Customer Advocacy Manager

Why UKG:    

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.  

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.  

 

Role Summary 

The Customer Advocacy Manager is responsible for executing and scaling UKG’s customer reference and referral programs in support of revenue growth. 

This role goes beyond fulfilling reference requests. You will proactively manage advocacy pools, match the right customers to the right opportunities, and operationalize referral triggers that generate pipeline. You are a key operator in turning customer advocacy into deal acceleration and referral-driven growth. 

You will report to the Director of Customer Marketing and work closely with Sales, Customer Experience, and Marketing to activate customer-led growth programs. 

 

Core Responsibilities 

Reference Program Execution & Deal Support 

• Fulfill and manage customer reference requests aligned to active sales opportunities 

• Proactively match customer advocates to priority deals based on segment, product, and use case 

• Partner with Sales and BDR teams to ensure references are deployed effectively in the deal cycle 

• Prioritize reference requests based on revenue impact, focusing on high-value opportunities rather than request volume 

• Track reference usage and impact on deal progression, win rates, and sales cycle 

 

Advocacy Pool Development & Management 

• Build and maintain segmented pools of customer advocates across: 

• Enterprise 

• Mid-Market / SMB 

• Product Innovation areas 

• Continuously recruit new advocates in partnership with Customer Success, Customer Experience and Sales  

• Proactively identify recruitable advocates based on lifecycle triggers, product usage and prioritized across key ICPs 

• Ensure customer advocate readiness, responsiveness, and positive experience 

• Match advocates to appropriate revenue-driving content and event opportunities 

• Maintain clean, structured data on customer profiles, use cases, and permissions 

 

Referral Program Execution 

• Execute referral and customer evidence marketing programs designed to generate qualified pipeline 

• Activate referral and review requests at key lifecycle moments (e.g., post-go-live, high NPS, milestone events) 

• Partner with Customer Experience to identify and act on referral and external review triggers 

• Prioritize referral efforts toward high-probability, high-value opportunities that drive pipeline impact 

• Manage referral intake, routing, and follow-up with Sales 

• Track referral performance, including pipeline contribution and conversion 

Program Operations & Optimization 

• Maintain and improve workflows for reference matching, request intake, and fulfillment 

• Partner with Marketing Operations to ensure accurate tracking of: 

• Reference usage 

• Referral pipeline 

• Program performance 

• Identify opportunities to improve speed, quality, and scalability of programs 

• Support the development of self-service tools for Sales access to customer evidence 

Cross-Functional Partnership 

• Work closely with: 

• Sales & BDRs to support deal needs and expansion plays 

• Customer Experience and Customer Success to identify advocacy and referral opportunities 

• Marketing to align advocacy with campaign priorities 

• Ensure programs are aligned to business priorities and high-value opportunities 

Success Measures 

• Reference Fulfillment Effectiveness (speed, quality, and deal alignment) 

• Win Rate Influence on Deals Using References 

• Deal velocity acceleration 

• Sales Cycle Impact from Reference Deployment 

• Growth and Utilization of Advocacy Pools 

• Referral Pipeline Generated and Conversion Rate