Director of Strategic Customer Relations

Imprint; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Imprint seeks a Director, Strategic Customer Relations to own the strategy, operations, and outcomes of escalations, back-office functions, and social media support. This senior role drives a metrics-driven function with a clear roadmap for what great looks like and builds the infrastructure from ground up.

You will lead a hybrid team with internal staff and an outsourced partner, leverage AI-powered tools, and partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Tech to scale responsibly.

Qualifications

• Experience building scalable escalation and back-office functions from scratch.
• Proven track record of outsourcing for scale.
• Ability to define a 1–2 year vision and actionable roadmaps.
• Excellent stakeholder management across Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Tech.
• Fintech/payments/regulatory services familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Own strategy, operations, and outcomes across escalations, back office, credit reporting, and social media support.
• Build operating infrastructure with processes, metrics, tooling, and backlog management.
• Lead a hybrid team of internal staff and outsourced partners.
• Identify and implement technology solutions, including AI-powered tools.
• Partner with cross-functional leaders to resolve complex escalations and ensure regulatory adherence.
• Feed escalation themes back to Product and Engineering.

Skills

Escalations leadership

Operations scaling

AI in operations

Stakeholder management

Data analytics

Outsourcing management

Cross-functional collaboration

Fintech knowledge

Tools

Linear

Sigma

Slack bots

Automation tools

Job description

• As Director, Strategic Customer Relations, you will own the strategy, operations, and outcomes of Imprint’s customer escalations and back office functions. This is a senior leadership role with direct accountability for building and scaling a best-in-class escalations operation
• You will serve as the vision-setting, execution-driving leader across four core function areas: escalations, back office operations, credit reporting, and social media support — translating reactive, ad hoc processes into a structured, metrics-driven function with a clear roadmap for what great looks like
• This role requires a builder who has created functions like this from scratch, knows how to leverage outsourcing to scale, and can use technology — including AI — to transform how escalations work at Imprint
• Own strategy, operations, and outcomes across escalations (organic, executive, and partner), back office functions, credit reporting, and social media support
• Build the operating infrastructure for the escalations function: processes, metrics, tooling, and backlog management — from the ground up
• Define and articulate a clear vision for what “great” looks like in 1–2 years, and drive stakeholder alignment and buy-in on the path to get there
• Lead and scale a hybrid team model, including internal staff and an outsourced partner, to meet growing demand without proportional headcount growth
• Identify, evaluate, and implement technology solutions — including AI-powered tools — to improve agent support, reduce escalation volume, and increase resolution quality
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, Tech, and General Managers to resolve complex escalations and ensure regulatory adherence
• Feed escalation themes back to Product and Engineering with actionable recommendations to address root causes and prevent recurrence
• Establish data infrastructure that connects ticketing systems (e.g., Linear) with broader analytics platforms (e.g., Sigma) for unified reporting and insight
• Oversee back office operations including trailing statements, SCRA, bankruptcy notices, and deceased notices
• Provide strategic oversight of social media support channels with a plan to expand coverage
• What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days
• Established operating structure, clear metrics, and backlog visibility across all four function areas
• Defined a 1–2 year vision for the escalations function and a concrete work-back plan to achieve it
• Replaced the current escalation process with a scalable, agent-facing solution
• Built productive working relationships with key cross-functional stakeholders: Risk, General Managers, Compliance, Legal, and Tech
• Demonstrated ability to manage and leverage the outsourced escalations team effectively to scale capacity

Experience managing outsourced or BPO teams as a core part of the delivery modelPractical experience leveraging AI in operations — e.g., agent assist tools, Slack bots, or automated resolution workflowsAbility to set a clear vision, communicate it compellingly, and drive alignment across senior stakeholdersProficiency with ticketing systems and experience integrating them with data and analytics platforms for unified reportingStrong analytical mindset with a track record of implementing metrics, operational structure, and process discipline in ambiguous environmentsDemonstrated experience building and scaling customer escalations, back office, or customer relations functions from an early, unstructured state — not just running a mature operationDeep ownership mentality — identifies problems, drives solutions, and holds outcomes without being directedFamiliarity with social media support operations and community management at scaleExposure to a mature, well-run escalations or customer operations function, providing a clear benchmark for “what great looks like”Experience at a high-growth startup navigating rapid scaling and operational volatilityBackground in fintech, payments, or regulated financial services