Customer Experience Director

Thirteen; Tees Valley; On-site; GBP 98,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary

Annual leave

Pension

Healthcare

Discount platform

Leave trading

Job summary

Thirteen seeks a Customer Experience Director to lead the organisation-wide customer experience strategy and build trust with customers across its housing portfolio.

You will oversee transformation programmes that simplify interactions, reduce customer effort and standardise service across touchpoints. The role requires hands-on leadership to embed customer insight into design and delivery, with the ability to collaborate at all levels.

Qualifications

• You will be an experienced senior leader with a strong track record of delivering customer-focused strategies, service improvement and transformation within large, complex organisations.
• You understand customer insight, service design, journey mapping, segmentation and digital customer engagement, and can translate data into clear action and better outcomes.
• You are a skilled relationship builder with credibility to engage with Boards, regulators, customers and colleagues at all levels.
• You will be resilient, adaptable, and comfortable working at pace, with judgment to balance customer needs, delivery and priorities.
• As a people leader, you will inspire teams, lead through change and empower others to improve services.

Responsibilities

• Lead the launch and delivery of the customer experience strategy, ensuring services are shaped around customer needs and outcomes.
• Oversee ~100,000 customers across 36,000+ homes, creating seamless journeys and strengthening trust.
• Develop and refresh the customer experience function, bringing together insight, engagement and journey mapping to drive improvements.
• Drive continuous improvement across the end-to-end journey, reducing contact and improving consistency for customers.
• Use insight, complaints and performance data to identify root causes and translate learning into service improvements.
• Shape customer involvement and scrutiny frameworks to ensure diverse voices influence decisions.
• Champion multi-channel service excellence and strengthen digital self-service where it benefits customers.

Job description

Role Overview:

Thirteen Group is looking for an exceptional Customer Experience Director to lead the delivery of our organisation-wide customer experience strategy and help us become the most trusted housing association, with happy customers.

This is a significant leadership opportunity to shape customer experience at scale across one of the region’s largest housing associations. You’ll build on strong foundations, influence across the organisation and make sure customer insight, voice and experience are central to how we design and deliver services.

You’ll lead transformational programmes that make it easier for customers to interact with us, reduce customer effort and improve consistency across every touchpoint. You’ll bring fresh thinking, challenge where needed and help colleagues across Thirteen understand the role they play in delivering a great customer experience.

We’re looking for a visible, values‑led leader who can combine empathy with grip, pace and delivery. If you thrive on leading change, inspiring people and improving services for customers, this is your opportunity to make a lasting impact.

You’ll be expected to work a minimum of two to three days a week from our fantastic head office at Hudson Quay in Middlesbrough. Flexibility is important, so there may be times when additional presence at the office is required to meet business and team needs.

Thirteen Benefits:

• Salary – £108,990 per annum
• Annual leave – 31 days, a day off for your birthday, plus bank holidays.
• Pension – up to 17% contributions (flexible contribution rates of up to 7% colleague and up to 10% employer).
• Simply Health – save money on common health expenses and get access to health and wellbeing support services.
• T’dar – our Discount and Reward platform giving you huge savings on everyday brands.
• Opportunities to buy and sell annual leave

Key Responsibilities:

• Reporting to the Chief Customer Officer, Serena, you’ll lead the launch and delivery of our customer experience strategy, making sure services are shaped around what customers need and the outcomes we want to achieve.
• With responsibility for approximately 100,000 customers across more than 36,000 homes, you’ll work collaboratively across Thirteen to create seamless customer journeys and strengthen customer trust in Thirteen.
• Lead and develop a refreshed customer experience function, bringing together customer insight, engagement and journey mapping to drive meaningful and measurable improvements.
• Drive continuous improvement across the end-to-end customer journey, improving trust, reducing repeat contact and making services easier and more consistent for customers.
• Use insight, segmentation, complaints and performance data to identify root causes, shape priorities and turn learning into practical service improvements.
• Shape and evolve our customer involvement and scrutiny frameworks, ensuring diverse customer voices influence decision‑making and service improvements.
• Champion multi‑channel service excellence, strengthening digital self‑service where it works for customers while improving first contact resolution and overall customer satisfaction.

About You:

• You’ll be an experienced senior leader with a strong track record of delivering customer-focused strategies, service improvement and transformation within large, complex organisations.
• You’ll understand customer insight, service design, journey mapping, segmentation and digital customer engagement, and be able to translate data into clear action and better customer outcomes.
• A skilled relationship builder with the credibility and influence to engage with Boards, regulators, customers, partners and colleagues at all levels.
• You’ll be resilient, adaptable and comfortable working at pace, with the confidence to challenge constructively and the judgement to balance customer needs, operational delivery and organisational priorities.
• As an exceptional people leader, you’ll inspire teams, lead through change and create an environment where colleagues feel empowered to improve services and deliver great experiences for customers.

Why Thirteen

At Thirteen, we work together to provide quality homes, build stronger communities, and support people to live well. As the largest housing association in the North East and among the top 25 nationally, we manage over 36,000 homes, with over 1,600 colleagues providing services for around 100,000 customers.

Our vision is to be the most trusted housing association, with happy customers. Following a colleague‑led culture refresh, we’re embedding our ‘Better Together’ approach as well as our values: Accountable, Proactive, Courageous, Considerate.

We have also secured the highest possible C1/G1/V1 ratings following an inspection by the Regulator of Social Housing, providing strong assurance on our governance, financial viability and consumer standards.

But we’re not standing still. We’re continuing to transform how we work so customers experience services that are simple, joined up and consistently good.

As part of our hiring process, if you’re successful we’ll need to verify your right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we are not a Skilled Worker Sponsoring Employer at this time.