Director - Global Support

Job Summary

Avalara is seeking a Director, Global Support to lead, shape, and scale our worldwide customer support operations. As the Director, you will oversee the global strategy, delivery, and management of our support services, ensuring that customers receive high-quality service and resolution of their issues in a timely and efficient manner. You will be responsible for fostering a culture of excellence and accountability while driving operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.

Job Duties

Strategic Leadership:

• Lead and evolve the global customer support strategy, ensuring alignment with Avalaras business goals and customer needs.
• Partner with senior leadership teams across product, engineering, sales, and marketing to ensure an integrated approach to customer success and support.
• Develop and implement best practices, metrics, and tools that enable the global support teams to consistently meet service-level expectations and customer satisfaction goals.

Operational Management:

• Oversee day-to-day operations of the global support teams, including incident management, issue resolution, and proactive support initiatives.
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure high-quality support outcomes, focusing on first-contact resolution, customer satisfaction (CSAT), and Net Promoter Scores (NPS).
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance support processes, tools, and technologies, ensuring the team is equipped to resolve customer issues efficiently and effectively.
• Manage the escalation process, providing support for high-priority issues and ensuring timely and satisfactory resolutions.

Team Development:

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing global support team, ensuring alignment with company values and fostering an inclusive, customer-centric culture.
• Drive a culture of learning and development, providing ongoing coaching, training, and career progression opportunities for team members.
• Ensure consistent performance management, setting clear goals, providing feedback, and supporting employee growth and retention.

Customer Experience:

• Be a key advocate for the voice of the customer (VOC), providing insights to product and engineering teams to inform product improvements and prevent recurring issues.
• Identify opportunities for proactive customer outreach, creating programs to prevent issues before they arise and helping customers maximize the value of Avalaras solutions.
• Ensure the delivery of exceptional service to customers across different time zones and regions, maintaining consistent quality regardless of location.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

• Partner with product, engineering, and other teams to ensure alignment on product enhancements, updates, and resolution of customer issues.
• Contribute to the development of customer support documentation, knowledge base articles, and self-service options that improve customer experience and reduce support volume.

Reporting & Analytics:

• Develop and deliver regular reports on global support performance, including key metrics, trends, and customer insights, to executive leadership.
• Utilize analytics to drive decision-making, identify opportunities for improvement, and track progress toward customer support goals.

Experience

• 15+ years of experience in customer support, with at least 8 years in a leadership role managing global or multi-region teams.
• Proven track record of scaling support operations in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Strong experience with customer support platforms (e.g., Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud) and knowledge of support automation, AI-driven solutions, and self-service strategies.
• Expertise in managing cross-functional teams and collaborating with product, engineering, and sales teams.

Skills

• Strong leadership and team-building skills, with the ability to inspire, motivate, and guide large, diverse teams across multiple regions.
• Exceptional problem-solving and decision-making abilities with a data-driven approach to managing and improving support performance.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage with stakeholders at all levels, including executives, customers, and team members.
• Deep understanding of customer support metrics and KPIs, with the ability to interpret data and drive action to improve performance.

Education

Bachelor's degree in business, technology, or a related field; an MBA or equivalent advanced degree is a plus.