EVP – Customer Operations — Retail Bank

The mandate

An institutionally backed retail bank is pursuing deposit growth while customer operations remain divided by branch, contact centre, digital channel, product and market. Customers repeat information, employees chase cases across queues and service recovery varies with personal relationships. Promotional pricing attracts balances that leave when problems arise. The board has concluded that durable growth requires one accountable service system.

The EVP – Customer Operations will influence approximately US$85,700 million in loans and deposits and lead around 800 employees and material partners. Responsibility covers onboarding, servicing, contact centres, complaints, fulfilment, operational journeys, workforce management, service partners and channel hand-offs. The executive reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive committee sponsor.

The operating baseline will begin with customer journeys. End-to-end time, first-time resolution, abandonment, repeat contact, complaints and manual intervention must be connected across channels. Local service levels can conceal work transferred to another queue or to the customer. The EVP will establish ownership from initial request through confirmed outcome.

Deposit growth will be separated into price-led acquisition and relationship retention. Operating balances, savings, term funds and promotion-sensitive deposits behave differently. The executive will connect service events, complaint history, digital use and attrition to balance movement so leaders understand why deposits arrive, stay or leave. Treasury and product retain independent pricing and funding authority.

Onboarding deserves particular attention. Identity, eligibility, fraud, funding and account activation should follow risk-based paths rather than one universal sequence. Exceptions need clear evidence and expiration. Relationship teams cannot bypass controls through informal escalation, while low-risk customers should not wait behind complex cases.

Failure demand will be made visible. Repeat calls, status enquiries, rejected documents, duplicate data entry and reopened complaints consume capacity without creating value. Root causes may sit in product rules, communications, technology or upstream decisions. Operations will convene those owners and retain the issue until demand falls, not merely close its own action.

Channel consistency does not mean identical service. Customers may start digitally and need human assistance, or prefer branch support for a consequential event. Identity, context and promises should travel with them. Accessibility and vulnerability requirements must be designed into routes rather than handled as discretionary exceptions.

Partners will be judged by customer outcome and control, not transaction completion alone. Contracts should cover quality, complaint support, data, staffing, resilience, change and exit. Forecasting will combine customer demand, handle effort, skills and seasonality so overtime and outsourcing do not routinely compensate for poor design.

Complaint handling will become a source of improvement. Themes, redress, root cause and recurrence should join service and product decisions. Senior leaders need direct exposure to customers who left or reduced balances after poor service. Resolution speed must not encourage premature closure or suppress legitimate escalation.

The organisation will move from channel kingdoms towards journey accountability. Leaders require authority over work, capacity and improvement, with clear interfaces to product, risk and technology. Succession will test executives through real service incidents and demand shocks rather than rely on tenure.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new role replaces distributed ownership after the deposit challenge exposed fragmented customer operations. Interim governance keeps essential service decisions moving, but the board wants a permanent appointment within six to eight weeks.

What you will own

• Create end-to-end ownership across retail service journeys and channels.
• Influence customer outcomes across US$85,700 million in loans and deposits.
• Connect service quality and complaint evidence to deposit retention.
• Reduce repeat contacts, manual work, hand-offs and avoidable exceptions.
• Improve onboarding through risk-based paths and confirmed customer outcomes.
• Lead approximately 800 employees and partners with resilient succession.
• Align workforce, partner and technology decisions to journey demand.
• Provide the board with early service, retention and conduct evidence.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconcile journey demand, service reporting and deposit movement. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to customer operations, including customers, former customers, branch leaders, digital teams, treasury, complaints and partners. Stabilise severe service risks, assess leaders and agree outcome gates.

Months four to nine should assign journey owners, simplify priority onboarding and remove leading sources of failure demand. Reset material partner expectations and balance capacity across channels. The first value should appear through higher completion, fewer repeats, improved retention, released cost or reduced redress.

By year end, service consistency, lower failure demand and improved retention should form a repeatable trend. Delivery must stay within 10% of approval and forecasts should reconcile customer demand, balances, cash and people over three quarters. Priority issues require independent closure proof; severe escalation cannot remain open beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Complete journey time, first-time resolution and confirmed customer outcome.
• Deposit retention following service, complaint and renewal events.
• Failure demand, manual activity, overtime and fully loaded service cost.
• Complaint recurrence, redress and root-cause removal.
• More than 90% retention for critical talent and immediate successors covering 70% of direct roles.
• Partner service and resilience through demand peaks and controlled exit tests.

The person

You are an EVP Customer Operations, Service COO or Customer Experience Head with 22–28 years in banking or adjacent regulated services. You have unified fragmented channels and can prove how operating change improved retention, service and controlled cost.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least US$49,700 million, and you have led 800 or more people. Outcomes from your intervention remained sustained for two reporting periods.

You understand retail deposits, onboarding, complaints, workforce operations and partner dependencies. You can resist local workarounds defended as customer care while preserving legitimate discretion for vulnerability and complex need.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is US$320,000–420,000 plus annual incentive. This permanent New York role operates hybrid, supports international relocation and permits a notice period of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The client, deposit strategy and operating footprint are confidential. Identifying material is provided only after a mutual undertaking; all published facts are composite.