EVP – Customer Operations — Cloud Platform

The mandate

An institutionally backed cloud platform serves customers through regional service teams, digital channels, technical support, success management and partners that have evolved separately. Customers repeat their context, issues cross queues and local workarounds conceal recurring product failures. With a margin recovery under way, the board has created one executive role to turn these fragments into a coherent customer operation.

The EVP – Customer Operations will shape service across approximately €2,250 million in annual recurring revenue and lead around 800 employees and material partners. The perimeter includes support, customer success operations, service management, digital care, escalation, knowledge, workforce planning, quality, partners and operational insight. The post reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive committee sponsor.

The customer journey needs an evidence baseline. Contact, ticket, incident, onboarding, adoption, escalation, renewal and cost data should connect at account and product level. Channel averages often hide transfers and repeat demand. The EVP will trace several high-volume and high-value journeys from the customer’s first need to confirmed resolution, identifying avoidable work and broken ownership.

Failure demand is the central economic opportunity. Contacts caused by unclear product design, defective provisioning, billing error, repeated incidents or weak knowledge should be separated from genuine customer need. The role will assign upstream owners and show whether fixes remove future volume. Reducing headcount while the source remains would merely increase queues and customer frustration.

Service consistency does not mean identical treatment. Severity, customer value, product complexity and contractual obligation should inform differentiated routes, while definitions and escalation remain common. Customers need one accountable resolution even when engineering, finance or a partner contributes. Hand-offs must carry context and a response commitment.

Digital service should solve, not deflect. Self-service, automation and assisted channels require evidence of successful completion, reduced effort and maintained trust. A customer who abandons a bot and calls later has not generated a saving. Knowledge must be owned, current and linked to product changes and incident learning.

Customer operations will become part of product governance. Contact reasons, workarounds and adoption friction should influence roadmap and reliability investment. The EVP will establish a closed loop with product and engineering, using quantified customer consequence to prioritise. Operations should stop absorbing defects so effectively that their true cost remains invisible.

The margin case must reconcile capacity, service and retention. Outsourcing, location mix, automation, spans and schedules offer options, but each needs a customer-quality and risk view. Supplier pricing should reflect resolved outcomes and knowledge transfer rather than raw contact volume. Released value counts when repeat work, external cost or effort actually exits.

Leadership will be organised around journeys and capabilities, not channel empires. The executive will assess regional leaders, clarify decision rights and build succession for critical service and escalation roles. A single operating review will join customer effort, resolution, failure demand, cost, retention and talent.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new position replaces distributed accountability for the margin programme. Interim governance protects current customers, but the board wants a qualified shortlist converted to an offer within six to eight weeks. Confidentiality avoids disruption before leaders and channel responsibilities are agreed.

What you will own

• Create end-to-end customer ownership across channels and markets.
• Direct service supporting approximately €2,250 million of annual recurring revenue.
• Identify and remove failure demand at its product or process source.
• Differentiate service by consequence while keeping common escalation standards.
• Lead approximately 800 employees and material partners.
• Prove digital resolution through completion and customer-effort evidence.
• Connect operational insight to product, reliability and retention decisions.
• Deliver margin improvement without exporting cost to customers.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, map priority journeys, meet the 30 stakeholders closest to fragmentation and assess leadership. Reconcile service, cost and retention data, stabilise severe escalations and agree with the board which failure-demand sources and operating choices merit immediate action.

Months four to nine should implement journey ownership, remove duplicate queues and fix selected upstream causes. Improve knowledge, automate suitable demand and reset partner incentives. Early evidence may include lower repeat contact, faster durable resolution, released external cost or improved renewal risk.

By the first anniversary, service consistency, lower failure demand and stronger retention should underpin the margin case. Delivery must remain within 10% of approval, with three quarterly forecasts reconciling customer demand, capacity, cash, renewal and people. Any critical service breakdown requires an owned resolution inside 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Durable resolution and customer effort across priority journeys.
• Failure demand removed through verified upstream fixes.
• Service outcomes consistent across regions, channels and partners.
• Cost released without deterioration in retention or contractual performance.
• At least 90% retention of essential talent and ready cover for 70% of direct reports.
• Customer signals incorporated into product and reliability priorities.

The person

You are an EVP Customer Operations, Service COO or Customer Experience Head with 22–28 years in technology or a comparable service enterprise. You have unified fragmented operations across channels or markets and sustained improvement in cost, customers or controlled risk.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least €1,300 million, and you have led 800 or more people. Examples should distinguish failure demand from efficiency activity and show results maintained for two reporting periods.

Relevant sector grounding may come from cloud software, digital platforms, IT services or another technology-enabled service model. You can challenge channel owners, work credibly with engineering and make service economics understandable to a board.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is €250,000–330,000 plus annual incentive. This permanent Berlin role is hybrid, supports international relocation and cannot be fully remote. Notice of up to six months can be accommodated.

Confidentiality

The organisation, current service structure and customer evidence remain protected. Identity will follow reciprocal interest and a signed confidentiality undertaking; published facts are rounded and intentionally blended.