Full-Time

Lead Customer Success Manager

Updated on 5/26/2026

Ascend

Ascend

51-200 employees

Automates agency billing, financing, payments

Compensation Overview

$120k - $130k/yr

San Francisco, CA, USA

In Person

Must be onsite 5 days a week at SoMa office.

Category
Customer Experience & Support (1)
Required Skills
Salesforce
Requirements
  • 4-5 years of experience in related roles
  • Prior experience managing high value enterprise customer relationships in B2B Software as a Service or Fintech environments
  • Experience managing or mentoring teammates, with an ability to influence without direct authority across cross-functional teams
  • Comfortable operating in the ambiguity and pace of a high growth startup
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to navigate executive level conversations and complex subject matter
  • A consultative, relationship first approach to customer success with a proven track record of renewals and expansion
  • Demonstrated ability to build and improve scalable processes, playbooks, or Customer Success programs
Responsibilities
  • Dive deep into Ascend's product, customer segments, and current Customer Success processes and tools in the first 30 days
  • Build foundational relationships with internal partners across Sales, Product, and Product Support in the first 30 days
  • Begin developing your approach to managing relationships and driving value for sophisticated insurance organizations in the first 30 days
  • Own a portfolio of mid-market and enterprise customers, running regular touch-points with executive stakeholders and day to day users in the first 60 days
  • Develop a strong understanding of customers' workflows, goals, and success metrics with actionable insights to improve adoption and outcomes in the first 60 days
  • Lead core customer operations including business reviews, feature rollouts, and coordination of complex issues with Product Support in the first 60 days
  • Fully own the post implementation customer lifecycle including renewals and expansion motions in partnership with Sales and Product in the first 90 days and beyond
  • Act as the voice of the customer internally by surfacing trends, risks, and opportunities to inform product and process decisions in the first 90 days and beyond
  • Help define and refine scalable Customer Success best practices that enable Ascend to deliver a world class enterprise customer experience in the first 90 days and beyond
  • Mentor and provide guidance to junior Customer Success team members, helping to elevate the overall team's effectiveness and consistency in the first 90 days and beyond
Desired Qualifications
  • Background in insurance, financial services, or fintech is a plus

Ascend is a financial technology company that automates agency bill operations for insurance agencies. Its software combines billing, premium financing, and carrier payable workflows into one platform, helping agencies manage bills, finance premiums, and issue carrier payments more efficiently. Agencies interact with a user-friendly portal that clearly presents financing options, enabling faster policy binding and premium collection without back-and-forth paperwork. By automating these processes, Ascend aims to increase profitability and efficiency for agencies, and differentiate itself by offering a single integrated solution rather than multiple separate tools. The company’s stated goals are to improve EBITDA, reduce operating costs, and save agents time, enabling them to serve their clients better.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Debt Financing

Total Funding

$285.5M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2021

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Honor Capital merger eliminates multi-vendor fragmentation across all 50 states premium financing.
  • CAA exclusive partnership provides direct access to hundreds of independent agency network members.
  • Cash Application tool cuts reconciliation time from 8 days to 3 days, improving compliance.

What critics are saying

  • Honor Capital merger regulatory approval remains uncertain; rejection eliminates end-to-end finance stack.
  • AI extraction errors in billing and reconciliation destroy trust in revenue recognition system.
  • Vertafore AMS360 ecosystem threatens to box Ascend out by keeping agencies inside incumbent systems.

What makes Ascend unique

  • First fully vertically integrated insurance financial operations platform post-Honor Capital merger.
  • Serves over half of top 50 US brokers with 4,000+ customers establishing market leadership.
  • AI-powered Smart Inbox reduces document processing errors and time by up to 62%.

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Your Connections

People at Ascend who can refer or advise you

Benefits

Health Insurance

401(k) Company Match

401(k) Retirement Plan

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Phone/Internet Stipend

Parental Leave

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

-2%

1 year growth

-1%

2 year growth

-1%
PR Newswire
Mar 3rd, 2026
Ascend Named the Accounting Automation Partner for Combined Agents of America (CAA)

Ascend named the Accounting Automation Partner for Combined Agents of America (CAA). Mar 03, 2026, 09:42 ET SAN FRANCISCO, March 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Ascend, the comprehensive financial operations automation platform for the insurance industry, today announced a strategic partnership with Combined Agents of America (CAA), one of the nation's largest privately held insurance aggregator groups. This partnership designates Ascend as the Accounting Automation Partner for CAA's nationwide network of independent agencies. The collaboration is designed to modernize back-office operations for CAA member agencies, replacing fragmented manual workflows with end-to-end automation for both agency and direct bill processes. Eliminating the Back-Office Bottleneck As independent agencies scale, accounting workflows - traditionally manual and error-prone - often become a primary bottleneck. Ascend's platform removes these hurdles by automating the most time-consuming aspects of the insurance lifecycle: * Commission Reconciliations: Eliminating hours spent processing and matching policy commissions. * Billing & Payments: Streamlining premium collection for a seamless client experience. * Carrier Payables: Accelerating commissions and increasing speed-to-bind. "Our mission at CAA has always been to empower our members with the best-in-class tools they need to thrive," said A.J Lovitt, CEO of Combined Agents of America. "Ascend's innovative approach to automation allows our agencies to pivot from administrative tasks to high-value client service and strategic growth." Driving the Future of Accounting Operations This partnership arrives as the insurance industry increasingly prioritizes digital transformation and the integration of AI-driven financial tools. "CAA represents a leader for independent agency networks," said Amelia Lee, Head of Partnerships at Ascend. "We are thrilled to be their exclusive accounting automation partner and help provide solutions that support the growth ambitions of CAA's member agencies." About Ascend Ascend is the comprehensive accounting automation platform for the insurance industry, providing technology that automates payments, collections, payables, and reconciliation for agencies, intermediaries and carriers. To learn more about how Ascend can transform your business, please visit www.useascend.com. About Combined Agents of America (CAA) Founded in 1997, Combined Agents of America, LLC is a leading insurance network of independent insurance agencies. Committed to the evolution of the independent agency system, CAA provides its members with the leverage, resources, and scale of a national organization while maintaining local agency independence. Media Contact: Mike Nguyen SOURCE Ascend

Insurance Innovation Reporter
Nov 7th, 2025
Ascend Launches Cash Application Tool to Address Unapplied Cash Balances

Ascend launches Cash Application tool to address unapplied cash balances. New solution automates reconciliation to improve financial accuracy and compliance for insurance brokers. (Image source: Ascend Cash Application page.) Ascend (San Francisco) has launched Cash Application, a new component of its accounting automation platform designed to help insurance brokers reduce unapplied cash balances and maintain compliance with financial reporting standards. The solution automates accounts receivable reconciliation, enabling brokers to accelerate revenue recognition and streamline month-end processes. Cash Application tracks and categorizes client invoices, carrier commission statements, and return premiums, reducing reliance on manual workflows that often delay reconciliation and obscure financial performance. "A Top 20 broker facing compliance challenges with their unapplied cash balances partnered with Ascend to implement Cash Application," comments Andrew Wynn, Co-CEO, Ascend. "Since adopting the solution, they've cut their monthly balance of unapplied cash by more than half, and what previously took more than eight days to reconcile now takes just three." * Categorize all bank deposits in real time and assign them to the correct line items in agency management systems (AMS). * Automatically match and apply cash to statements and invoices by fetching relevant financial documents. * Improve revenue recognition and cash flow by reducing unapplied cash. * Support SOX 404 compliance through clear, audit-ready reporting. Cash Application joins Ascend's portfolio of financial automation tools, including its Direct Bill Reconciliation solution, and reflects the company's focus on increasing operational efficiency for brokers. "Our goal has always been to make financial operations as effortless and transparent as possible," adds Wynn. "With Cash Application, we're giving agencies the financial control and flexibility they've been missing."

PR Newswire
Apr 14th, 2025
Ascend Releases Ai-Powered Smart Inbox For Retail Agencies

Smart Inbox automates processing of documents for both agency bill and direct bill workflowsSAN FRANCISCO, April 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascend, the leading financial operations automation platform for the insurance industry, today announced the launch of Smart Inbox, an AI-powered email inbox that automatically reads, categorizes, and processes the full range of financial and policy documents insurance agencies encounter on a daily basis. Built for account managers handling invoicing or finance teams reconciling payables and commissions, Smart Inbox reduces clerical errors as well as time spent on processing documents and manually entering data.Key Features and Benefits:AscendCentralized Accounting and Billing Inbox: Agencies can forward any billing or accounting document—binders, quotes, invoices, or statements—into a single inbox. Smart Inbox serves as a unified hub for document intake across departments.Agencies can forward any billing or accounting document—binders, quotes, invoices, or statements—into a single inbox. Smart Inbox serves as a unified hub for document intake across departments. Faster Invoicing Workflows: Smart Inbox automatically extracts the necessary billing information from binders or quotes to create client invoices—reducing manual errors and allowing account managers to spend less time on invoice creation.Smart Inbox automatically extracts the necessary billing information from binders or quotes to create client invoices—reducing manual errors and allowing account managers to spend less time on invoice creation. Automated Direct Bill Commission Reconciliation: Smart Inbox analyzes commission statements, attributes them to the correct carrier, and automatically reconciles them with expected commissions in agency management systems—significantly increasing the accuracy and speed of month-end close."Smart Inbox has been extremely beneficial for my team to reduce manual data entry and clerical errors, by allowing us to use AI to make it even easier to process and invoice our clients," said Wade Millward, CEO of Rikor Insurance Consultancy.Smart Inbox is the latest addition to Ascend's suite of AI-powered automation tools—including AI-Invoicing and Direct Bill Automation

Insurance Journal
Apr 14th, 2025
Ascend Releases AI-Powered Smart Inbox for Retail Agencies

San Francisco, April 14, 2025 - Ascend, the leading financial operations automation platform for the insurance industry, today announced the launch of Smart Inbox, an AI-powered email inbox that automatically reads, categorizes, and processes the full range of financial and policy documents insurance agencies encounter on a daily basis.

PR Newswire
Apr 3rd, 2025
Ascend Partners With Borrowedtyme To Bring Leading Payment Processing Automation To Insurance Agents

SAN FRANCISCO, April 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascend, the leading provider of financial operations automation software to the insurance industry, is excited to announce a partnership with btcore by borrowedtyme, a comprehensive agency management system built on Salesforce Financial Services Cloud