Affirm

Lead, Customer Advocacy

Affirm$101K — $165K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Finance & Insurance
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of people management experience in customer operations or service delivery
  • 3+ years of experience in customer support, service delivery, or complaint resolution
  • Experience managing external vendors or BPOs
  • Strong operational mindset with SLAs and KPIs management
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with attention to detail

Responsibilities

  • Lead and coach a high-performing Customer Advocacy team
  • Resolve complex escalated customer complaints with empathy and sound judgment
  • Own quality assurance operations for consistent complaint handling
  • Drive cross-functional initiatives to improve customer experience
  • Analyze complaint data to identify trends and systemic improvement opportunities

Benefits

  • 100% subsidized medical coverage for employees and dependents
  • Generous stipends for technology, food, and lifestyle needs
  • Competitive vacation and holiday schedules
  • Employee stock purchase plan for discounted shares of Affirm
Full Job Description
About The Role

Affirm's Customer Advocacy and Retention (CAR) team houses our customer advocacy experts. When customers share their most challenging experiences with Affirm, the CAR team provides critical insight into the breaking points of our products, processes, and policies. By championing these customers, we use their voices to improve the customer experience, deliver fair outcomes, and repair relationships.

As a Customer Advocacy Lead, you will serve as the Voice of Affirm - leveraging deep service and product expertise to resolve highly complex complaints while leading a team of Customer Advocacy Associates. The team facilitates coordination across cross-functional partners to identify root causes, assess complaint validity, and determine appropriate, compliant resolutions.

Beyond individual case resolution, this role owns key components of Affirm's complaints and customer advocacy ecosystem, including quality assurance operations, escalation management, and vendor performance. You will act as a critical operational leader across internal and external partners - proactively identifying risks, removing bottlenecks, and driving scalable solutions that improve service levels, reduce complaint rates, and increase customer satisfaction.

This role requires navigating complex, cross-functional challenges and leading initiatives that enhance both customer outcomes and operational effectiveness at scale.
Key Attributes
  • Experience as a people manager with a track record of building high-performing teams
  • Strong ownership mindset with the ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives
  • Deep commitment to customer-centric solutions and fair, empathetic outcomes
  • Data-driven decision maker with strong analytical and critical thinking skills
  • Process improvement mindset with strong operational rigor
  • Ability to influence and drive alignment across multiple stakeholders
  • Sound judgment and accountability when handling sensitive, high-risk issues
  • Experience managing external vendors, BPOs, or third-party partners (or similar)
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex topics clearly and concisely

What you'll do

Lead and develop a high-performing team
  • Manage, coach, and develop a team of Customer Advocacy Associates
  • Drive team performance using key metrics such as productivity, quality, customer outcomes, and service levels
  • Foster a high-performing, engaged team environment that operates effectively in a fast-paced, evolving environment
  • Partner with recruiting to hire, onboard, and retain top talent

Deliver exceptional customer outcomes
  • Resolve complex and highly escalated customer complaints with efficiency, empathy, and sound judgment
  • Review and respond to sensitive, high-risk complaints, reinforcing and shaping the "Voice of Affirm"
  • Communicate with customers across channels, including email and phone, as appropriate
  • Represent and advocate for the complaints function in cross-functional forums to ensure consistent, high-quality customer experiences

Own operational excellence across internal and external partners
  • Own QA operations and processes, ensuring consistent, high-quality complaint handling across the team
  • Evolve QA frameworks to maintain depth, rigor, and scalability as the organization grows
  • Own vendor performance and accountability for third-party complaint handling, ensuring alignment with Affirm standards for quality, compliance, and customer experience
  • Establish and monitor service level expectations (SLAs/KPIs), proactively identifying risks and driving corrective actions
  • Oversee internal escalation workflows and act as a point of escalation for the most complex and sensitive issues
  • Establish scalable support models and coverage strategies to maintain service levels during periods of fluctuating volume or constrained bandwidth
  • Own capacity planning and resource allocation across internal teams, vendors, and contractors
  • Manage and oversee contractors supporting the CAR team to ensure consistent performance and coverage

Drive cross-functional impact
  • Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives across teams such as Vendor Partners, Compliance, Legal, Risk, Product, and Communications
  • Act as the primary operational interface with partner teams to improve intake quality, routing accuracy, and escalation effectiveness
  • Remove operational bottlenecks and drive alignment on processes, tooling, and customer experience standards
  • Influence product, policy, and process improvements based on customer insights and complaint trends

Drive continuous improvement at scale
  • Analyze complaint data to identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for systemic improvement
  • Deliver measurable impact by reducing complaint rates and improving customer satisfaction
  • Drive remediation of thematic issues through strong cross-functional collaboration
  • Continuously improve the internal complaints management program, tools, and workflows
  • Identify emerging risks, operational gaps, and service-level challenges, and drive end-to-end solutions with minimal direction
  • Improve customer-facing resources and education to streamline service and reduce friction

Grow your financial services expertise
  • Serve as a subject matter expert on Affirm's products, servicing processes, and applicable regulatory requirements
  • Stay informed on evolving consumer finance policies and industry trends


What we look for
  • 5+ years of people management experience in a customer operations or service delivery environment with a Bachelor's degree; OR 3+ years with a Master's degree; or no experience with a PhD; or equivalent experience
  • 3+ years of experience in customer support, service delivery, or complaint resolution
  • Experience managing vendors, BPOs, or external partners
  • Experience owning multi-domain operational functions (e.g., QA, escalations, service delivery)
  • Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives and drive measurable outcomes
  • Strong operational mindset with experience managing SLAs, KPIs, and service performance
  • Ability to operate independently and drive execution with minimal oversight
  • Resilience and ability to navigate ambiguity, complexity, and high-pressure situations
  • Collaborative mindset with strong stakeholder management skills
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with attention to detail, tone, and clarity
  • Strong customer empathy and a passion for improving customer outcomes
  • Proactive thinker with a continuous improvement mindset


Pay Grade - I
Equity Grade - 4

Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.

Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)

USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $115,000 - $165,000
USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $101,000 - $151,000

# LI-Remote

Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company! The majority of our roles are remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. Affirmers in proximal roles have the flexibility to work remotely, but will occasionally be required to work out of their assigned Affirm office. A limited number of roles remain office-based due to the nature of their job responsibilities.

We're extremely proud to offer competitive benefits that are anchored to our core value of people come first. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:
  • Health care coverage - Affirm covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
  • Flexible Spending Wallets - generous stipends for spending on Technology, Food, various Lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
  • Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules allowing you to take time off to rest and recharge
  • ESPP - An employee stock purchase plan enabling you to buy shares of Affirm at a discount

About Affirm

Affirm is a publicly traded financial technology company headquartered in San Francisco, United States. Founded in 2012, the company operates as a financial lender of installment loans for consumers to use at the point of sale to finance a purchase. Affirm was founded in 2012 by Max Levchin, Nathan Gettings, Jeffrey Kaditz, and Alex Rampell as part of the initial portfolio of startup studio HVF. Levchin, who co-founded PayPal, became CEO of Affirm in 2014. In October 2017, the company launched a consumer app that allowed loans for purchases at any retailer. The company announced a partnership with Walmart in February 2019. Under the partnership, Affirm is available to customers in-store and on the Walmart website. Affirm has partnered with e-commerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, and Zen-Cart. On November 18, 2020, Affirm filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for an initial public offering. On December 12, 2020, it was reported that Affirm had postponed its IPO. On January 13, 2021, Affirm became listed on NASDAQ with symbol AFRM, raising about $1.2 billion in its IPO. By the next day, the price of shares had doubled, making Levchin's stake worth about $2.5 billion. In May 2021, Affirm acquired Returnly, a financial technology service company, for $300 million.
Learn more about Affirm
Size
1,300 employees
Market Cap
$2.5 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$97.6 million
Founded
2012
Revenue
$617.1 million
NASDAQ

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