Customer Journey Strategy & Governance Manager

Description

Summary

Purpose:

The Customer Journey Strategy & Governance Manager will lead the development, governance, optimisation and continuous improvement of AQA's end-to-end customer journeys, ensuring every customer interaction supports AQA's strategic objectives for customer retention, growth and successful adoption through assessment reform.

The role will act as the operational lead for customer journey management across the Customer Data Platform (CDP), translating commercial strategy into customer journey roadmaps, prioritising customer engagement opportunities and ensuring journeys are designed, governed and measured effectively.

Working across Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Technology and Analytics teams, the role will provide a single point of accountability for journey effectiveness, customer data quality from a business perspective and customer engagement governance, ensuring AQA delivers joined-up, data-driven and customer-centric experiences at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

The role will act as the deputy and trusted partner to the Customer Connections Manager, providing oversight of the customer engagement ecosystem and maximising the value delivered through AQA's CDP investment.Landscape:
Assessment reform represents one of the most significant commercial opportunities and risks facing AQA over the coming years. To successfully retain existing customers, grow market share and improve customer advocacy, AQA is investing in a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to create personalised, insight-led customer experiences at scale.

The CDP will enable AQA to manage increasingly sophisticated customer journeys across the full customer lifecycle, from lead generation and customer acquisition through onboarding, adoption, retention and advocacy. As capability grows, the need for strategic ownership, governance and optimisation of customer journeys becomes critical.
The Customer Journey Strategy & Governance Manager will work across multiple functions, bringing together customer insight, journey design, segmentation strategy, performance analysis and governance frameworks to ensure customer engagement activity is aligned to commercial priorities and delivers measurable business outcomes.

This role will play a key part in embedding customer-centric ways of working and establishing best practice customer journey management across AQA.
Activities:

The role holder will be expected to be responsible for the following:

Customer Journey Strategy:
Develop and maintain AQA's customer journey strategy and roadmap across the customer lifecycle.
Identify opportunities to improve customer experience, engagement and commercial outcomes through journey optimisation.
Translate commercial objectives and reform priorities into journey requirements and customer engagement plans.
Work closely with Marketing (propositions and operations) and Customer Success teams to align customer engagement activity.

Journey Governance:
Establish and manage the governance framework for customer journeys and customer communications.
Define journey design standards, best practice guidance and operating principles.
Lead governance processes for journey prioritisation, review and approval.
Develop and maintain customer contact policies, communication frequency standards and channel governance.
Ensure customer journeys remain aligned to customer needs, organisational priorities and regulatory requirements.

Journey Performance & Optimisation:
Define and monitor the performance framework for customer journeys.
Track customer engagement, conversion, retention, adoption and advocacy measures.
Lead journey reviews and identify opportunities to improve customer outcomes and business performance.
Establish an experimentation and optimisation framework including A/B testing and continuous improvement activity.
Translate customer and business insights into actionable recommendations.

Customer Data Quality & Insight:
Act as the business owner for customer data quality requirements within customer journeys.
Work with Technology, Product and Data teams to improve data completeness, accuracy and usability.
Champion the effective use of customer data, behavioural insight and customer intent signals.
Ensure customer journey decisions are informed by evidence, performance data and insight.
Support the development of customer segmentation and personalisation strategies.

Stakeholder Management & Leadership:
Build strong partnerships across Commercial, Technology, Product, Analytics and operational teams.
Act as the subject matter expert for customer journey management and customer engagement governance.
Influence stakeholders to adopt customer-centric approaches and best practice journey management.
Support organisational adoption of CDP capabilities through coaching, guidance and community building.
Deputise for the Customer Connections Manager where required.

To be successful in this role, you will need to demonstrate:
Essential Criteria
Experience designing, managing or optimising customer journeys within a customer engagement, CRM, CDP or marketing automation environment.
Experience establishing governance frameworks, standards or operational processes.
Evidence of using customer insight, data and performance measures to drive improvement.
Strong stakeholder management skills with experience working across multiple business functions.
Experience leading change or transformation initiatives.
Excellent communication, facilitation and influencing skills.
Experience managing competing priorities and delivering outcomes through others.
Strong problem-solving and continuous improvement mindset.
Desirable Criteria
Experience of Customer Data Platforms (CDP), Dynamics 365, ClickDimensions, Customer Insights Journeys or similar technologies.
Understanding of customer segmentation, personalisation and lifecycle marketing.
Experience within education, qualifications, membership, public sector or highly regulated environments.
Knowledge of customer experience (CX), customer success or service design methodologies.
Experience of experimentation, testing and optimisation frameworks.
Understanding of data governance, customer consent and customer communication compliance requirements.
Experience supporting large-scale customer, digital or CRM transformation programmes.