New York City's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is working to enhance the customer experience by better understanding and serving resident needs through more efficient processes. The FUSE Executive Fellow will work to collect and integrate customer feedback, optimize processes, and create new tools and methodologies for the Bureau of Customer Services (BCS) to support short-term and long-term implementation success. Within BCS, the Executive Fellow will lead the initiation, exploration, and potential implementation of new strategic projects, as well as identify future roadmap project activity. Ultimately, this work will help DEP provide a more equitable experience to its customers, increase operational efficiency, and improve accessibility for all DEP customers.
Fellowship Dates: October 26, 2026 - October 22, 2027Salary: Executive Fellows are FUSE employees and receive an annual salary of $95,000. Fellows can also access various health, dental, and vision insurance benefits. This amount is not representative of market-rate salaries for the experienced professionals in our program but is intended as compensation for a year of public service.
PROJECT BACKGROUNDNew York City's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is responsible for managing the city's water supply, stormwater systems, and pollution control infrastructure to create a more climate-resilient future. DEP is currently implementing its largest-ever capital construction plan, including state-of-good-repair, new construction, sustainability, and energy-efficiency projects, largely funded by revenue from the department's water and wastewater services. As threats from climate change continue to grow and the department expands in response, an efficient, customer-oriented approach to operations is necessary to ensure the agency meets its ambitious goals.
BCS is made up of around 500 people, including field inspectors and office staff, working to deliver a seamless and efficient meter-to-cash process. BCS serves over 840,000 customers across NYC and is responsible for maintaining metering infrastructure, billing, and responding to inquiries. With such a large customer base, a customer-centric approach is key to minimizing confusion and disputes so customers can trust and pay their bills, or connect with resources and programs for assistance.
In 2024, DEP worked with FUSE to develop a customer relationship management (CRM) framework to better incorporate customer feedback and redesign BCS's processes and communications to better suit both the customer and the agency's needs. The 2024 FUSE Executive Fellow laid the groundwork by establishing the CRM framework and setting up initial project management tools and templates. Now that this structure is in place, the approach needs to be implemented and expanded to address the bureau's evolving needs.
New York City will partner with FUSE to implement and optimize a customer-centric framework within DEP while advancing key strategic improvement initiatives. The fellow will centralize and activate customer feedback data to inform service improvements, identify operational inefficiencies and pain points across existing processes, and develop strategic recommendations to streamline internal workflows and enhance customer experience. Working closely with internal subject-matter experts, the fellow will analyze root causes of service challenges and generate practical solutions. The fellow will also design and conduct pilot projects to test and validate proposed process improvements, update customer-facing communications and tools to improve accessibility and clarity, and support the coordination and implementation of early operational improvements that demonstrate measurable progress toward a more responsive and customer-focused service model.
Ultimately, this will help DEP expand its customer-centric approach, both internally and externally, thereby increasing operational efficiency and transparency.
PROJECT APPROACHBeginning in November 2026, the FUSE Executive Fellow will work with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to define and implement a customer-centric framework for operations and communications. The fellow will begin with a 90-day discovery period, engaging with various stakeholders within BCS and across DEP to assess and improve current processes, ensuring customers' voices are heard and that processes are streamlined and understandable.
As part of their landscape analysis, the fellow will assess and improve current methods for collecting feedback, including online and paper surveys, written disputes and inquiries, search engine optimization insights, and customer calls. Using this information, they will identify key pain points and areas for improvement in department processes, and follow up with relevant internal stakeholders to map the customer journey and provide recommendations for refining existing tools and processes. These recommendations will address both short-term wins and long-term improvements.
The fellow will work with stakeholders within BCS and the Bureau of Public Affairs and Communications (BPAC) to develop a 'Style Guide' for customer-facing communications that ensures accuracy, brevity, and clarity across DEP communications touchpoints (call center, borough offices, bills, letters, emails, customer self-service online tools, website). The fellow will develop a project roadmap that prioritizes existing communications across all touchpoints, begin implementing short-term wins, and make recommendations for long-term improvements.
The fellow will then translate improvement opportunities into clear, trackable actions to implement quick wins and begin building toward long-term improvements. They will begin by engaging key stakeholders from BCS and the BPAC, as well as reviewing existing documentation, to gather insights into current pain points, inefficiencies, and process challenges in the agency's processes and customer communications. Based on the findings, the fellow will develop recommendations for key projects and their associated deliverables, which will be reviewed and approved by DEP leadership for inclusion in the project roadmap and potential implementation. The fellow will implement up to 3 identified projects, subject to complexity and time constraints.
By the conclusion of the fellowship, the FUSE Executive Fellow will have created an operational plan for incorporating the voice of the customer to identify pain points and guide priorities, developed a communications style guide for BCS, and implemented quick-win process improvements. These plans will include key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success, standard operating procedures (SOPs) for project management processes, and recommendations for the continued use of technology to improve transparency and efficiency. This plan will also include recommendations for ongoing improvements, resource needs, and training requirements to help institutionalize these improvements and ensure long-term success. The fellow will continue to engage with stakeholders throughout the process to gain buy-in and ensure the long-term sustainability of the proposed changes.
EXPECTED DELIVERABLESBy November 2027, the Executive Fellow is expected to have produced the following:
- Reporting & Dashboards: Define key metrics to measure customer interaction success and develop reports for these metrics that will allow for data-driven decision making.
- Customer Journey Maps: Created process maps for key customer interactions (e.g., billing, payment, dispute resolution), noting friction points and opportunities to increase equity and accessibility.
- Strategic Recommendations for Customer-Centric Operations: Developed a comprehensive set of recommendations to center the voice of the customer. This includes suggestions for enhancing business processes and integrating technology solutions to improve efficiency and transparency.
- Pilot Project Implementation: Launch and manage key strategic pilot projects identified through customer journey mapping, using BCS data and customer feedback. Adjust and refine processes based on pilot results before broader implementation.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Implementation Plan: Developed KPIs to measure the success of BCS projects, along with a detailed operational plan for the ongoing refinement and optimization. This includes resource needs, training requirements, and recommendations for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the improvements.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS- Executive Sponsor - Lisa Garcia, Commissioner, NYC Department of Environmental Protection
- Project Supervisor - Albert Kramer, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Customer Services, NYC Department of Environmental Protection
QUALIFICATIONS- 15+ years of progressively responsible experience in organizational transformation and change management, from practitioner to enterprise-level leadership.
- Synthesizes complex information into clear and concise recommendations and action-oriented implementation plans.
- Develops and effectively implements both strategic and operational project management plans.
- Generates innovative, data-driven, and result-oriented solutions to complex challenges.
- Respond quickly to changing ideas, responsibilities, expectations, trends, strategies, and other processes.
- Communicates effectively verbally and in writing and excels in active listening and conversing.
- Fosters collaboration across multiple constituencies to support more effective decision-making.
- Establishes and maintains strong relationships with diverse stakeholders, both inside and outside of government, particularly community-based relationships.
- Embraces differing viewpoints and implements strategies to find common ground. Demonstrates confidence and professional diplomacy while effectively interacting with individuals at all levels of various organizations.
