Customer Operations Manager Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

This position is Career Level 31L based in Reston, VA or Libertyville, IL with a Role Classification of Hybrid.

The Director, Customer Operations & Retention, NAR will lead this transformation-shifting from reactive, channel-based engagement to a predictive, insight-led, and digitally orchestrated customer success model. This role is responsible for defining and scaling AI-powered customer strategies that optimize retention, satisfaction, and portfolio performance.

This leader owns the strategy, performance, and evolution of customer engagement across all touchpoints-including digital, agent-assisted, and emerging AI-enabled channels. The role integrates customer analytics, lifecycle management, product strategy, and technology innovation to deliver seamless, personalized, and proactive customer experiences across Volkswagen Financial Services' North American portfolio.

Customer Operations & Retention Performance - 30%
   Lead teams, technologies, processes and operations to effectively and efficiently maximize customer lifetime value and engagement while ensuring our operations and agent ecosystem is simplified, efficient, and aligned to financial and customer objectives
   Develop and scale AI-driven engagement models, including predictive churn modeling, next-best-action frameworks, and personalization strategies
   Design and optimize omnichannel customer journeys across lifecycle stages, including onboarding (funding), active servicing, and lease maturity
   Leverage our people as our strategic advantage

Operational Excellence - 30%
   Own and optimize core customer operations, including funding, account servicing, lease-end operations, and payments, ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and customer satisfaction 
   Drive digitization and automation of servicing processes to reduce friction, cycle time, and operational cost 
   Implement AI-enabled workflows and intelligent routing to improve throughput, quality, and customer experience
   Establish and manage end-to-end operational KPIs (e.g., funding turnaround time, servicing SLAs, lease-end conversion/retention rates, payment success rates) 
   Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance productivity, scalability, and service quality across operations
   Optimize our mix of vendors, technologies, people and providers for cost, efficiency, customer satisfaction and functional OKRs.

Leadership, Talent & Organizational Effectiveness -20%
   Build and lead high-performing teams focused on customer outcomes, innovation, and continuous improvement
   Establish a customer-centric, experimentation-driven culture that embraces AI, data, and digital transformation
   Develop talent in contact center, advanced analytics, product management, and customer lifecycle strategy
   Foster cross-functional collaboration across Customer Engagement, Risk, Marketing, Product, and Technology

AI, Personalization & Technology Enablement - 10%
   Define and execute the customer success technology roadmap, including engagement platforms, AI tools, and data ecosystems
   Partner with IT and Product teams to deliver scalable, API-enabled, and customer and agent platforms and experiences
   Drive modernization of customer platforms to enable hyper-personalized and frictionless experiences
   Ensure seamless integration of customer experience technologies across channels and functions
   Leverage advanced analytics, machine learning, and behavioral insights to identify drivers of retention, satisfaction, and engagement
   Build and scale predictive and prescriptive models to proactively identify at-risk customers and trigger targeted interventions
   Establish a data-driven culture anchored in measurable customer outcomes and insights-led decision making

Governance, Compliance & Risk Management - 10%
   Ensure all customer engagement strategies comply with regulatory and data privacy requirements (e.g., FDCPA, UDAAP, CFPB)
   Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Risk teams to ensure responsible and ethical use of AI and customer data
   Maintain strong governance frameworks for customer communications, model usage, and digital engagement practices
   Drive transparency, audit readiness, and responsible AI practices across all initiatives

Years of Relevant Experience:

• 12+ years of progressive leadership and relevant experience in consumer finance.
• Minimum 5 years of financial, customer and operational performance management of digital self-service, customer service, and retention functions
• Demonstrated success operating at a director level - leading leaders, managing experience risk and financial performance, and owning enterprise-level outcomes
• Minimum 3 years (and proven track record) in developing and using advanced behavioral data modeling and internal/vendor-based technologies to steer, optimize and evolve customer success targets
• Minimum 5 years in delivering technology and data initiatives; experience in product management and agile methodologies
• Ability to balance customer outcomes with strong financial and risk discipline

Required Education:

• Bachelor's Degree

Skills:

   Data/performance driven: Experienced and exceptional understanding of customer service and retention performance drivers, and how to use segmentation and data to drive performance-driven change and culture in our customer resiliency function. Experience in running structured segmentation and product experiments a plus.
   A bias to action: The leader will have an executive level charter to deliver on key opportunities and, in parallel, stand up an org structure and talent model that sets a high bar for employees, and rewards and empowers teams delivering on this.
   Acts like an owner. Takes full responsibility for functional performance and has a 360 view on what happens upstream and downstream; partners transparently with those stakeholders and partners to affect change.
   Ability to influence and lead changes: Willingness to challenge the status quo by driving pragmatic, forward-leaning change across people, process, performance and technology
   Customer Centricity: Deep respect for the importance of keeping our promises to customers, being easy to do business with, and ensuring we are doing this in a consistent, well-managed way
   A clear communicator: Excellence in clear communication and storytelling - to set expectations and motivate employees, present to C-Levels, hold vendors responsible, and partner successfully with stakeholders