Director, Customer Support

VitalSource®, is hiring a Director of Customer Support to contribute to our Customer Operations team located in Raleigh, North Carolina (preferred location). This is a hybrid role with a combination of both in-office and work from home days. Applicants outside of North Carolina will still be considered. Travel requirement of 20% for this opening.

Are you passionate about creating exceptional customer experiences and leading high-performing global teams? We're looking for an inspiring Director of Customer Support to drive operational excellence, pioneer AI and automation initiatives, and deliver world-class service at scale.

In this pivotal role, you’ll oversee the entire customer support function, ensuring fast, responsive, and high-quality support across our global footprint. You'll be a champion of continuous improvement, cross-functional collaboration, and customer advocacy — helping us push the boundaries of what a truly seamless support experience can be.

If you are excited about empowering teams, scaling support through cutting-edge automation, and delivering a high-touch customer journey that sets industry standards — we want to hear from you!

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Vision 

• Own and optimize the entire end-user customer support function across all products, ensuring efficiency and high-quality service at scale. 
• Set the vision for AI-driven efficiencies and automation while maintaining a white-glove experience for key customers. 
• Implement a structured, data-driven closed-loop improvement process to categorize customer issues and feature requests, prioritizing based on impact, urgency, and customer demand. 
• Drive operational excellence, ensuring that customer support consistently meets and exceeds industry standards. 
• Advocate for customers by proactively identifying and resolving friction points. 

Team & Vendor Management 

• Build and lead a high-performing support team, ensuring they have the right tools, training, and motivation to excel. 
• Foster a culture of high performance and continuous improvement, holding the team to a high standard of customer excellence. 
• Lead global in-house and outsourced support teams, ensuring performance, accountability, and strategic alignment. 
• Implement a management structure for outsourcing partners to drive better results and process efficiencies. 
• Delegate strategically to empower team members, optimize flexible resourcing, and improve scalability.

Collaboration & Cross-Functional Influence 

• Establish a structured feedback loop with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success, ensuring that recurring issues are escalated, addressed, and prevented proactively. 
• Partner with Finance to improve reporting, ensuring data-driven insights support decision-making. 
• Advocate for customers within the organization, using data to influence product improvements and operational strategies. 

Technology & AI-Driven Innovation 

• Research and integrate AI and machine learning solutions into support workflows to improve case resolution time and enhance customer interactions. 
• Own and optimize self-service support solutions, including knowledge bases, AI-powered chatbots, and interactive guides to improve efficiency and reduce ticket volume. 
• Identify automation opportunities with outsourcing partners to cut costs while improving support quality. 

Process Optimization & Reporting 

• Define, measure, and iterate on key support KPIs, including first response time, resolution time, CSAT, and case deflection rates. 
• Ensure real-time system status reporting and customer-facing da