Lead, Customer Advocacy

About the role

Affirm’s Customer Advocacy and Retention (CAR) team houses our customer advocacy experts. When customers share their most challenging experiences with Affirm, the CAR team provides critical insight into the breaking points of our products, processes, and policies. By championing these customers, we use their voices to improve the customer experience, deliver fair outcomes, and repair relationships.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing team
• Manage, coach, and develop a team of Customer Advocacy Associates
• Drive team performance using key metrics such as productivity, quality, customer outcomes, and service levels
• Foster a high-performing, engaged team environment that operates effectively in a fast-paced, evolving environment
• Partner with recruiting to hire, onboard, and retain top talent
• Deliver exceptional customer outcomes
• Resolve complex and highly escalated customer complaints with efficiency, empathy, and sound judgment
• Review and respond to sensitive, high-risk complaints, reinforcing and shaping the “Voice of Affirm”
• Communicate with customers across channels, including email and phone, as appropriate
• Represent and advocate for the complaints function in cross-functional forums to ensure consistent, high-quality customer experiences
• Own operational excellence across internal and external partners
• Evolve QA frameworks to maintain depth, rigor, and scalability as the organization grows
• Own vendor performance and accountability for third-party complaint handling, ensuring alignment with Affirm standards for quality, compliance, and customer experience
• Establish and monitor service level expectations (SLAs/KPIs), proactively identifying risks and driving corrective actions
• Oversee internal escalation workflows and act as a point of escalation for the most complex and sensitive issues
• Own capacity planning and resource allocation across internal teams, vendors, and contractors
• Manage and oversee contractors supporting the CAR team to ensure consistent performance and coverage
• Drive cross-functional impact
• Remove operational bottlenecks and drive alignment on processes, tooling, and customer experience standards
• Influence product, policy, and process improvements based on customer insights and complaint trends
• Drive continuous improvement at scale
• Analyze complaint data to identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for systemic improvement
• Deliver measurable impact by reducing complaint rates and improving customer satisfaction
• Remediate thematic issues through strong cross-functional collaboration
• Continuously improve the internal complaints management program, tools, and workflows
• Identify emerging risks, operational gaps, and service-level challenges, and drive end-to-end solutions with minimal direction
• Improve customer-facing resources and education to streamline service and reduce friction
• Grow your financial services expertise
• Serve as a subject matter expert on Affirm’s products, servicing processes, and applicable regulatory requirements
• Stay informed on evolving consumer finance policies and industry trends

Qualifications

• Experience as a people manager with a track record of building high-performing teams
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives
• Deep commitment to customer-centric solutions and fair, empathetic outcomes
• Data-driven decision maker with strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• Process improvement mindset with strong operational rigor
• Ability to influence and drive alignment across multiple stakeholders
• Sound judgment and accountability when handling sensitive, high-risk issues
• Experience managing external vendors, BPOs, or third-party partners (or similar)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex topics clearly and concisely

Skills

• People management experience
• Customer support or service delivery experience
• Vendor management experience
• Operational leadership experience
• Customer advocacy experience
• Complaint resolution experience
• Quality assurance experience
• Vendor performance management experience
• Service level agreement (SLA) management experience
• Escalation management experience
• Operational excellence experience
• Compliance and regulatory knowledge
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software experience
• Project management experience
• Communication and collaboration skills

Benefits

Base pay range: $101,000 - $151,000 per year (USA, all other U.S. states)

Equity grade: 4

Additional benefits include:

• Health care coverage
• Flexible spending wallets
• Competitive vacation and holiday schedules
• Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
• Subsidized medical coverage, dental, and vision for you and your dependents
• Technology, food, lifestyle, and family formation expense stipends
• Time off