2027 Salary Guide · Sales & Customer Success
Customer experience manager is not a BLS occupation. The nearest match is First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers, which O*NET says includes customer service managers and supervisors; its May 2025 median was $69,500, about $74,000 in 2027 terms. That fits CX managers who run a support or contact-center team. CX roles built around research, journey design or strategy are not measured separately, and this proxy may understate them.
Pay distribution
This is the national distribution for first-line supervisors of office and support workers, a proxy and not a measured CX figure. The range is narrow for a management title: the 90th percentile ($104,710) is about 2.3 times the 10th. CX managers tend to fall in the shaded upper half.
Typical for the Customer Experience Manager title: $69,500 to $104,710 (50th to 90th percentile of First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers)
| Percentile | BLS, May 2025 | 2027 planning estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $45,610 | $48,500 |
| 25th percentile | $55,950 | $59,500 |
| Median | $69,500 | $74,000 |
| 75th percentile | $85,090 | $90,500 |
| 90th percentile | $104,710 | $111,500 |
BLS has no CX manager category; customer service managers are classified as first-line supervisors of office and support workers.
Two jobs, one title
The title covers two different jobs. Only the first one fits the BLS occupation used on this page.
| Contact-center or service CX manager | CX strategy or program manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical work | Runs a team of service agents, schedules, quality reviews, escalations | Customer research, journey mapping, survey programs, cross-team improvement projects |
| BLS fit | Close: O*NET lists Customer Service Manager under first-line office and support supervisors | Weak: no BLS occupation measures this work directly |
| How to read the BLS figure | Median to 75th percentile, about $69,500 to $85,090, is a fair planning range | Treat the proxy as a floor; BLS does not measure this work, and the occupation's 90th percentile is $104,710 |
The BLS figures are for First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers (SOC 43-1011), May 2025. They are a proxy, not a measured customer experience manager salary.
Local pay
In the proxy occupation, the San Francisco Bay Area ($88,560) and Seattle ($81,640) have the highest medians, and New York is the largest market with about 95,180 jobs. Pittsburgh is lowest at $63,260. Nashville and Hartford have the highest concentrations of these supervisors among the 29 metros.
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Bay Area | $88,560 +27% | $59,980 – $131,810 | 19,480 |
| Seattle | $81,640 +17% | $60,310 – $126,040 | 18,020 |
| New York City | $80,760 +16% | $56,130 – $126,730 | 95,180 |
| Denver | $79,120 +14% | $54,240 – $117,360 | 14,710 |
| Hartford | $78,740 +13% | $52,730 – $118,360 | 8,670 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | $78,410 +13% | $53,100 – $112,860 | 14,480 |
| Boston | $77,990 +12% | $52,290 – $112,060 | 25,630 |
| Los Angeles | $77,530 +12% | $51,110 – $119,080 | 54,340 |
| Washington, DC | $76,400 +10% | $50,310 – $120,530 | 23,390 |
| Portland | $76,380 +10% | $53,190 – $106,630 | 7,740 |
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin | $76,240 +10% | $48,090 – $111,490 | 17,400 |
| San Diego | $76,120 +10% | $49,940 – $114,730 | 11,780 |
| Baltimore | $75,590 +9% | $47,480 – $103,860 | 15,070 |
| Providence | $74,470 +7% | $50,360 – $102,200 | 6,930 |
| Albany | $73,360 +6% | $49,020 – $106,440 | 4,050 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | $73,070 +5% | $46,590 – $113,020 | 45,710 |
| Nashville | $73,060 +5% | $46,580 – $106,870 | 17,890 |
| Philadelphia | $72,700 +5% | $47,860 – $102,870 | 28,900 |
| Chicago | $71,730 +3% | $47,650 – $106,060 | 33,180 |
| Buffalo | $70,000 +1% | $48,940 – $103,430 | 4,410 |
| Atlanta | $69,990 +1% | $46,850 – $104,520 | 25,800 |
| Miami | $67,550 -3% | $44,380 – $103,990 | 26,510 |
| Detroit | $67,060 -4% | $46,040 – $100,610 | 13,480 |
| Houston | $65,990 -5% | $45,100 – $105,670 | 36,940 |
| Phoenix | $65,470 -6% | $47,150 – $97,260 | 23,940 |
| Charlotte | $65,170 -6% | $46,650 – $100,990 | 10,770 |
| Raleigh | $64,550 -7% | $46,090 – $100,450 | 5,170 |
| Tampa | $63,650 -8% | $45,330 – $100,500 | 14,050 |
| Pittsburgh | $63,260 -9% | $43,010 – $96,620 | 10,440 |
BLS metro estimates, May 2025. Percent compares the metro median with the national median. "Jobs" is BLS estimated employment in the metro; blank where BLS does not publish it.
Career path
Many CX managers start on the phones or in chat support. This maps that path onto BLS figures for customer service representatives and for the supervisor occupation.
Median $44,770; top tenth above $63,590
Handles customer contacts directly. The jump to a lead or supervisor role is where pay first moves meaningfully.
About $46,000 to $56,000 (10th to 25th percentile of supervisors)
Coaches a small team, handles escalations and owns schedules and quality scores.
About $69,500 to $85,000 (median to 75th percentile)
Owns service levels, satisfaction metrics and staffing for a function or site, and reports results to leadership.
About $105,000 and up (90th percentile and above)
Multi-site or company-wide responsibility. At this level pay often benchmarks closer to operations managers than to supervisors.
Compare
The proxy median is about $24,730 above customer service representatives, the team many CX managers lead. Operations managers, a common next step, earn about $36,270 more at the median.
| Role | BLS median | 2027 estimate | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Experience Manager | $69,500 | $74,000 | Little or no change |
| Customer Service Representative | $44,770 | $47,500 | Decline |
| Customer Success Manager | $69,990 | $74,500 | Average |
| Operations Manager | $105,770 | $112,500 | Faster than average |
Outlook
BLS projects little or no change in employment for first-line office and support supervisors through 2035. With about 1,506,100 people in the occupation, BLS still expects roughly 127,400 openings a year, mostly to replace supervisors who move up or leave.
BLS Employment Projections via O*NET OnLine. Projections cover First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers as a whole.
For hiring managers
"Customer Experience Manager" draws both contact-center leaders and research-minded strategists. Name the team size, channels and metrics you expect them to own.
The BLS figure on this page fits operational CX. Research and program roles are not measured by BLS, so benchmark them against the job's actual scope rather than this range.
The proxy median runs from about $63,000 in Pittsburgh to about $89,000 in the Bay Area, a gap of about $25,300.
O*NET lists CRM software such as Salesforce among the technology used in this occupation. Saying which ticketing and CRM systems you run helps candidates self-select.
FAQ
BLS has no CX manager category. The closest occupation, first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, which includes customer service managers, had a median of $69,500 in May 2025 and a middle half between $55,950 and $85,090. Contact-center CX managers usually fall in the upper half; strategy-focused CX roles are not measured, so the proxy may understate them.
It depends on what the company means by CX. In many companies the CX manager runs the service team, which is the customer service manager job O*NET lists under first-line office and support supervisors. In others, CX means research, journey design and cross-team programs, with no agents reporting to the role.
In the proxy occupation, the BLS median hourly wage was $33.41 in May 2025. Many CX manager roles are salaried, so the annual figures on this page are usually the better comparison.
At the BLS medians, about $24,730 more: $69,500 for the supervisor occupation that includes customer service managers versus $44,770 for customer service representatives in May 2025.
BLS projects little or no change in employment for the proxy occupation from 2025 to 2035, but about 127,400 openings a year from turnover. BLS does not track CX strategy roles separately, so it does not show whether that part of the field is growing.
Careerscape recruiters specialize by industry and can send a pre-screened shortlist for operational or strategy CX roles, from direct hire to executive search. Job seekers use Careerscape free.
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