Director of Customer Service; Remote

Location:

Remote - USA (Candidates based in the US only)

World Education Services (WES) is a non-profit social enterprise that supports the educational, economic, and social inclusion of immigrants, refugees, and international students. For 50 years, WES has set the standard for international academic credential evaluation, supporting millions of people as they seek to achieve their academic and professional goals. Through decades of experience as a leader in global education, WES has developed a wide range of tools to pursue social impact m evaluating academic credentials to shaping policy, designing programs, and providing philanthropic funding, we partner with a diverse set of organizations, leaders, and networks to uplift individuals and drive systems change.

Together with its partners, WES enables people to learn, work, and thrive in new places. For more information about WES, please visit our website .org.

The Director of Customer Service to lead and transform its global customer service function during a period of operational evolution and growth. This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for elevating service quality, strengthening operational rigor, modernizing systems and workflows, and ensuring that the voice of the customer meaningfully informs business decisions.

The Director will oversee a globally distributed, hybrid customer service model, including internal teams and third-party vendors, and will play a critical role in stabilizing operations in the near term while building a scalable, future-ready service organization. This role is a key member of the business division leadership team.

• Own end-to-end customer service performance across all channels (email, phone, chat, social), geographies, and vendors.
• Establish clear operational standards for responsiveness, resolution quality, tone, and escalation management.
• Stabilize and reduce backlogs, improve first-contact resolution, and ensure consistent SLA adherence.
• Lead crisis and escalation management with composure, clarity, and accountability.
• Analyze our current customer experience, pathways and our overall CX positioning in relation to industry recognized models
• Develop a clear, agreed strategy and framework for delivering our evolved customer experience, which will enable us to deliver best-in-class customer experience
• Lead and manage external customer service vendors, ensuring performance, cost-effectiveness, and quality alignment.
• Define clear governance, KPIs, and operating cadences with vendors; intervene decisively when performance gaps emerge.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to assess make-vs-buy decisions and evolve the vendor footprint over time.
• Navigate and optimize service delivery across regions and time zones, with sensitivity to cultural and operational nuances.
• Own the customer service technology stack, including CRM and ticketing systems (e.g., Salesforce or equivalent).
• Partner closely with Product, Technology, and Data teams to improve tooling, automation, reporting, and self-service capabilities.
• Leverage data and insights to identify systemic issues, root causes, and opportunities for operational improvement.
• Champion a mindset of continuous improvement, experimentation, and learning within the function.

• Elevate customer insights into actionable intelligence for leadership across Product, Operations, Finance, and Strategy.
• Translate customer pain points into clear priorities and business cases for change.
• Serve as a credible advocate for customers, balancing empathy with operational realism.
• Build strong partnerships across the organization to ensure customer service is integrated, not siloed.
• Lead, coach, and develop a senior customer service leadership team.
• Identify and implement the appropriate tools, training, skills development, processes, technology or systems that will enable the team to deliver high quality and effective services and solutions e Set clear expectations, accountability, and performance standards.
• Lead the function through change with clarity, steadiness, and transparency.
• Foster a culture of ownership, professionalism, and pride in service excellence.

Required

• 7+ years of experience in customer service, operations, or customer solutions leadership, including senior-level roles.
• Proven track record leading complex, multi-channel, global customer service operations.
• Demonstrated experience managing and scaling third-party vendors and outsourced service models.
• Strong operational discipline with the ability to move from diagnosis to execution.
• High comfort with CRM platforms, customer service tooling, reporting, and analytics.
• Experience leading teams through ambiguity, change, and operational reset.
• Strong executive presence and communication skills, able to influence across levels and functions.
• Experience in mission-driven, social enterprise environments.
• International or…