ApplyBoard simplifies the study abroad search, application, and acceptance process by connecting international students, recruitment partners, and educational institutions on one intuitive and personalized platform. ApplyBoard is a mission-driven, hyper-growth organization. It has been attracting dedicated individuals for more than eight years who are inspired every day to break down barriers to international education and take their careers to new heights at a company that will invest in their career growth. Our six core values are our compass in our mission to Educate the World and the foundation of our unique company culture. As an organization built on a foundation of diversity, it’s important that our team members are representative of the students from more than 150 countries that we support.
The Opportunity
The Sr. Manager Customer Experience, US Market will lead global operations of Customer Experience for the US School Market. This leader will be responsible for managing the daily account management process with schools directly, while leading all aspects of a high performing operational team including coaching and motivating a team, developing innovative processes, removing obstacles and leveraging data points to ensure goals are exceeded and opportunities are embraced.
This position requires a forward-thinking, creative and innovative leader with a growth mindset. This leader will execute strategies that deliver a consistent and top notch customer experience for ApplyBoard end-users, and will leverage their deep understanding of the US B2B / B2C Market to improve customer engagement.
What you’ll be doing every day:
Leadership
Lead and scale a global support organization, managing inbound and outbound activity across multiple time zones and languages.
Motivate and drive team engagement; align with company vision; advocate for morale and retention to cultivate committed, high-performing team members.
Coach, support, and monitor individual and team performance; identify development opportunities and implement continuous learning and enablement programs.
Build, coach, and advance a high-performing global team; implement structured onboarding, ongoing coaching, career development, succession planning, and psychological safety.
Foster a culture of continuous learning and enablement with scalable training programs, certifications, and knowledge sharing.
Collaboration
Exhibit a positive, engaging, and goal-oriented management style; work effectively with cross-functional teams.
Share best practices across operational teams to foster a #OneTeam mindset and cross-functional learning.
Lead cross-functional initiatives with Sales, Marketing, Product, Technology, and Education Partnerships to reduce friction and accelerate time-to-value for customers.
Customer Engagement
Improve customer engagement by understanding customer goals; develop strategies that align ApplyBoard with customer needs and streamline workflows to position the US as the market of choice.
Manage relationships with educational institutions and partner networks; nurture programs that support partner success and retention.
Travel to regional teams and key customers as required to support deployments, training, and stakeholder alignment.
Market Expert
Represent the US market internally and externally; communicate with influence, set vision, and provide direction to stakeholders including VP level and above.
Has a deep understanding of U.S. visa norms and immigration regulations, including F-1/J-1 visas.
Data-Driven Excellence and Technology Adoption
Apply a data-driven approach and industry best practices to identify practical solutions and define a clear path to successful implementation.
Build and maintain robust customer health KPIs and dashboards; set aspirational targets and ensure accountability.
Ensure timely delivery of the ApplyBoard platform experience by coordinating with customers, sales, marketing, product, and technology teams.
Leverage technology and tools with a growth and scalability mindset; define adoption strategies in collaboration with Product and other stakeholders.
Systems and tools mapping and integration: map end-to-end CX systems landscape; lead large-scale integrations, API strategies, data flows, data models, and data quality initiatives.
Drive a data-centric culture by collecting, normalizing, analyzing customer feedback, support data, product telemetry, and market trends to surface opportunities.
Maintain a deep understanding of AI capabilities, trends, and practical CX applications in order to implement AI-assisted solutions to scale the organization.
Strategy and Ownership
Represent the voice of the customer to leadership and influence product and platform decision-making to prioritize customer impact in roadmaps.
Develop and execute a comprehensive customer experience strategy, including end-to-end support design, self-serve enablement, in-product guidance, and multi-channel support.
Design scalable processes and playbooks for onboarding, escalation management, quality assurance, and continuous improvement; standardize practices for organization-wide reuse.
Own direct costs and outcomes for the function, including budgeting, capacity planning, staffing models, cost per contact, and efficiency initiatives; drive cost-to-serve improvements.
Establish and govern a customer-centric operating rhythm (cadence, rituals, governance) with transparent reporting to executive leadership.
Establish and exceed output metrics (quantity, turnaround times, quality, CSAT) through disciplined performance management.
Compliance
Maintain compliance with data privacy and security requirements (e.g., GDPR, regional standards, FERPA considerations where relevant).
Establish governance for AI usage, model monitoring, bias mitigation, privacy, and compliance.
What success looks like:
Consistently meets or exceeds defined KPIs for efficiency, quality, and customer outcomes; demonstrates clear improvement in being able to meet conversion and enrolment goals while managing team budget.
Achieves cost-to-serve targets while delivering a superior customer experience; improved operational efficiency through automation and process improvements.
The global team is highly engaged, with strong talent development, low turnover, and clear internal career progression paths.
Cross-functional programs are delivered on time and with measurable impact on customer outcomes and product improvements.
Strong partnerships with Sales, Marketing, Product, and Education Partnerships result in faster time-to-value for customers and higher Net Revenue Retention.
Continuous roadmap development and plans aligned to a utopic customer experience on both the demand and supply side.
Qualifications
5+ years of progressive leadership experience in enterprise-level customer experience, support, or operations, with proven success scaling global teams across multiple regions.
5+ years in a Manager level or higher role with P&L or direct budget ownership and direct responsibility for cost and outcomes.
5+ years customer facing roles and account management experience.
Deep experience in end-to-end customer journeys, multi-channel support, and customer success transformations in a SaaS/PaaS or technology-enabled services environment.
Demonstrated ability to implement data-driven KPIs, dashboards, and performance management frameworks; proficient in translating data into actionable strategies.
Strong analytical and quantitative skills; strong proficiency in using BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, etc.), Excel/Sheets, and SQL or similar data querying where needed.
Proven track record of leveraging automation, AI, knowledge management, and self-service to scale operations while improving customer outcomes.
Excellent communication and storytelling skills; ability to influence senior stakeholders and build rapport with customers, partners, and cross-functional teams.
Experience working with global stakeholders and teams across time zones; culturally intelligent with a customer-first mindset.
Strong change management, talent development, and organizational design experience; capable of defining organizational structure, roles, and career ladders.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment and operate with a hands-on mindset when necessary.
Experience leading an Operations team with a Customer Experience Mindset
Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or equivalent graduate degree preferred.
Knowledge of education technology, higher education ecosystems, or EdTech customer bases is a plus.
Fluency in multiple languages is a plus given global scope.
Travel willingness: able and willing to travel as required to support regional teams.
About ApplyBoard
ApplyBoard empowers students around the world to access the best education. With more than 1,000,000 students from over 150 countries helped with their journey in less than a decade, we are just getting started.
ApplyBoard’s global team assists students and our 1,500+ partner institutions by empowering the international student sector with innovative technology and insights. As a five-time consecutive Deloitte Fast 50 and Fast 500 ranked company, ApplyBoard keeps international students at the heart of everything we do.
Thank you for your interest in joining the ApplyBoard Team and being part of our mission to Educate the World. While we are lucky to attract a high level of interest in each of our roles, only qualified applicants will be contacted and selected for an interview.
ApplyBoard welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates in all aspects of the hiring and selection process.