Customer Support Operations Lead

Gauteng Provincial Government; South Africa; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Gauteng Provincial Government is seeking an Operations Manager to lead Customer Support operations and translate strategy into actionable plans. The role guides Team Managers, driving TNPS, CSAT and service levels while improving efficiency and customer experience.

Location is Johannesburg, with a requirement to work 3 days per week on-site. The role emphasizes coaching, stakeholder management, and continuous improvement across product and support teams.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience in Customer Support or a comparable service environment.
• Experience leading through Team Managers or other people leaders.
• Strong understanding of customer experience, performance management and service delivery measures.
• Experience in workforce planning, capacity management, forecasting or resource optimisation.
• Ability to interpret operational data, identify root causes and translate insights into measurable action.
• Proven experience in coaching, performance management, talent development and succession planning.
• Strong stakeholder management, written and verbal communication and influencing skills.
• Ability to lead change, manage competing priorities and maintain operational stability.
• Sound judgement, integrity and the ability to hold leaders and teams accountable for agreed outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Leads Customer Support Team Managers and their teams to achieve agreed customer, colleague and operational outcomes.
• Translates Customer Support strategy, annual objectives and product priorities into clear operational plans, measures and accountabilities.
• Drives performance against key measures including TNPS, CSAT, First Contact Resolution, service levels, quality and backlog management.
• Uses operational data, customer feedback and root-cause analysis to identify performance risks and improvement opportunities.
• Ensures effective workforce planning, forecasting, scheduling, capacity management and resource deployment.
• Builds leadership capability through coaching, performance management and development of Team Managers.
• Creates a high-performance culture promoting accountability, engagement, inclusion and continuous learning.
• Champions customer-centred support practices reducing repeat contact and customer effort.
• Provides leadership on customer escalations, service recovery and operational issues.
• Leads continuous improvement, digital adoption, automation and AI-enabled support initiatives.
• Partners with Product, Digital, Finance, People, Learning, Quality and others to deliver cross-functional priorities.
• Supports budget planning and identifies opportunities to improve productivity and cost-to-serve.
• Ensures adherence to playbooks, SOPs, internal controls and legal requirements.
• Provides operational reporting, customer insight, risks and recommendations to senior leadership.

Skills

Leadership

Customer experience

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Workforce planning

Change management

Coaching

Performance management

Communication

Strategic thinking

Job description

Gauteng Provincial Government is seeking an Operations Manager to lead Customer Support operations and translate strategy into actionable plans. The role guides Team Managers, driving TNPS, CSAT and service levels while improving efficiency and customer experience.

Location is Johannesburg, with a requirement to work 3 days per week on-site. The role emphasizes coaching, stakeholder management, and continuous improvement across product and support teams.