Founding CRM & Customer Success Manager

SaaS Onboarding, Adoption & Retention | 0→1 Role

Milan, Italy

Permanent Tempo pieno

€32K–€38K + performance bonus, based on experience

We are looking for a Founding CRM & Customer Success Manager to help us build the first CRM, onboarding, adoption and retention engine for one of Think Free’s core digital initiatives.

This is a 0→1 role.

You will not manage an existing Customer Success structure — you will help create it from scratch.

The initiative is an early-stage digital ecosystem focused on certified skills, verified professional profiles and the long-term adoption of schools, training organizations, institutions and enterprise partners.

You will work closely with the Founders, Sales Manager, Growth Marketing Specialist, Product & IT team, trainers and Network Leads to transform signed opportunities into structured, active and satisfied customers.

The role will initially focus on this digital ecosystem and is designed to evolve as Think Free expands its SaaS customer portfolio.

The customer lifecycle you will help build

Sales Handover → CRM Onboarding → Adoption → Satisfaction → Retention → Expansion

This is not a traditional customer support role and it is not a pure CRM administration role.

We are looking for someone who combines customer relationships, SaaS onboarding, data quality, workflow design, user adoption and operational execution.

How you will work with Sales

The Sales Manager owns the commercial relationship: prospecting, meetings, pricing, negotiation and closing.

Once an organization is ready to proceed, the CRM & Customer Success Manager takes ownership of the operational customer lifecycle.

You will turn commercial information into:

- structured CRM accounts;
- onboarding plans;
- active users;
- adoption workflows;
- measurable customer adoption, satisfaction and engagement;
- retention and expansion opportunities.

- Key Responsibilities. Customer Onboarding & Data Activation

You will support the activation and ongoing adoption of schools, institutions, training organizations, enterprise and ecosystem partners.

You will:

- own the handover from Sales into onboarding and Customer Success;
- onboard organizations and their users into the platform;
- validate and enrich customer information collected by Sales, keeping CRM data accurate and up to date throughout the customer lifecycle;
- coordinate access, profiles, permissions and platform workflows;
- run kickoff meetings and maintain onboarding plans, milestones, issues and next actions;
- support administrators and users during platform adoption;




- coordinate with trainers and Network Leads during customer activation;
- help identify internal champions and key users who can support long-term adoption.

Goal: turn every signed organization into a structured customer with active users, clear internal ownership and a measurable adoption plan.

2. Adoption, Customer Success & Retention

Once the customer is onboarded, you will help ensure that the platform is actually used and creates measurable value.

You will:

- guide customers through platform setup, first use and initial value realization;
- monitor adoption, usage, milestones, customer health and time-to-value;
- maintain regular contact with decision makers, administrators and key users;
- identify risks, blockers and unmet needs;
- coordinate technical or product issues with internal teams;
- collect and structure customer feedback;
- prepare periodic account and business reviews;
- identify renewal, cross-sell and upsell signals together with Sales;
- translate customer evidence into retention, recovery or expansion actions.

Goal: improve customer activation, adoption, satisfaction, retention and expansion.

3. CRM, Lifecycle & Success Operations

You will also help us build the operating system behind Customer Success.

You will:

- design and maintain customer lifecycle stages from commercial handover to renewal;
- keep the CRM as the single source of truth for accounts, contacts, activities and next actions;
- build simple dashboards for onboarding, adoption, customer health, satisfaction, retention and expansion;
- standardize handoffs between Sales, Success, Marketing, Product, Network Leads and trainers;
- create reusable playbooks, checklists, onboarding templates and review cadences;
- automate reminders, follow-ups, tasks and customer communications where useful;
- identify bottlenecks and improve customer-facing workflows;
- transform customer feedback and usage evidence into actionable insights for Sales, Marketing and Product.

Goal: build a measurable and scalable CRM & Customer Success system from scratch.

We are not looking for a traditional customer support representative or CRM administrator.

We are looking for someone who:

- enjoys building customer journeys and processes from scratch;
- can communicate confidently with both decision makers and operational users;




- combines relationship skills with strong execution discipline and attention to detail;
- is comfortable with data, workflows, dashboards and follow-up cadences;
- proactively identifies risks, blockers and opportunities;
- takes ownership without constant supervision;
- feels comfortable in an early-stage environment where processes are still being built;
- can move from an onboarding call to a CRM workflow or account review in the same day.

Requirements

- 2–4 years of experience in Customer Success, Customer Operations, SaaS Onboarding, Account Management, Implementation or CRM Operations;
- hands-on experience with CRM platforms — Hub Spot preferred;
- experience managing B2B customer onboarding and post-sale workflows;
- strong planning, follow-up and account coordination skills;
- ability to manage multiple customers, stakeholders, milestones and open actions;
- strong attention to data quality;
- confidence working with reports and dashboards;
- strong written and verbal communication skills in Italian;
- working proficiency in English;
- ability to collaborate closely with Sales, Marketing, Product and external partners;
- availability for frequent on-site visits to schools and partner organizations across Italy, with regular customer follow-up and occasional travel abroad;

Nice to Have

- Experience in SaaS, education, HR Tech, training or institutional environments;
- experience with Customer Health Scores, CSAT/NPS or Business Reviews;
- experience creating onboarding playbooks and lifecycle automation;
- experience identifying internal champions, power users or adoption ambassadors;
- startup or scale-up experience.

What You Will Gain

- The opportunity to build a CRM & Customer Success engine from day one;
- direct exposure to an early-stage SaaS ecosystem operating across skills, education and institutional markets;
- end-to-end visibility on Sales → Onboarding → Adoption → Retention → Growth;
- close collaboration with Founders, Sales and Product;
- real responsibility and a fast learning curve;
- the opportunity to shape processes, tools, KPIs and customer experience;
- a role designed to evolve as Think Free expands its SaaS ecosystem;
- potential growth toward Customer Success, CRM Operations or Customer Experience leadership.

How to Apply

Apply directly via Linked In or send your CV to:

If you have already built CRM systems, onboarding processes, customer lifecycle workflows, retention programs or automation, include concrete examples in your application.

What you have actually built matters more to us than your formal job title.

📌 Founding CRM & Customer Success Manager (Italia)
🏢 ThinkFree S.r.l. | Holding ecosystem
📍 Italia