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
• Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives across teams such as Vendor Partners, Compliance, Legal, Risk, Product, and Communications
• Act as the primary operational interface with partner teams to improve intake quality, routing accuracy, and escalation effectiveness
• 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

• 5+ years of people management experience in a customer operations or service delivery environment with a Bachelor’s degree; OR 3+ years with a Master’s degree; or no experience with a PhD; or equivalent experience
• 3+ years of experience in customer support, service delivery, or complaint resolution
• Experience managing vendors, BPOs, or external partners
• Experience owning multi-domain operational functions (e.g., QA, escalations, service delivery)
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives and drive measurable outcomes
• Strong operational mindset with experience managing SLAs, KPIs, and service performance
• Ability to operate independently and drive execution with minimal oversight
• Resilience and ability to navigate ambiguity, complexity, and high-pressure situations
• Collaborative mindset with strong stakeholder management skills
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with attention to detail, tone, and clarity
• Strong customer empathy and a passion for improving customer outcomes
• Proactive thinker with a continuous improvement mindset

Skills

• People management experience
• Customer support and service delivery experience
• Vendor management experience
• Operational leadership experience
• Complex problem-solving skills
• Communication and collaboration skills
• Customer empathy and advocacy
• Continuous improvement mindset

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)

Remote work option available. Affirm is committed to providing a remote-friendly work environment and flexible scheduling options for its employees.