customer videos, media pitches, executive narratives, and other customer-facing assets.
• Recruit customer speakers and develop engaging presentations for marquee company, industry, and partner events.
• Manage Appian’s presence across peer-review platforms and develop strategies to maintain and improve the company’s leadership position.
• Establish program goals, KPIs, dashboards, and reporting frameworks to measure customer participation, content activation, program adoption, and business impact.
• Identify and implement best-in-class tools, systems, and processes to support customer advocacy operations globally.
• Manage, coach, and develop a team of two while building strong working relationships across the organization.

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Growth and health of the global customer reference pipeline.
• Number and quality of customers participating in advocacy activities.
• Strength, consistency, and reach of customer narratives across channels.
• Adoption and usage of customer proof points by Sales and Marketing teams.
• Customer speaker participation at marquee events and industry engagements.
• Volume and impact of written case studies, videos, media opportunities, and social content.
• Performance and leadership rankings across peer-review platforms.
• Measurable influence on pipeline, buyer engagement, conversion, and customer trust.
• Effectiveness of program operations, reporting, and cross-functional execution.
• Strength of relationships with customers, executive ambassadors, and internal stakeholders.

Qualifications:

• 12+ years of experience in B2B Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, or a related function, including at least five years in customer marketing, customer advocacy, or customer reference programs.
• 5+ years of people-management experience, with a demonstrated ability to coach teams and collaborate with senior executives and stakeholders.
• Proven success developing and scaling customer advocacy, customer reference, or customer storytelling programs.
• Strong track record of cultivating executive-level customer relationships and securing participation in external advocacy opportunities.
• Exceptional communication, writing, presentation, and storytelling skills.
• Experience capturing customer stories across multiple formats, including written case studies, videos, events, media opportunities, social content, and sales assets.
• Strong organizational and operational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet tight deadlines across global teams.
• Demonstrated ability to work with urgency and deliver results in a fast-moving, rapidly growing organization.
• Strong project-management, time-management, and prioritization skills.
• Ability to respond effectively to shifting priorities and manage projects that may move in different directions from week to week.
• Process-oriented mindset with strong analytical, strategic-thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally and influence stakeholders without direct authority.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree.
• Experience leading a global customer advocacy or customer reference program within an enterprise B2B technology or SaaS organization.
• Experience managing peer-review platforms and customer-review strategies.
• Experience partnering with Sales, Customer Success, Communications, Analyst Relations, Investor Relations, Product Marketing, Field Marketing, and executive leadership.
• Familiarity with customer advocacy platforms, reference-management tools, CRM systems, and reporting technologies.
• Experience connecting customer advocacy efforts to pipeline influence, sales enablement, customer retention, and broader business outcomes.

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Tools and Resources 

• Training and Development: During onboarding, we focus on equipping new hires with the skills and knowledge for success through department-specific training. Continuous learning is a central focus at Appian, with dedicated mentorship and the First-Friend program being widely utilized resources for new hires. 
• Growth Opportunities: Appian provides a diverse array of growth and development opportunities, including our leadership program tailored for new and aspiring managers, a comprehensive library of specialized department training through Appian University, skills based training, and tuition reimbursement for those aiming to advance their education. This commitment ensures that employees have access to a holistic range of development opportunities.
• Community: We’ll immerse you into our community rooted in respect starting on day one. Appian fosters inclusivity through our 8 employee-led affinity groups. These groups help employees build stronger internal and external networks by planning social, educational, and outreach activities to connect with Appianites and larger initiatives throughout the company.

Benefits

Appian offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and financial future. Benefits may include health coverage, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with free mental health support, life and disability insurance, an Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), a retirement/pension plan, wellness dollars, tuition reimbursement, family-forming benefits and more. Benefits vary by country—please ask your Talent Acquisition contact for details specific to the location you are applying to.

About Appian

Appian provides AI automation for mission-critical work. We automate complex processes in large enterprises and governments. Our platform is known for its unique reliability and scale. We’ve been automating processes for more than 25 years and understand enterprise operations like no one else. For more information, visit appian.com. [Nasdaq: APPN]

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Appian is an equal opportunity employer that strives to attract and retain the best talent. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. 

Appian provides reasonable accommodations to applicants in accordance with all applicable laws. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at ReasonableAccommodations@appian.com. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.

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