Vice President of Customer Relations

News Today Press; Dubai; Hybrid; AED 450,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

News Today Press in the United Arab Emirates seeks a Vice President of Customer Relations to lead the customer relations and experience strategy. You will align with the CEO and senior leadership to strengthen relationships, drive satisfaction, and improve retention across markets.

The role requires deep expertise in customer lifecycle management, analytics, and CRM platforms, with a track record of building high-performing teams in a multinational environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Customer Experience, Management, or related field.
• Typically 10+ years of progressive experience in customer relations, customer experience, or related functions.
• Experience in senior leadership roles (VP/Head of Customer Experience) preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the company’s overall customer relations and customer experience strategy.
• Lead the customer relations, customer experience, and customer service functions.
• Establish customer-service standards, policies, processes, and performance objectives.
• Develop strategies to improve customer satisfaction, retention, loyalty, and lifetime value.
• Monitor customer experience across key touchpoints and channels.
• Establish and monitor customer-related KPIs and loyalty metrics.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Product teams.

Skills

Executive leadership

Customer lifecycle management

Stakeholder management

Analytical skills

Communication

Negotiation

Problem-solving

Multicultural environment

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration/related field

Master's degree or MBA (advantage)

Tools

CRM platforms

Customer-service technology

Job description

Vice President of Customer Relations

Location: United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Work Arrangement: Hybrid / Remote (where applicable)

Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced, strategic, and customer-focused Vice President of Customer Relations to lead the company's customer relations and customer experience strategy in the UAE. The successful candidate will be responsible for strengthening customer relationships, improving customer satisfaction and retention, developing customer-service strategies, and building a high-performing customer relations organization. Working closely with the CEO, senior leadership, Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Product teams, the VP of Customer Relations will ensure that customer needs and feedback are effectively translated into business improvements and long-term customer value.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the company's overall customer relations and customer experience strategy.
• Lead the customer relations, customer experience, and customer service functions.
• Establish customer-service standards, policies, processes, and performance objectives.
• Develop strategies to improve customer satisfaction, retention, loyalty, and lifetime value.
• Monitor customer experience across key customer touchpoints and business channels.
• Establish and monitor customer-related KPIs, including satisfaction, retention, response time, resolution time, and customer loyalty metrics.
• Analyze customer feedback, complaints, service trends, and customer behavior.
• Identify recurring customer issues and develop strategies to address root causes.
• Lead initiatives to improve customer experience and service quality.
• Build strong relationships with strategic, high-value, and key customers.
• Oversee customer escalation and resolution processes for complex or high-priority cases.
• Ensure customer issues are resolved efficiently and professionally.
• Work closely with Sales and Account Management teams to strengthen customer relationships and retention.
• Collaborate with Marketing and Product teams to incorporate customer insights into business and product strategies.
• Develop customer feedback and voice-of-customer programs.
• Establish processes for collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback.
• Use customer data and insights to identify opportunities for growth and service improvement.
• Oversee customer communication strategies and service standards.
• Develop customer loyalty, engagement, and retention initiatives.
• Monitor customer-service performance across teams, channels, and locations.
• Lead customer-experience transformation and process-improvement initiatives.
• Support the implementation and optimization of CRM and customer-service platforms.
• Ensure customer information is accurately maintained and appropriately protected.
• Establish appropriate customer-service reporting and management dashboards.
• Prepare regular customer-performance reports and strategic recommendations for senior management.
• Manage customer-relations budgets, resources, vendors, and service providers.
• Establish and maintain relationships with strategic external partners where required.
• Lead, mentor, and develop customer-relations and customer-experience leaders.
• Build a high-performing, customer-focused, and accountable organization.
• Establish clear performance standards, career development plans, and leadership expectations.
• Represent the customer perspective in executive-level business discussions.
• Provide strategic recommendations to the CEO and senior leadership regarding customer needs, risks, opportunities, and market trends.
• Ensure customer-relations activities align with company policies, regulatory requirements, and business objectives.

What We're Looking For

• Strong customer strategy and executive leadership capabilities.
• Deep understanding of customer experience, customer service, retention, and relationship management.
• Proven ability to build and lead customer-focused organizations.
• Strong understanding of customer lifecycle management and loyalty strategies.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to translate customer insights into practical business strategies.
• Strong stakeholder-management and communication capabilities.
• Excellent negotiation and conflict-resolution skills.
• Strong commercial awareness and understanding of customer value and business growth.
• Ability to manage complex customer relationships and high-level escalations.
• Strong leadership, coaching, and organizational-development skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, multicultural, and international environment.
• High level of professionalism, empathy, integrity, and accountability.
• Strong English communication and presentation skills.
• Arabic language skills are an advantage.
• UAE / GCC customer-management experience is highly desirable.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Customer Experience, Management, or a related field.
• Master's degree or MBA is an advantage.
• Typically 10+ years of progressive experience in customer relations, customer experience, customer success, account management, client services, or related functions.
• Previous experience as a VP of Customer Relations, VP of Customer Experience, Head of Customer Experience, Customer Director, Customer Success Director, or equivalent senior leadership role is preferred.
• Proven experience leading customer-service or customer-experience teams.
• Strong experience managing strategic and high-value customer relationships.
• Experience developing customer retention, loyalty, and engagement strategies.
• Experience with CRM platforms and customer-service technology.
• Strong experience with customer analytics, feedback programs, and KPI management.
• Experience leading customer-experience transformation or service-improvement initiatives is an advantage.
• Experience working with C-level executives and senior stakeholders.
• UAE / GCC or international customer-management experience is strongly preferred.

What We Offer

Executive-level customer leadership opportunity in the UAEHybrid / Remote working flexibility where applicableCompetitive executive compensation packageDirect involvement in customer and business strategyOpportunity to shape the company's customer experience functionExposure to UAE, GCC, and international marketsDirect interaction with senior leadership and strategic customersOpportunity to build and develop a high-performing customer organizationProfessional and leadership development opportunitiesDirect contribution to customer retention, loyalty, growth, and long-term business value