Lead Renewal Specialist

We believe in the power and joy of learning

At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping learners around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Department: Customer Success

Company: Cengage School

Region Supported: Southeast/Northeast & Inside Accounts

Role Overview

The Renewal Specialist is responsible for managing and driving customer renewals through proactive engagement, strategic prioritization, and close collaboration with sales representatives and internal teams. This role ensures customer happiness, minimizes churn, and supports revenue growth by efficiently managing renewal opportunities and identifying expansion opportunities across the product portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and manage a renewal pipeline using CRM dashboards, ensuring accurate tracking of contacts, opportunities, quotes, and renewal stages
• Maintain detailed and timely notes on all customer interactions, including calls, meetings, emails, and renewal activity
• Complete renewal strategies by working opportunities through defined stages and prioritizing renewals by value and risk level
• Manage a high-volume inbox and maintain a customer response-time goal of 24 hours or less
• Proactively prioritize and work the highest-value renewals in descending order to improve retention and revenue
• Conduct monthly sessions with sales representatives to assess renewal progress, address at-risk accounts, and coordinate on strategic plans to boost renewals
• Collaborate closely with sales reps and internal teammates to stay current on systems, tools, and processes
• Attend bi-weekly Southeast and Northeast meetings to provide renewal updates, field questions, and support managers and teams
• Develop product knowledge to find opportunities for expansion and new product growth during the renewal cycle
• Accurately log and track all customer activity in CRM to support reporting, forecasting, and leadership visibility

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple renewals simultaneously
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience managing CRM systems and maintaining clean, detailed data
• Ability to prioritize work based on urgency, value, and customer risk
• Strong collaboration skills and ease working across sales and internal groups
• Customer-focused attitude with a proactive approach to problem-solving
• Capacity to acquire and maintain comprehensive product understanding to assist with renewals and growth discussions

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience in renewals, account management, or customer success
• Experience working in an education, publishing, or SaaS environment
• Familiarity with sales processes, forecasting, and pipeline management

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at accommodations.ta@cengage.com.

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Compensation

At Cengage, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. 

In this position,  you will be eligible to participate in the company’s variable Sales incentive compensation program.

Target Variable Compensation:

annually

Actual incentive earnings are not guaranteed and may be more or less than the target amount based on achievement of performance goals and the terms of the applicable incentive compensation plan.