Senior Manager, Customer Service

About the Role Since 1973, Vida Shoes International has been committed to becoming a global leader in the footwear industry. We are dedicated to designing, producing, and marketing quality branded footwear using our expansive international resources. Our wealth of knowledge stems from the diversity of brands and the successful products we have produced year after year. We are seeking a dedicated, US-based Manager of Customer Service to own end-to-end customer service strategy and optimization at Vida Shoes International. Reporting directly to the Senior Ecommerce Operations Manager, this role is the single accountable leader for the customer service function — overseeing the Customer Service Manager, the full CS team, and the systems and platforms that power the operation. Customer Service is a driver of both revenue and customer experience. There is significant opportunity to improve efficiency, conversion, and overall CX through better tooling, smarter automation, and a more intentional strategy. This role exists to capture that opportunity bringing full-time focus and operational rigor to a function that is critical to the growth of the business. The right candidate is a proven customer service leader who’s managed a team and optimized platforms. They bring deep help desc expertise, a data-driven approach to performance management, and the vision to build a world-class customer service organization. Compensation: $80-90k Department: Customer Service Reports To: VP of Ecommerce Key Responsibilities Team Leadership & Organizational Development • Serve as the senior-most leader of the customer service division, directly overseeing the Customer Service Team Leads and, through them, the full Agent team. • Define and evolve the team structure, leadership levels, and reporting hierarchy to match the scale and complexity of the business and continue to do so as the business evolves. • Own workforce planning and staffing strategy by ensuring the right number of people with the right skills are in place to meet volume demands across all channels. • Identify and develop internal talent, building leadership pipelines and supporting the professional growth of the Customer Service Team Leaders and Agents. • Champion a culture of accountability, customer empathy, and continuous improvement across all levels of the team. • Evaluate and pursue opportunities to expand team hours and/or additional days coverage to better serve customers. EOR Relationship & Global Employment Management • Own the relationship with Vida's Employer of Record (EOR) vendor serving as the primary point of contact for all employment-related matters across all over seas roles. • Manage the end-to-end onboarding process for new team members through the EOR, ensuring employees are set up correctly in the system and ready to work from day one. • Oversee the administration of annual leave, sick leave, and other time-off entitlements in coordination with the EOR platform and internal guidelines. • Review and approve employment contracts issued through our EOR, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and alignment with Vida's compensation and policy standards. • Serve as the internal point of escalation for any EOR-related issues, communicating changes, updates, or policy rollouts to the team in a clear and timely manner. • Partner with the management as needed to ensure EOR costs and headcount are accurately tracked and reported. Strategy, Documentation & Operational Framework • Own the end-to-end customer service strategy, including service model design, channel coverage, escalation frameworks, and long-term capability roadmap. • Build, maintain, and continuously improve the full documentation library for the division SOPs, escalation protocols, onboarding guides and training documentation, and brand communication standards. • Ensure all team members are operating from current, clearly written processes that reflect the latest policies, platform configurations, and brand standards. • Partner cross-functionally with Ecommerce Operations, OMS teams. UX & Conversion, Marketing, Merchandising, and Warehouse Teams to align CS procedures with broader business workflows. • Conduct regular audits of policies and processes to proactively identify gaps and drive improvements. Gorgias Platform Ownership & Optimization • Own the Gorgias platform end-to-end, including system configuration, automation rules, workflows, tags, views, macros, and third-party integrations. • Manage the vendor relationship with Gorgias directly, partnering with the Customer Service Manager to stay current on the product roadmap, negotiate support, and advocate for feature needs. • Lead the AI enablement roadmap within Gorgias, rolling out automated responses, intent-based routing, self-service deflection, and other AI-powered capabilities to improve team efficiency and customer experience. • Leverage Gorgias revenue and conversion tools to unlock pre-purchase support opportunities, abandoned cart recovery, and measurable revenue attribution from the CS function. • Build and maintain reporting dashboards that surface actionable insights for leadership across all key metrics. • Proactively evaluate new Gorgias features and updates, making recommendations on adoption and implementation. Performance Management & Customer Satisfaction • Set, track, and own the KPI framework for the customer service team, with a primary focus on CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), FRT (First Response Time), and AHT (Average Handle Time). • Implement quality assurance processes including ticket audits, coaching loops, and calibration sessions to drive consistent, high-quality customer interactions. • Monitor satisfaction trends and performance data on a regular cadence, reporting insights and recommendations to the VP of Ecommerce and others as required. • Develop and execute action plans when performance falls below targets, addressing root causes rather than symptoms. • Serve as the senior escalation point for complex, high-stakes, or sensitive customer situations requiring leadership-level judgment. Budget & Workforce Management • Own the customer service division budget, including headcount, tooling, training, and operational costs, balancing service quality with fiscal discipline. • Forecast staffing needs based on volume trends, business growth, and seasonal fluctuations, partnering with the Senior Ecommerce Operations Manager on hiring and resource planning. • Track and report on workforce and cost metrics that inform budget decisions, including ticket volume, productivity benchmarks, and cost-per-contact. • Ensure the team is structured and resourced to deliver on performance commitments without over- or under-investing in headcount. Qualifications Required • Must be US-based and able to work from our New York, NY office Monday through Thursday, with Friday remote. • 7+ years of customer service experience, with at least 3 years in a senior leadership role managing managers and multi-level teams. • Proven experience owning end-to-end customer service strategy in an ecommerce environment. • Deep expertise with Gorgias including configuration, automation, AI features, revenue tools, and reporting, or equivalent experience on a comparable platform (Zendesk, Kustomer, etc.) with a clear ability to ramp quickly on Gorgias. • Experience managing an EOR relationship or working with a global employment platform (e.g., Native Teams, Deel, Remote.com) strongly preferred. • Strong command of core CS metrics: CSAT, FRT, AHT, resolution rate, and revenue attribution. • Experience owning workforce planning, staffing strategy, and customer service budgets. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to produce clear SOPs, documentation, and executive-level reporting. • Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and working knowledge of Shopify, Shopify Plus, or a similar ecommerce platform. Preferred • Experience in footwear, apparel, or consumer goods ecommerce. • Hands-on experience deploying AI tools within a customer service function, including chatbots, LLM-based support, or automated deflection strategies. • Background in revenue-generating customer service (pre-sales support, upsell/cross-sell, cart recovery, post-sales conversion). • Experience managing a globally distributed team across multiple time zones. • Bachelor’s degree in a related field. Who You Are • A proven customer service leader who owns outcomes not just activities. • Equally fluent in platform operations and people strategy; you can configure a Gorgias workflow and lead a difficult performance conversation in the same day. • Metric-driven and intellectually honest. You know your numbers, you know what they mean, and you act on them. • A clear, structured communicator who documents well and sets expectations without ambiguity. • Deeply customer-centric, with a track record of improving both the efficiency and the warmth of service interactions. • Energized by the opportunity to build. You see an under-leveraged function and are excited to turn it into a competitive advantage. • Plugged in to where AI and automation are taking customer service, and ready to lead that evolution at Vida. Team Structure This role reports directly to the VP of Ecommerce and is the senior accountable leader for the customer service function. The Senior Manager directly oversees the Customer Service Manager(s) and is accountable for the full CS organization — Team Leaders, Representatives, and any future team members across all Vida Shoes International ecom brands and markets. Thank you in advance for your interest in this opening. Vida Shoes International is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. At this time, only qualified candidates will be contacted. #LI-ONSITE