Role Summary:

This full-time Director of Change Management & Strategic Initiatives will be at the center of supporting Saks and our number one priority of ensuring our clients receive an excellent customer experience with every interaction they have with us. The team member in this position will need to be strategic, analytical and organized in their thought process, demonstrating their ability to lead and direct both internal departments and vendor partners alike. They will also be a thought leader in how we strategically evolve the experiences we provide our customers, helping us adapt to the changing environment in how our customers communicate their needs and seek assistance throughout their experience journey. The individual in this role will be responsible for aligning the contact center operations group to the product, technology, and business roadmaps, ensuring proper changement and governance is followed throughout every step. They will also be vital in not only assisting with the identification of customer friction points, but evaluating and designing recommendations & solutions to drive operational efficiency, continuous improvement, and first-contact resolution. In addition, they will be leading efforts in customer service channel expansion and experience pilot programs that will leapfrog Saks in the space, enhancing the legacy style and service that has made Saks the number one luxury retailer.

Key Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with 7-10+ years of change management experience
• Contact Center experience is preferred
• Promote a culture of high performance, continuous improvement and innovation with an emphasis on learning and service quality
• Demonstrate knowledge of project management principles and appropriate technologies through successful program and product delivery
• Mastery of project management in an agile environment
• Experience in driving adoption and proficiency of changes within the organization in compliance with a defined Change Management process.
• Lead and facilitate constructive communication exchanges between team members that include goal setting, task assignments, and work scheduling, announcements and problem-solving
• Experience in leading and implementing change initiatives related to business processes and technologies, including experience in establishing a Change Control Board
• Experience in developing and leading project strategies and plans, including stakeholder assessment, communications, leadership alignment, organization transition, change readiness, capability transfer, and end-user training
• Oversee project execution in accordance with project plans, tools, and methods, and support resource planning and acquisition.
• Develop short and long-term goals, KPIs, and objectives, and develop and execute against annual operational plans.
• Provide direct support and coaching to improve adoption of new process
• Facilitate change management activities with cross-functional team members and stakeholders to understand and ensure adoption of the Enterprise Business Transformation.
• Demonstrates strong business acumen and a track record of success in partnering with business leaders, leveraging strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to manage competing priorities and balance multiple projects in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and responding quickly to feedback through iterative design
• Self-starter with strong initiative, energy, and accountability with the ability to work autonomously and in a team environment
• Manager doer mentality, open to getting into the weeds to develop full understanding of a process
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, Google Suite, with a willingness to learn new software as appropriate, such as, Jira, Asana and Confluence
• Must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and, if hired, present proof of vaccination prior to beginning employment.

Role Description:

Change Management

• Partner with Operations Leadership, using quantitative and qualitative data to define change management process, design experiments, and implement those changes at scale
• Lead Operations to structure complex, and frequently ambiguous, strategic problems for the Saks Customer Care Operations, including the development of strategy for ensuring effective adoption of new business process, technologies and features
• Define clear hypotheses to identify new opportunities, and build business cases and quantitative metrics that will inform and influence operations strategy.
• Conduct research and analysis of business operations to understand potential change opportunities within the servicing organization or broader company
• Partner with Product, Technology and Business teams to implement change initiatives within the customer experience & servicing space

Strategic Initiatives for Contact Center Operations

• Evaluate, design and implement new inbound and outbound digital communication channels, expanding to
• meet evolving and new customer preferences for customer support assistance
• Development of a potential new concept & experience center to test new ideas and programs before scaling to
• larger population. This includes an effort to focus on proactive outbound relationship reach to drive
• engagement and brand loyalty
• Evaluation and launch of new vendors/sites (based on evaluation of current BPO partners) as we continue to
• strive for best model mix of onshore, near-shore and off-shore operations

Audit Operations

• Assist AVP to review performance dashboards/reports and work with Operation Vendor Managers on day-to-day oversight to ensure teams meet business OKRs/KPIs defined by VP & AVP of Customer Experience & Servicing
• Effectively manage interactions with stakeholders including setting expectations, holding meetings and ongoing project updates leveraging strong program and project management skills (including detail-oriented, ability to organize, plan and execute while leading cross functional teams)
• Engage regularly with Operations staff on status of current projects as well as prioritization of new priorities
• Work with Operations on the creation, implementation, and sustainment of standardized work and processes, while continuously evaluating current business processes to identify areas of opportunity for improvements in the areas of People, Process, and Technology

Your Life and Career at Saks:

• Exposure to rewarding career advancement opportunities, from retail to supply chain, to digital or corporate.
• A culture that promotes a healthy, fulfilling work/life balance
• Benefits package for all eligible full-time employees (including medical, vision and dental).
• An amazing employee discount

Saks.com is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.