Head of Service Operations

About Us: 

How many companies can say they’ve been in business for over 180 years?! 

Here at ZEISS, we certainly can! As the pioneers of science, ZEISS handles the everchanging environments in a fast-paced world, meeting it with cutting edge of technologies and continuous advancements. ZEISS believes that innovation and technology are the key to a sustainable future and solutions for global change. We have a diverse range of portfolios throughout the ZEISS family in segments like, Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology, Consumer Markets and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. We are a global company with over 42,000 employees and have over 4,000 in the US and Canada alone! Make a difference, come join the team! 

Location: This position is located in the Huntersville, NC region. Hybrid role with travel to location as needed.

What’s the role? 

The Head of Service Operations is a senior management role responsible for leading the operational performance, scalability and continuous improvement of the Service and Customer Care organization. This role leads, develops and mentors customer interaction center personnel, remote and technical support personnel, contract renewal specialists and after sales specialists. The role owns the operational service experience across customer request intake, triage, remote and technical support coordination, escalation management, contract renewal execution, after sales support, reporting and operational follow-through.

Sound Interesting?  

Here’s what you’ll do: 

The Head of Service Operations is accountable for building standardized, data-driven processes that improve customer satisfaction, service responsiveness, operational efficiency, employee engagement and business performance within these functional areas. This position also provides analytical support through reporting on service history, contracts and performance metrics, while collaborating with IT and global teams to ensure CIC, technical support, contract renewal and after sales requirements are reflected in service-related systems. The Head of Service Operations manages daily operations across these teams, ensures prompt resolution of customer inquiries and service requests, and serves as an escalation point for complex technical or customer support issues. The role also supports training and knowledge-sharing to strengthen team capability and ensure relevant service personnel remain current on technical information, process requirements and customer support expectations. The role requires strong people leadership, financial and analytical discipline, process ownership and the ability to influence across functions while maintaining a high standard of ZEISS customer care.

Primary Responsibilities:

Team Leadership:

• Lead customer interaction center personnel, remote and technical support personnel, contract renewal specialists and after sales specialists responsible for customer request intake, technical support coordination, contract renewal execution, after sales support and service follow-through.
• Set clear expectations, priorities and performance goals for these teams: conduct performance evaluations, develop talent and build functional depth across customer interaction, remote and technical support, contract renewals and after sales.
• Coach and mentor team members to strengthen accountability, decision-making, collaboration and customer-focused execution.
• Drive continuous improvement across Service Operations by implementing lean processes, visual management, root-cause problem solving and standardized work that improve service speed, quality and customer experience.
• Establish management routines, reviews, dashboards and escalation forums that ensure visibility to performance, risks, capacity constraints and corrective actions.
• Foster a positive and inclusive work environment that promotes teamwork, ownership, innovation, employee engagement and professional development.

Operational Ownership and Process Excellence:

• Own and continuously improve service operations processes related to customer request intake, triage, remote and technical support coordination, contract renewal execution, after sales support, escalation tracking, data quality and operational follow-through.

• Develop, implement and maintain SOPs, process controls and business rules that improve consistency, accountability, compliance and service execution across the organization.

• Partner with Field Service, Sales, Finance, Quality, IT and Global teams to remove operational barriers affecting customer interaction, technical support, contract renewals and after sales execution.

Analytics, Business Performance, and Reporting:

• Provide actionable reporting to Service leadership on KPIs, service history, contract performance, backlog, escalation trends, operating risks, staffing needs and business performance.
• Assist in the setting of product prices (spare parts, consumables, upgrades, contracts, etc.) are kept updated including updating all appropriate systems and price sheets.
• Develop and maintain assigned dashboards and assist with the generation quarterly reports to help drive the Service/Customer Care business for NA
• Analyze operational data to identify performance gaps, process inefficiencies, customer-impacting trends and opportunities for corrective action or continuous improvement.
• Works with Quality department to participate in all audit activities and the coordination of any assigned CAPAs.

Customer Interaction Center:

• Oversee and manage all aspects of daily customer service operations, ensuring timely intake, triage, documentation, communication and follow-through for customer and internal service requests.
• Lead regional business requirement definition for service-related systems, including CRM and related digital tools, ensuring Service and Customer Care needs are represented in system design, adoption, reporting and daily execution.
• Collaborate closely with Global CRM, IT and business process teams to ensure requirements from the Customer Interaction Center, Remote and Technical Support, Contract Renewals and After Sales are clearly understood and effectively implemented.
• Identify, coordinate and support training for customer interaction center personnel, remote and technical support personnel, contract renewal specialists and after sales specialists so teams can effectively operate systems, generate required outputs and sustain process adoption.

Customer Support Management:

• Oversee daily operational support for technical and remote service functions, ensuring customer inquiries, service requests and internal support needs are addressed promptly and effectively.
• Develop and implement scalable support processes, best practices and service standards that improve response time, resolution quality, customer communication, and customer satisfaction.
• Manages coverage of telephone, email and remote-diagnostic service support to ZEISS’ service personnel, sales personnel and customers to provide support in a timely and efficient manner for all EM and XRM products.

Escalation Management:

• Act as the primary point of contact for escalated technical issues, working closely with other departments to ensure timely resolution.
• Ensures that the Escalation ticketing system is maintained and updated in real-time.
• Drives escalations to a close and holds other parts of the organization, including Tech Support in Germany and Product Centers, accountable for following up on next steps.
• Analyze escalated cases to identify trends and areas for improvement, implementing corrective actions as needed.

Technical Training and Development:

• Design and deliver training programs for the technical support team to enhance their technical knowledge and customer service skills.
• Collaborate with product development and engineering teams to stay updated on new products, features, and technical updates.
• Provides a training record for all NA Service Engineers which can be accessed by management.
• Ensures that the Field Service Engineers are kept up to date on all relevant technical information including part changes, software updates, hotfixes, etc.
• Conducts regular trending analysis for support issues to identify targeted training needs, design improvements and new product introduction tasks.
• Supports and implements Global ZEISS Service initiatives such as VR/AR Training and Remote Service.

Performance Metrics and Reporting:

• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for the technical support team, analyzing data to assess performance and identify areas for improvement.

• Prepare and present regular reports on team performance, customer feedback, and support trends to senior management.

• Responsible for the contract renewal process and the management of the contract renewal team.

Do you qualify?  

• Five plus years of experience in field service and/or service-related management experience in a high-technology equipment industry or business consulting.
• Bachelor’s degree in technical discipline education and/or significant related experience implementing and growing professional, customer service programs in a private/commercial business sector.  In depth / working knowledge of SAP, SAP CRM, and Business Warehouse/PowerBI.
• Is skilled in performing general duties and functions of those supervised.
• Experience in data gathering, analysis, operational improvement and mapping of Service processes to a CRM backbone.
• Working knowledge of financial reports, basic accounting principles and margin analysis required.
• Ability to generate concise reports that allow management to easily and effectively track progress against KPI targets.
• Proven ability to work successfully as an individual contributor or as part of a team including in a team leadership role.
• Able to work remotely in an effective and efficient manner meeting objectives and deliverable commitment dates.
• Excellent communication skills, able to converse readily in English, both verbally and in writing.  German language skills considered a plus.

Working Conditions and Special Demands:

• Some travel, including internationally, required

• Participation in annual formal training as required and proficiently maintains all duties and associated responsibilities 

We have amazing benefits to support you as an employee at ZEISS! 

• Medical 
• Vision 
• Dental 
• 401k Matching 
• Employee Assistance Programs 
• Vacation and sick pay 
• The list goes on! 

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of requirements, duties, or responsibilities. The Company reserves the right to interpret, amend, or otherwise modify, in whole or in part, any job description at any time, at its sole discretion.

Your ZEISS Recruiting Team:

Zeiss provides Equal Employment Opportunity without unlawful regard to an Applicants race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, marital status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, military or veteran status, citizen status, sexual orientation, pregnancy (includes childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical condition), genetic predisposition, carrier status, gender expression or identity, including transgender identity, or any other class or characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law of the employee (or the people with whom the employee associates, including relatives and friends).