Kinetic Associate Director-IVR Strategy & Customer Automation

Uniti

13d•Remote

About The Position

The Associate Director, IVR Strategy & Customer Automation, is responsible for leading the strategy, governance, and evolution of IVR and AI-driven customer interaction capabilities across the contact center experience. This leader will drive the modernization of customer self-service and automation capabilities across voice and related service channels. This role requires a strategic and forward-thinking leader with proven experience delivering conversational AI, intelligent automation, and customer experience transformation. The Associate Director will partner with operations, product, IT, digital, analytics, and vendor teams to identify opportunities, define priorities, implement solutions, and improve business and customer outcomes. The ideal candidate combines strong strategic vision with operational discipline and execution excellence. They will bring a clear understanding of emerging AI capabilities, customer journey design, and contact center operations, along with the leadership skills needed to drive measurable results. This position can be filled remotely anywhere within the country.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Technology, Operations, Computer Science, Communications, or a related field
8–10+ years of progressive leadership experience in contact center technology, customer experience, conversational AI, intelligent automation, or related areas
Proven experience leading strategy and execution for conversational AI, customer automation, or next-generation self-service capabilities
Demonstrated success delivering complex, cross-functional initiatives involving business, operations, technology, and vendor teams
Strong understanding of customer journeys, self-service design, conversation flows, routing logic, escalation strategies, and contact center operations
Experience managing external vendors, platform partners, and support models in a complex environment
Strong leadership, communication, collaboration, and change management skills
Ability to balance strategic planning with operational execution in a fast-evolving environment
Advanced knowledge contact center platforms (eg. Nice, Genesys, Talkdesk)
Advanced experience with telephony systems, IVR, chat platforms, and web self-service tools
Understanding of APIs, integrations, and cloud-based systems
Intermediate experience with reporting and analytics tools
Intermediate experience MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams)
College degree and 10+ years professional level experience with 3-5 years supervisory experience; or 14+ years professional level related experience with 3-5 years supervisory experience; or an equivalent combination of education and professional level related experience required.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of AI-enabled customer engagement technologies, intelligent routing, virtual assistants, and automation platforms preferred
Strategic thinker with a strong customer and business orientation
Proven ability to lead transformation and influence across functions
Comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving clarity in emerging capability areas
Strong judgment and decision-making skills with a focus on outcomes
Passion for innovation and continuous improvement in customer experience

Responsibilities

Develop and lead the strategy and roadmap for conversational AI, intelligent self-service, and customer automation capabilities
Identify opportunities to improve customer interactions through AI-enabled experiences, intelligent routing, workflow automation, and enhanced self-service
Align automation initiatives with business priorities, customer needs, operational goals, and enterprise technology strategy
Lead cross-functional efforts to design, develop, test, implement, and optimize conversational AI and customer automation solutions
Translate business requirements and customer pain points into effective self-service experiences and automation strategies
Oversee customer journey design elements such as conversation flows, intent handling, routing logic, escalation paths, and handoff to live agents
Ensure strong implementation practices, including planning, testing, change management, deployment, and post-launch support
Partner with contact center operations, IT, product, digital, customer experience, and analytics teams to support business priorities and improve service outcomes
Use customer feedback, journey insights, operational performance data, and service trends to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities
Ensure customer automation solutions are intuitive, effective, compliant, and aligned with broader customer experience goals
Stay current on market trends, emerging technologies, and best practices related to conversational AI, agentic AI, intelligent automation, and customer engagement platforms
Evaluate new capabilities, tools, and partners that can enhance the customer experience and support business objectives
Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement across customer automation initiatives
Manage relationships with vendors and partners supporting conversational AI, contact center automation, and related platforms
Ensure vendors meet performance expectations related to service delivery, innovation, support, and platform reliability
Coordinate platform enhancements, issue resolution, releases, and ongoing optimization efforts with internal and external stakeholders
Establish clear governance, communication, and escalation processes across vendors and business partners
Monitor performance of automation capabilities, including containment, routing effectiveness, experience quality, escalation patterns, and platform stability
Establish governance processes and operational standards to support sustainable delivery and continuous improvement
Ensure solutions comply with applicable privacy, security, regulatory, and customer data requirements
Promote disciplined controls for performance monitoring, change management, and risk mitigation
Serve as a senior leader and subject matter expert for conversational AI strategy and customer automation
Lead cross-functional collaboration across business, operations, technology, product, and vendor teams
Communicate strategy, priorities, progress, and performance clearly to leadership and stakeholders
Build alignment and momentum for automation initiatives across the organization