Senior Customer Support Manager

News Corporation; City of Melbourne; On-site; AUD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working options

Flexible leave options

Flexible parental leave

Because We Care program

Hackdays

Job summary

REA Group is seeking a Senior Customer Support Manager in Melbourne's Richmond to lead a network of leaders and teams delivering exceptional customer service across products and channels. You will act as deputy to the Head of Support, shaping strategy, coaching emerging leaders, and driving performance and accountability.

You will own key operational metrics, partner with Product, Technology, and Finance, and contribute to strategic planning for scalable growth as we continue to deliver customer

Qualifications

• Significant experience in customer service/operational environments that are fast-paced, complex and change-intensive.
• Proven ability to lead multiple teams or leaders and develop emerging managers.
• Experience driving continuous improvement using data-driven, lean-style approaches.
• Strong forecasting and capacity planning skills with cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop high-performing teams to deliver exceptional customer service and outcomes.
• Act as deputy to Head of Support, handling day-to-day leadership and cross-functional representation.
• Align team purpose with REA's goals and customer outcomes, driving accountability and progression.
• Coach and mentor leaders, building capability in people leadership and change management.
• Drive operational metrics, throughput, quality, NPS, and efficiency for scalable growth.
• Lead workforce planning, forecasting, and capacity planning with the Leadership team and Workforce Planning.

Skills

People leadership

Operations management

Customer service leadership

Forecasting & capacity planning

Stakeholder management

Data analytics

Job description

• Make an impact steering day to day operations across a very visible and critical function
• Lead leaders – not just teams – and grow emerging managers supporting our strong growth culture
• Permanent full time role based in Richmond

We're REA

With bold and ambitious goals, REA Group (https://www.rea-group.com/about-us/about-rea-group/) is changing the way the world experiences property. No matter where you're at on your property journey, we're here to help with every step - whether that's finding or financing your next home.

Our people are the key to our success. At the heart of everything we do, is a thriving culture centred around high performance and care. We are purpose driven and collaborative, which drives innovation and our ability to make a real impact. As such, we’re proud to have been named one of Australia’s Best Workplaces (https://www.rea-group.com/about-us/#our-awards) four times since 2021 — including third place in 2025 — plus Best Workplace for Women in 2023 and Best Workplace in Technology in 2024 and 2025. These listings are testament to every person who helps make REA a great place to work.

Where the team fits in

The Customer Solutions & Operations team reports through to a broader function called the Customer Group. The group supports the organisation to deliver customer & operational excellence; use data to deliver customer solutions that ensure the profitability and sustainability of the REA Group; and deliver future focused strategic and operational planning. Customer Solutions & Operations is accountable for delivering customer and operational excellence through all service experiences, including - customer onboarding, product fulfilment, help & support, feedback management, credit and payment solutions.

The Senior Customer Support Manager is a key leadership role within REA’s Customer Support function and acts as second in charge to the Head of Support. This role is accountable for supporting the leading of leaders and teams to deliver service excellence to REA customers, ensuring a seamless end-to-end support experience across a broad range of products, channels and technical troubleshooting.

What the role is all about

• Lead and inspire high-performing teams to deliver exceptional customer service that drives brand advocacy, loyalty and customer value, removing roadblocks and enabling great outcomes.
• Act as deputy to the Head of Support, taking responsibility for day-to-day leadership of the function when required, including decision-making, communications, and representation in cross-functional forums.
• Connect the team to purpose and strategy, ensuring everyone understand how their work contributes to REA’s goals, customer outcomes and our support vision.
• Lead leaders, including emerging leaders, through coaching, mentoring and regular feedback, building capability in people leadership, performance management and change leadership.
• Empower the team to ‘own it’ by using performance data, insight and quality conversations to drive accountability, support development and enable progression pathways.
• Own and optimise key operational metrics (e.g. service levels, response and resolution times, quality, NPS, productivity and efficiency) to deliver timely, high-quality service.
• Drive continuous performance and process improvement, using data, feedback and experimentation to simplify work, remove customer and employee pain points, and support scalable growth.
• Lead operational planning, including workforce management, forecasting and capacity planning, partnering with the Customer Support Leadership team and Workforce Planning to ensure we meet customer expectation for timeliness and quality.
• Proactively manage operational risk in your area of responsibility, ensuring risks are identified early, controlled effectively, and escalated appropriately.
• Champion collaboration with internal stakeholders (Product, Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal and others) to resolve systemic issues, influence roadmaps and improve the end-to-end customer and employee experience.
• Support change and transformation initiatives, ensuring the Customer Support function is ready for new products, processes and technology, and that changes are embedded sustainably.
• Contribute to strategy and planning for the Support function, using your frontline and operational insight to shape priorities, investment decisions and future ways of working.

Who we’re looking for

• Runs on the board: Significant experience in a customer service and/or operational environment that is fast-paced, complex and change-intensive, ideally with leadership of multiple teams or leaders.
• Proven people leader who can capture the hearts and minds of their team, connect them to our purpose and strategy, and inspire high performance, growth and accountability.
• Demonstrated success in creative problem solving to deliver better customer and employee experiences, especially where issues are complex, cross-functional or ambiguous.
• Experience leading continuous and sustainable process improvement in an operational environment, using structure approaches (e.g. Lean, data-led experimentation) to drive customer value.
• Comfortable with operational metrics and analytics, with a track record of improving productivity, efficiency, quality and customer outcomes to meet or exceed performance targets.
• Strong knowledge of forecasting and capacity planning, including partnering with Workforce Planning or similar teams to design and execute effective staffing plans.
• Experienced stakeholder manager, able to build trusted relationships across the business, influence decisions, and work collaboratively to reduce customer and employee pain points.
• Resilient and adaptable leader who thrives in change, can navigate ambiguity, and role-models REA values and behaviours, including ‘own it’, collaboration and continuous learning.

The REA experience

The physical, mental, emotional and financial health of our people is something we’ll never stop caring about. This is a place to learn and grow.

Some of our Perks & Benefits (https://www.rea-group.com/about-us/news-and-insights/blog/how-we-help-our-people/) include:

• A hybrid and flexible approach to working
• Flexible leave options including, birthday leave and purchase additional leave
• Flexible parental leave offering for primary and secondary carers
• Our Because We Care program offers employees volunteering leave, community grants, matched payroll giving and our Community Café donates 100% of revenue to charity
• Hackdays so you can bring your big ideas to life

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe teams with diverse ideas and experiences are more creative, more effective and fuel disruptive thinking. If you've got the skills, dedication and enthusiasm to learn but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch.

Join our Talent Neighbourhood

Keen to be part of REA but didn't find a perfect match with this opportunity? Perhaps the timing isn't right? You should join our Talent Neighbourhood! (https://rea.to/careers-talentneighbourhood)

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Req ID R0015375