Senior Director, Support Operations and Optimization

Lighthouse•Denver, CO

23d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Lighthouse, we’re on a mission to disrupt commercial strategy for the hospitality industry. Our innovative commercial platform takes the complexity out of data, empowering businesses with actionable insights, advanced pricing tools, and cutting-edge business intelligence to unlock their full revenue potential. Backed by $370 million in series C funding and driven by an unwavering passion for growth, we’ve welcomed five companies into our journey and have surpassed $100 million in ARR in 2024. Our 850+ teammates span 35 countries and represent 34 nationalities. At Lighthouse, we’re more than just a workplace – we’re a community. Collaborative, fun, and deeply committed, we work hard together to revolutionize the hospitality sector. Are you ready to join us and shine brighter in the industry’s most exciting rocket-ship? 🚀 What you will do The Senior Director of Support Operations & optimization leads the operational activities that powers the Lighthouse global Customer Care (“CC”) organization. This role ensures that CC delivers exceptional, scalable, and efficient customer experiences by overseeing all core CC Operations, Enablement, Insights, Process Improvement, QA, Continuous Improvement, Workforce Management, and new product Go-to-Market support for the CC team. As a key member of the CC leadership team, this role shapes the operational strategy for an AI-first support organization; driving transformation, strengthening cross-functional alignment with Engineering, Product, GTM, and Customer Engagement, and ensuring Lighthouse Customer Care organization is a leader in Human + AI customer experience. Where you will have impact Strategic Mandate Build and operate the systems, processes, and structures that allow CC to scale efficiently, meet customer expectations, and deliver measurable value to the business. Champion AI-first support, ensuring Frontline, Managers, and Leaders are enabled to confidently leverage automation, Fin, workflows, and AI-powered tools. Drive Support’s operating model, ensuring clarity, consistency, and readiness across people, processes, and technology. Key Areas of Ownership Support Operations Define and execute a strategic vision for an AI-First support organization, ensuring AI is used responsibly and effectively to elevate customer and teammate experiences. Serve as the executive owner of AI involvement, resolution and automation rates, customer satisfaction and experience metrics, and support operational efficiency. Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary team of AI implementation professionals—including AI Conversation Designers, Knowledge Managers, and AI systems specialists. Forecasting, capacity planning, deflection strategy, productivity planning, decreased handling time enablement, forecasting accuracy. Operational governance, escalation processes, incident readiness, and annual planning. Maintenance of core CC rhythms and reporting. Vendor Management. Support optimization Oversee continuous optimization of AI Agents, including model tuning, routing logic, prompt design, and workflow improvements. Establish processes to review conversation patterns, customer feedback, and AI behaviour to ensure accuracy, quality, and consistent improvement. Drive sophisticated automation strategies that reduce handling time, improve scalability, and lower operational cost.Drives Process Improvement across all AI and Human Support interactions. Continuous Improvement (CI) flywheel design & execution. QA strategy, scorecards, assurance standards, and AutoQA roadmap input. Workflow, process, and tooling optimization across CC. Cross-functional problem solving and system-level improvements. Ensure content is always AI-ready, technically accurate, accessible, and up to date. Enablement Leadership (Onboarding + Ongoing L&D) Ensures frontline and managerial readiness for AI-first workflows, new tooling, and product launches. Sets direction and priority for enablement strategy for all CC roles. Oversees design and delivery of new-hire onboarding, competency frameworks, simulation-based training, and manager development in conjunction with Customer Operations Enablement Manager and the Regional Customer Care team Directors/Managers. Insights & Analytics Leads Support Insights to enable data-driven decision-making. Provides analysis across demand, quality, automation, performance, productivity, and customer outcomes. Shapes CC metrics frameworks and success measures. Go to Market (GTM) Support Readiness Ensures CC readiness for every major product launch, in partnership with Engineering & Product Managers. Leads impact assessment, training, simulation testing, risk management, and frontline enablement. Acts as the operational bridge between Product and CC. Centralizes and packages customer feedback based on support trends to the Product Management team. Leadership Impact Builds and leads a high-performing multi-disciplinary team (Ops, optimization, QA, Insights, Enablement, GTM Readiness). Strengthens cross-functional influence, acting as a key operational voice in strategic decision-making. Creates clarity, structure, and alignment across the CC organization. Represents Support in internal and external thought leadership, including external events, customer sessions, and strategic programs. Oversee the architecture, governance, and optimization of knowledge systems—including help centers, internal knowledge bases, macros, and in-product content. Measures of Success: Improved operational efficiency (deflection increase, productivity increase, decreased handling time, forecasting accuracy). Higher customer satisfaction and reduced support friction through quality, CI, QA, and process optimization. Contributes to increased adoption and performance of AI (Fin involvement + resolution). Strong and scalable training programs that uplift team performance across all levels. High-quality, low-friction product launches with clear frontline readiness. Documented, mature, and scalable support systems and workflows. Strong team engagement, talent development, and leadership pipeline. About our team Our Customer Care team is a collaborative team across the AMER, APAC and EMEA regions. The team advises and guides our wide array of customers as they map any number of business needs to Lighthouse. We are the faces of Lighthouse - genuinely compassionate, strategic-minded, organized and dedicated. As a member of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work with a dynamic group of professionals, learn from experienced leaders, and contribute to the success of our organization.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive leadership experience in a high-volume, global Customer Care Operations, Customer Experience (CX) Operations, or Service Delivery role, with at least 5 years leading a multi-disciplinary team (e.g., WFM, QA, Enablement, Process Improvement, Analytics).
Deep expertise in operating model transformation and scaling, specifically within an organization transitioning to an AI-first / Human + AI support environment. Proven success in leveraging automation, generative AI, and machine learning to achieve significant gains in efficiency, deflection, and productivity.
Demonstrated mastery of core Customer Care operational disciplines, including:
Workforce Management (WFM) and Capacity Planning (forecasting accuracy, staffing models, shrinkage/utilization optimization).
Process Improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma) applied to customer journeys and internal workflows.
Quality Assurance (QA) strategy, design, and implementation, including the transition to automated/AI-assisted QA (AutoQA).
Exceptional strategic thinking and analytical skills with a proven ability to translate complex operational data (demand, resolution time, quality, deflection rates) into actionable insights, clear priorities, and business cases for investment.
Strong cross-functional leadership and influence skills required to partner effectively at the executive level with Product, Engineering, and Go-To-Market (GTM) teams to drive product quality, operational readiness, and system-level improvements.
Experience defining and driving GTM Support Readiness programs for new product launches in a fast-paced, high-growth, or complex technology environment (B2B SaaS experience is a significant plus).
Proven ability to build and mentor high-performing, globally distributed teams across diverse functions, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, data-driven decision-making, and operational excellence.
Fluent in English, both written and spoken, any other language used within our company network is a plus.

Responsibilities

Build and operate the systems, processes, and structures that allow CC to scale efficiently, meet customer expectations, and deliver measurable value to the business.
Champion AI-first support, ensuring Frontline, Managers, and Leaders are enabled to confidently leverage automation, Fin, workflows, and AI-powered tools.
Drive Support’s operating model, ensuring clarity, consistency, and readiness across people, processes, and technology.
Define and execute a strategic vision for an AI-First support organization, ensuring AI is used responsibly and effectively to elevate customer and teammate experiences.
Serve as the executive owner of AI involvement, resolution and automation rates, customer satisfaction and experience metrics, and support operational efficiency.
Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary team of AI implementation professionals—including AI Conversation Designers, Knowledge Managers, and AI systems specialists.
Forecasting, capacity planning, deflection strategy, productivity planning, decreased handling time enablement, forecasting accuracy.
Operational governance, escalation processes, incident readiness, and annual planning.
Maintenance of core CC rhythms and reporting.
Vendor Management.
Oversee continuous optimization of AI Agents, including model tuning, routing logic, prompt design, and workflow improvements.
Establish processes to review conversation patterns, customer feedback, and AI behaviour to ensure accuracy, quality, and consistent improvement.
Drive sophisticated automation strategies that reduce handling time, improve scalability, and lower operational cost.Drives Process Improvement across all AI and Human Support interactions.
Continuous Improvement (CI) flywheel design & execution.
QA strategy, scorecards, assurance standards, and AutoQA roadmap input.
Workflow, process, and tooling optimization across CC.
Cross-functional problem solving and system-level improvements.
Ensure content is always AI-ready, technically accurate, accessible, and up to date.
Ensures frontline and managerial readiness for AI-first workflows, new tooling, and product launches.
Sets direction and priority for enablement strategy for all CC roles.
Oversees design and delivery of new-hire onboarding, competency frameworks, simulation-based training, and manager development in conjunction with Customer Operations Enablement Manager and the Regional Customer Care team Directors/Managers.
Leads Support Insights to enable data-driven decision-making.
Provides analysis across demand, quality, automation, performance, productivity, and customer outcomes.
Shapes CC metrics frameworks and success measures.
Ensures CC readiness for every major product launch, in partnership with Engineering & Product Managers.
Leads impact assessment, training, simulation testing, risk management, and frontline enablement.
Acts as the operational bridge between Product and CC.
Centralizes and packages customer feedback based on support trends to the Product Management team.
Builds and leads a high-performing multi-disciplinary team (Ops, optimization, QA, Insights, Enablement, GTM Readiness).
Strengthens cross-functional influence, acting as a key operational voice in strategic decision-making.
Creates clarity, structure, and alignment across the CC organization.
Represents Support in internal and external thought leadership, including external events, customer sessions, and strategic programs.
Oversee the architecture, governance, and optimization of knowledge systems—including help centers, internal knowledge bases, macros, and in-product content.

Benefits

Flexible working environment: Work from home or at one of our global offices.
Flexible time off: Autonomy to manage your work-life balance.
401k matching: Up to 4%.
Health insurance: Two Blue Cross Blue Shield plans with 99% company contribution to the base plan and 75% for dependents and spouses, plus $25/month to HSA.
Vision and Dental Insurance: Dental Buy-up plan option, 50% company contributions to premiums for both employees, dependents and spouses for both.
Employee Assistance Program: 100% confidential and free.
Employer paid Short Term Disability + $50,000 Life Insurance
Parental leave: 12 weeks of company paid primary caregiver leave, 3 weeks of company paid secondary caregiver leave, $1,500 new parent bonus, and 4 week flexible return to work plan.
Wellbeing support: Subsidized up to 80% ClassPass subscription.

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