Program Manager - Voice of the Customer

Overview

If you’re energized by making sense of complex challenges, influencing across an organization, and making a tangible difference in how people experience public transit, we’d love to hear from you. This is an opportunity to combine strategy, collaboration, and public service to create meaningful improvements for our customers and our community. If you’re a strategic connector who thrives on turning insight into action and wants to make a visible impact on the customer experience, this is your opportunity to help shape the future of public transportation!

As Voice of Customer Program Manager, you will lead Community Transit’s agency wide Voice of Customer program across all services and customer-facing experiences. You will translate customer experience strategy into an integrated program that drives customer-informed decision-making, cross-functional alignment, and measurable improvements.

You will partner with product, program, research, analytics, operations, and service leaders to embed Voice of Customer practices into agency decision-making. You will manage the program framework, roadmap, governance, priorities, dependencies, risks, measures, and reporting while coaching teams in human-centered design and continuous improvement.

You will synthesize quantitative and qualitative customer insights to identify needs, pain points, and opportunities, and translate them into actionable recommendations and prioritized improvements. You will measure whether those improvements are delivering meaningful customer and business outcomes.

Essential Duties

• Lead and Govern Voice of Customer Program

• Own and manage the agency-wide Voice of Customer program roadmap, including objectives, workstreams, milestones, dependencies, risks, resources, measures, and outcomes
• Lead cross-functional efforts to achieve Voice of Customer initiative goals, timelines, and drive measurable improvements in the overall customer experience.
• Establish program governance, operating practices, decision-making processes, and communication mechanisms to support consistent execution across the agency.
• Identify and escalate program risks, barriers, competing priorities, and resource needs to appropriate leadership.
• Coordinate interdependent initiatives across departments and ensure alignment with the broader Customer Experience strategy.

• Establish Voice of Customer Practices and Standards

• Serve as the agencies subject matter expert and coach to product teams on Voice of Customer practices.
• Establish consistent methods, standards, tools, and processes for synthesizing, prioritizing, and applying customer insights.
• Develop and maintain a common Voice of Customer framework that enables teams across the agency to consistently incorporate customer evidence into product, service, and operational decisions.
• Partner with leadership to identify opportunities to strengthen organizational adoption and maturity of customer-centered practices.

• Integrate Customer Insights and Analytics

• Collaborate with Research and Analytics team to integrate quantitative and qualitative customer information from multiple sources, including customer surveys, comments and complaints, contact center interactions, customer research, focus groups, interviews, digital feedback, and operational data.
• Identify patterns, emerging needs, experience gaps, and opportunities for improvement.
• Translate research and analytics into clear, actionable insights and recommendations for project and program teams.
• Ensure customer insights are connected to agency priorities, program roadmaps, and measurable outcomes rather than remaining as standalone research findings.

• Advance Equity, Accessibility, and Representation

• Ensure Voice of Customer methods intentionally include customers who may be underrepresented in traditional feedback channels.
• Incorporate accessibility, equity, and differing customer needs into research, prioritization, recommendations, and program decisions.
• Partner with appropriate accessibility, equity, and community stakeholders to strengthen representation in customer insight activities.

• Coach and Influence Cross-Functional Teams

• Coach product and program teams to incorporate customer needs and insights into decision-making.
• Strengthen a customer-centric culture while balancing customer needs with operational, financial, regulatory, accessibility, and resource constraints.
• Influence stakeholders and facilitate alignment across teams with differing priorities and perspectives.
• Negotiate and build commitment to customer-centered approaches without direct authority over participating teams.
• Present complex customer information and program performance in a clear, concise, and compelling manner.

• Program Measurement, Reporting, and Executive Communication

• Develop and maintain program dashboards, metrics, and reporting mechanisms that demonstrate program progress, adoption, customer impact, and business results.
• Provide regular updates on Voice of Customer program progress, insights, trends, priorities, risks, and improvement outcomes to stakeholders ranging from product teams to executive leadership and the Board of Directors.
• Establish program-level measures that assess both adoption of Voice of Customer practices and the resulting impact on customer experience and organizational outcomes.

• Strategic Opportunity Identification

• Pair creativity, customer insight, data, and business judgment to help teams identify opportunities for product, service, and experience improvements.
• Identify emerging customer needs and trends that may inform future agency priorities.
• Help product and program leaders understand the customer implications of strategic and operational decisions.
• Identify opportunities to improve the agency’s overall customer experience ecosystem and elevate systemic customer problems that require cross-departmental or agency-wide solutions.

• Facilitate human-centered design workshops to better understand our customers and improve their experience.
• Perform other duties of a similar nature or level.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Five years of experience leading cross-functional projects and/or programs in a highly customer-centric, service-oriented, or complex organizational environment.
• Three years of experience collecting, analyzing, interpreting, or applying customer experience data and measures such as Net Promoter Score, Customer Satisfaction Scores, Customer Effort Scores, or comparable customer experience measures.
• Three years of experience facilitating cross-functional groups and presenting customer insights, recommendations, and program outcomes to diverse audiences, including senior leadership.
• Experience managing program roadmaps, schedules, dependencies, risks, stakeholders, and performance measures.
• Experience applying human-centered design, customer experience, continuous improvement, or comparable customer-centered methodologies.
• A degree in business administration, project management, customer experience, organizational development, social sciences, or a related field may substitute for one year of experience.
• Professional experience with PC-based software such as Microsoft Office, email, scheduling, presentation, and collaboration applications.

An equivalent combination of education and experience to successfully perform the job duties is also accepted.

Knowledge Requirements

• Voice of Customer principles, practices, and programs.
• Customer experience strategy, measurement, and improvement.
• Customer journey mapping and personal development
• Data analysis, synthesis, visualization, and storytelling
• Problem analysis and decision-making.
• Human centered design methodologies, tools, and facilitation practices.
• Problem analysis, prioritization and decision-making
• Conflict resolution, mediation, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement.
• Project management best practices, including program governance, roadmaps, milestones, dependencies, risk management, stakeholder management, resource planning, and executive reporting.
• Process improvement tools and techniques, including collecting, analyzing, reporting, and developing action plans for Key Performance Indicators, metrics, and contract compliance.

Skill Requirements

• Fostering an inclusive workplace by upholding Community Transit’s core values in support of the organization’s vision and mission. Inspiring team commitment, pride, and trust while promoting cooperation and motivating members to achieve shared goals. Demonstrating courtesy, sensitivity, and respect in all interactions.
• Leading cross-functional programs and initiatives with multiple stakeholders, workstreams, and competing priorities.
• Establishing and maintaining effective interpersonal relationships with coworkers, supervisor, the public, and others.
• Applying continuous improvement and human-centered design practices.
• Demonstrating a commitment to serve the public.
• Ability to negotiate and influence others to achieve business goals and core values.
• Collaborating with cross-departmental teams, leading and participating in strategic initiatives, and proposing innovative solutions to problems of medium to high complexity.
• Working effectively both independently and as part of a team with limited supervision.
• Maintaining objectivity and using data to inform collaborative decision making.
• Maintaining composure and effectiveness leading through ambiguity, conflict, and changing priorities.
• Effective written and oral communications that are timely, relevant, concise, and clearly outline necessary actions.
• Managing details within the larger picture.
• Holding self and others accountable for measurable, high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results.
• Demonstrating intellectual curiosity and proactively seeking information.

Preferred Skills and Knowledge

• Personal experience using Community Transit products and/or other transit agencies.
• Experience using Power BI or comparable business intelligence and visualization tools.
• Federal, state, and local regulations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act as it relates to transportation, as well as contractual performance standards.
• Federal procurement rules and contracting guidelines.

Working Conditions

Hybrid telework may be available. Availability is at management discretion based on the nature of the work. Work is performed in an office environment and requires the use of office equipment and technology. You will be required to move throughout and between different office buildings and may need to complete tasks in noisy environments. You may also be required to lift and carry materials up to 10 pounds occasionally.

Application and Selection Process

• Only on-line applications accepted.
• Applicants for this job may be considered for other openings up to six months after the date this position is filled.
• Applicants who meet the minimum requirements may be scheduled for an interview as well as a variety of tests to demonstrate knowledge, and skills for the position. The evaluation process may include interviews, background check, reference checks and various performance tests.

Employee Benefits

• Employees (and their families) are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life and disability insurance.
• Employees participate in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) and have the option to enroll in the agency’s deferred compensation plan.
• In addition to WA Paid Sick Leave, employees in this position, accrue of 24 days of Paid Time off (192 hours) in their first year and ten (10) paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Full list of all benefits and details can be found here.

If you are related to or share the same living quarters of a current Community Transit employee, please let your Recruiter know as your eligibility for this position may be affected.

Community Transit provides a tobacco-free and drug-free work environment. As a recipient of federal funds, Community Transit is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate on a basis prohibited by Federal, State or Local law. We value and encourage diversity in our workforce. EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, protected veteran status or disability.