at National Restaurant Association in Chicago, Illinois, United States
Job Description
The National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation are proud to be part of a highly respected industry, providing hospitality, opportunity, and quality of life. Much like the industry we represent, we have a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive culture, grounded in trust, hospitality, collaboration, and innovation. These are the core values that inspire our work, and what we are looking for in a Director, Customer Education & Experience, a dynamic new role advocating and training for excellence throughout our customers’ journey.
We work tirelessly to help the restaurant and hospitality industries succeed, providing solutions to operators and employees alike, and we recognize their needs change rapidly. Our products and services must be smart, flexible, relevant, and forward thinking.
We currently reach a global audience of nearly two million individuals annually, providing a wide range of products and services in a variety of segments – textbooks, online resources, mobile applications, and more. Our portfolio largely focuses on compliance-driven and career-development offerings. In everything we do, we seek to place the customer at the center of our decisions.
As part of our Business Services division, the Director, Customer Education & Experience, will lead the ways in which we prepare our customers and teams for product releases, oversee all division launches and manage the training team. Partnering with divisional leaders, you will drive our customer education strategy, evaluate the current experience to improve effectiveness and efficiency, and serve as the lead voice in promoting and enhancing customer-centric approaches to our offerings.
Ideal candidates bring a minimum of seven years as a Trainer and manager of direct reports within a complex operational environment, for a consumer-based or educational product. Position requires a highly collaborative and confident communicator, with proven ability to lead and build influence. To be successful, you will be well served by organizational skills, a keen sense of curiosity, and a bias for continuous improvement. In addition, you must be able to synthesize, translate and summarize information from multiple sources and be comfortable at the front of complex, cross-functional efforts.
Position may operate out of our Chicago or Orlando offices.
As Director, Customer Education & Experience, you will have significant opportunity to elevate the Association’s quality of execution and overall results. We look forward to hearing from you!
We are proud to offer our team members comprehensive benefits, designed to support their financial, professional, and personal well-being. In addition to outstanding healthcare coverage (medical, dental and vision), competitive salaries, generous vacation and leave time, we offer a matching 401(k) plan, a unique collection of corporate discounts and memberships, as well as programs to support career and skills development, including coaching, learning and tuition assistance, and so much more.
Essential Functions
- Assist the SVP, Business Planning & Operations, to accomplish departmental goals; collaborate and support other functional leaders in the Business Services division.
- Drive the evaluation of the customer experience, identifying and targeting gaps for improvement.
- Partner across the division to drive operational performance and process improvements that elevate customer engagement.
- Oversee the division’s preparedness for product and platform releases, driving coordination and information flow among shared-service and Business Services teams.
- Work across the division to connect readiness effectiveness with meeting divisional goals.
- Lead the strategy and implementation of customer support and educational tools.
- Own the division’s training function, content creation, and processes for customer-facing teams.
- Develop and oversee the internal knowledge center for products and platforms.
- Promote customer-centric positioning across the user journey and its related functions; keep the voice of the customer present throughout the division’s work.
- Serve as the business team lead for user acceptance testing.
Emotional Demands
- Accept changes and makes decisions that factor risks.
- Sustain resilience throughout resistance to change.
- Embrace accountability for your own work as well as others’ work product.
- Comfortable working through conflict to productive resolutions.
- Provide, seek, and accept respectful, thoughtful feedback.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree required, in Business, Education, or equivalent.
- Minimum seven years in training and complex operational coordination, or related customer experience role. Consumer-based product or education product experience preferred.
- Minimum 7 years managing direct reports and influencing cross-functional teams.
- Highly effective time management, organizational, problem-solving and priority setting skills.
- Restaurant or hospitality industry experience a plus.
- Problem-solver, with strong decision-making skills, business acumen and sound judgment.
- Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills.
- Superior oral, written and presentation communication skills.
- Strong relationship building , diplomacy and interpersonal skills.
- Demonstrative abilities in collaborative team building and consensus.
- Significant business and stakeholder relationship building experience.
- Highly adaptable; ability to work well under pressure, within fast-paced and fluid environment.
- Proficiency across Microsoft Office products, including Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel, and ability to learn new technology as needed.
- Experience in an Agile development environment a plus.
- Ability to travel an estimated several times per quarter.
We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, age, disability status, genetic information and testing, family, and medical leave, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We strongly encourage women, people of color, people with disabilities and veterans to apply for our job openings. This commitment supports our policy of developing and capitalizing on the abilities of all our team members, as well as selecting, developing, and promoting those who are best qualified.
