Customer Experience (CX) Strategist

Voya Financial; Hartford (CT); On-site; USD 150,000 - 198,000; Full time

Job summary

Voya Financial is seeking a CX Strategist to define and drive customer and experience strategy for a major line of business. As the primary CX partner to business leaders, this role translates goals, customer needs, and market opportunities into actionable, measurable strategies while shaping enterprise transformation.

This role is remote; however, candidates must be located within commutable proximity to a Voya office to support periodic onsite collaboration.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
• 10+ years in customer experience, experience strategy, or related fields with measurable outcomes.
• Expert knowledge of CX methodologies, journey mapping, VOC programs, and CX measurement.
• Experience leading design thinking, workshops, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Experience in employee benefits, health insurance, or insurance industry.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end customer experience strategy for a key line of business.
• Develop multi-year experience roadmaps translating objectives into customer initiatives.
• Define future-state experiences and identify opportunities to differentiate journeys.
• Balance business value, customer impact, feasibility, and learning to drive CX initiatives.
• Lead workshops to envision future-state experiences and align on direction.
• Incorporate VOC insights, customer research, and analytics into planning.
• Define and monitor strategic KPIs and CPIs to drive accountability.
• Present recommendations and business cases to senior leadership.

Skills

CX strategy

Stakeholder influence

Facilitation

Design thinking

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Journey mapping

Service design

Persona development

Job description

Together we fight for everyone’s opportunity for a better financial future. We will do this together — with customers, partners and colleagues. We will fight for others, not against: We will stand up for and champion everyone’s access to opportunities. The status quo is not good enough … we believe every individual and every community deserves access to financial opportunities. We are determined to support both individuals and communities in reaching a better financial future. We know that reaching this future depends on our actions today. Like our Purpose Statement, Voya believes in being bold and committed to action. We are committed to a work environment where the differences that we are born with — and those we acquire throughout our lives — are understood, valued and intentionally pursued. We believe that our employees own our culture and have a responsibility to foster an environment where we all feel comfortable bringing our whole selves to work. Purposefully bringing our differences together to positively influence our culture, serve our clients and enrich our communities is essential to our vision.

Get To Know The Opportunity

The CX Strategist is a strategic advisor and partner responsible for defining and driving customer and experience strategy for a major line of business. Acting as the primary CX partner to business leaders, this individual translates business goals, customer needs, and market opportunities into actionable, measurable experience strategies. In addition to leading line-of-business CX strategy, this role serves as a key partner on enterprise transformation initiatives, helping shape future-state experiences, identify opportunities for differentiation and growth, and ensure customer needs are embedded into strategic decision‑making. This position combines customer experience strategy, human‑centered design, facilitation, and business transformation expertise to deliver meaningful customer and business outcomes.

This role is remote; however, candidates must be located within commutable proximity to one of our Voya offices to support periodic onsite collaboration.

The Contributions You’ll Make

• Own the end-to-end customer experience strategy for a key line of business, ensuring alignment with business objectives, enterprise priorities, and customer needs.
• Develop, lead, and continuously evolve multi‑year experience roadmaps that translate business objectives into customer‑centered initiatives and measurable outcomes.
• Partner with business and transformation leaders to define future‑state customer experiences and identify opportunities to simplify, modernize, and differentiate key customer journeys.
• Drive prioritization, sequencing, and execution of CX initiatives by balancing business value, customer impact, feasibility, and strategic learning.
• Lead experience strategy and design thinking workshops that help cross‑functional teams envision future‑state experiences, identify opportunities, prioritize investments, and align on strategic direction.
• Champion the voice of the customer by incorporating insights from VOC programs, customer research, behavioral science, analytics, and market trends into strategic planning and decision-making.
• Build alignment across business units, technology, product, marketing, operations, and transformation teams to ensure initiatives are integrated, scalable, and sustainable.
• Define, monitor, and communicate strategic KPIs and customer performance indicators (CPIs) to drive accountability and transparency for customer experience outcomes.
• Present experience strategies, future‑state concepts, recommendations, and business cases to senior leadership to influence decisions and secure support for key initiatives.
• Lead cross‑functional teams and influence stakeholders to deliver strategic initiatives and customer‑centered outcomes.
• Promote a customer‑first mindset across business planning, operational processes, and organizational culture.

Minimum Knowledge & Experience

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 10+ years of experience in customer experience, experience strategy, business transformation, consulting, or related fields with a demonstrated track record of delivering measurable customer and business outcomes.
• Expert knowledge of customer experience methodologies and frameworks, including customer journey mapping, service design, persona development, VOC programs, customer research, and CX measurement.
• Demonstrated experience conducting qualitative and ethnographic research, synthesizing insights, developing customer narratives, and translating findings into strategic business recommendations.
• Strong experience applying human‑centered design principles to solve complex business challenges and shape future‑state customer experiences.
• Advanced facilitation skills, including experience leading design thinking, journey mapping, experience strategy, co‑creation, and prioritization workshops.
• Demonstrated experience supporting large‑scale business, digital, or enterprise transformation initiatives.
• Proven ability to lead without direct authority, influence senior leaders, and drive alignment across complex stakeholder groups.
• Strong strategic thinking, business acumen, storytelling, and executive communication skills.
• Experience developing experience visions, transformation roadmaps, and strategic recommendations that connect customer needs with business priorities and capability investments.
• Deep expertise in CX measurement frameworks, VOC programs, customer insight generation, and roadmap development.
• Experience within the employee benefits, health insurance, healthcare, or insurance industry.

Preferred Knowledge & Experience

• Experience identifying opportunities for customer experience differentiation, innovation, and growth within highly regulated industries.
• Experience partnering across multiple functions, including business, technology, product, operations, and marketing, to deliver enterprise‑wide customer experience strategies.

How This Role Aligns To Our Core Four

• Instill Customer Obsession – Advocate for customer needs by leveraging research, VOC insights, analytics, and journey‑based thinking to shape experience strategies and improve customer outcomes.
• Transform with Automation/AI – Utilize data, analytics, automation, AI, and emerging technologies to identify insights, improve decision‑making, and modernize customer experiences.
• Drive Higher Performance Through Our People – Foster alignment across business, technology, product, marketing, and operations teams to build shared ownership and execute strategic priorities.
• Execute on the Fundamentals – Establish clear measures of success, prioritize initiatives effectively, and deliver scalable, sustainable customer experience improvements that support business objectives.

Compensation Pay Disclosure

Voya is committed to pay that’s fair and equitable, which means comparable pay for comparable roles and responsibilities. The below annual base salary range reflects the expected hiring range(s) for this position in the location(s) listed. In addition to base salary, Voya offers incentive opportunities (i.e., annual cash incentives, sales incentives, and/or long‑term incentives) based on the role to reward the achievement of annual performance objectives. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Voya Financial is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Actual compensation offered may vary from the posted salary range based upon the candidate’s geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer. Salaries for part‑time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

$149,820 - $198,370 USD

Be Well. Stay Well.

Voya provides the resources that can make a difference in your lives. To us, this means thriving physically, financially, socially and emotionally. Voya benefits are designed to help you do just that. That’s why we offer an array of plans, programs, tools and resources with one goal in mind: To help you and your family be well and stay well.

What We Offer

• Health, dental, vision and life insurance plans
• 401(k) Savings plan – with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%)
• Voya Retirement Plan – employer paid cash balance retirement plan (4%)
• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year
• Paid time off – including 20 days paid time off, nine paid company holidays and a flexible Diversity Celebration Day.
• Paid volunteer time — 40 hours per calendar year

Critical Skills

• Customer Focused: Passionate drive to delight our customers and offer unique solutions that deliver on their expectations.
• Critical Thinking: Thoughtful process of analyzing data and problem solving data to reach a well‑reasoned solution.
• Team Mentality: Partnering effectively to drive our culture and execute on our common goals.
• Business Acumen: Appreciation and understanding of the financial services industry in order to make sound business decisions.
• Learning Agility: Openness to new ways of thinking and acquiring new skills to retain a competitive advantage.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Voya Financial is an equal‑opportunity employer. Voya Financial provides equal opportunity to qualified individuals regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, veteran status, creed, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other status protected by state or local law.

Reasonable Accommodations

Voya is committed to the inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Voya will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please reference resources for applicants with disabilities.

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