Senior Manager, Member Services & Operations

Reports to: TBD

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Status: Full-time

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Member Services & Operations is responsible for designing, improving and managing the systems, vendor relationships, and workflows that support WQED’s donors. This role ensures that WQED’s outsourced service partners, CRM, payment and gift-processing systems, internal teams and emerging service channels work together as an effective and responsive donor-support operation.

This is a hands-on operational leadership role for someone who can identify gaps, design better ways of working, and put those improvements into practice. The Senior Manager will establish service standards and operating procedures, improve WQED’s use of technology and vendor capabilities, strengthen data quality, develop new service channels, and build additional internal or contracted capacity as needed.

The role supports WQED’s membership growth and retention strategy by making the donor experience easier, more reliable and more responsive. It is not directly accountable for revenue. Its focus is operating infrastructure, service quality, and execution.

The Assignment

• Build the operational infrastructure that makes WQED members feel valued and well-supported.
• Create a coherent donor-service operation across outsourced partners, technology platforms, and internal teams: with clear ownership, service standards, workflows and escalation paths.
• Identify recurring service, processing and data problems; determine their root causes; and implement practical improvements that prevent the same problems from recurring.
• Modernize how donors can get help, including expanding service beyond traditional phone and email support where appropriate.

What Success Looks Like

• Donors receive timely, accurate and consistent assistance.
• Service standards, workflows, ownership and escalation paths are clearly documented across donor calls, email, gift processing, fulfillment and CRM activity.
• Outsourced partners are actively managed against clear expectations for quality, responsiveness, accuracy and follow-through.
• Recurring donor-service and processing problems are identified, traced to their root causes, and corrected through better systems, workflows, training or accountability.
• CRM records are increasingly accurate, complete and consistently maintained.
• Practical measures of service quality, responsiveness, and accuracy are regularly used to identify problems and guide improvements.

Essential Responsibilities

Donor Service Operations & Vendor Management

• Own the end-to-end operating model for donor service across WQED staff, outsourced call-center support, gift-processing partners, fulfillment houses, CRM, and other service providers.
• Establish clear service expectations, workflows, escalation paths and accountability standards.
• Monitor vendor performance, identify gaps, resolve recurring issues, and recommend changes to services, contracts or responsibilities as needed.
• Design appropriate service coverage for high-volume periods and gaps in evening, weekend or overflow support, including contracted, part-time or remote capacity when useful.
• Handle or coordinate resolution of complex donor-service issues when they reveal broader process or system problems.

Systems, Data & Process Improvement

• Establish and reinforce standards for data entry, documentation, coding, record updates, and other practices that affect CRM data quality.
• Identify inefficient, inconsistent or unclear workflows and redesign them with practical documentation, training, and follow-through.
• Use root-cause analysis to distinguish system, process, training, and performance issues and implement appropriate corrective action.
• Work across Membership, Finance, Technology and other internal teams to improve handoffs, integrations, reconciliation and issue resolution.
• Recommend when work should remain outsourced, be reassigned, supported by new technology or be brought partially in-house.

Qualifications

We are interested in demonstrated ability to build and optimize systems. Strong candidates will bring:

• Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in customer service, field operations, customer experience, donor or membership operations, or another environment involving complex people, systems, vendors and workflows.
• A record of designing, launching, or significantly improving operational processes, service models, or support functions.
• Experience developing workflows, SOPs, training and performance expectations, and helping teams adopt them consistently.
• Demonstrated ability to use data and operational measures to identify problems, prioritize work and evaluate improvement.
• Strong cross-functional skills and the ability to work effectively with technology, finance, service, legal/compliance and operational partners.
• Clear written and verbal communication, sound judgment, strong follow-through and a bias toward practical implementation.

Experience in public media or nonprofit fundraising is not required. Experience building or scaling service operations in retail, field operations, financial services, technology, logistics or other complex consumer environments may be particularly relevant.

Compensation & Benefits

The salary range for this full-time position is $85,000 to $100,000, commensurate with experience. Benefits include a PPO health insurance plan; employer-paid dental, vision, disability, and life insurance; and, after 12 months, a 5% employer contribution to a 403(b) retirement plan.

About WQED

WQED Multimedia is an iconic public media institution, one of America’s original educational broadcasters. Today, we reach hundreds of thousands of neighbors across southwestern Pennsylvania through five broadcast television channels, streaming platforms, 24/7 classical radio, and education and community engagement programs.

This is a moment of real transformation. With major shifts in media consumption, the launch of new digital products like WQED+, the elimination of our federal funding, and growing demand for trusted, hopeful, local storytelling, WQED is evolving from a traditional broadcaster into a multi-platform community resource.

Joining WQED now means an opportunity to help shape how Pittsburgh connects through stories, culture, learning, and shared experiences: on air, online, and in person.

Equal Employment Opportunity

WQED Multimedia is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate the diversity of the communities we serve and are dedicated to fostering an inclusive, supportive workplace for all. Applicants with disabilities or those needing reasonable accommodation may contact careers@wqed.org.