Customer Experience Strategist

Upbound Group

Customer Experience Strategist (On-site – Plano, TX)

Upbound Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: UPBD) is a technology and data-driven leader in accessible and inclusive financial solutions that address the evolving needs and aspirations of underserved customers. The company’s operating units — Acima, Brigit, and Rent-A-Center — enable consumer transactions across both digital and store-based channels, including more than 2,300 retail locations in the U.S., Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Upbound Group, Inc. is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

JOB OVERVIEW:

The Customer Experience Strategist plays a central role in designing, optimizing, and elevating critical experiences across Upbound’s ecosystem. Reporting to the Senior Director of Customer Experience Strategy, this role serves as the subject matter expert and owner of a specific journey domain — whether customer, retailer, or coworker — and is accountable for identifying opportunities, leading roadmaps, and collaborating across journey domains to deliver experiences that drive measurable business and customer value. The ideal candidate combines strategic thinking with empathy, design thinking principles, and a passion for understanding people — transforming insights into action to make every interaction with Upbound more meaningful, connected, and human.

This is a full-time, on-site position based at Upbound’s Plano, TX headquarters.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Journey Ownership & Strategy

• Serve as the journey owner and subject matter expert for a defined customer, retailer, or coworker journey.

• Develop and maintain a journey roadmap that identifies key opportunities, pain points, and strategic priorities.

• Translate customer insights, feedback, and data into actionable improvements and initiatives.

• Partner with Design, Product, Marketing, and Operations to align on shared outcomes and execution.

Experience Design & Optimization

• Lead journey mapping and opportunity framing workshops to uncover moments that matter.

• Apply design thinking and customer empathy to reimagine processes, communications, and interactions.

• Define success metrics and use data to measure and improve the experience over time.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to pilot, test, and scale experience enhancements.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Bring together cross-functional stakeholders to align on priorities and co-own outcomes.

• Partner with the Growth Office, VOC, and Analytics teams to ensure insights inform decision-making.

• Influence journey-related technology and data priorities that enable personalization and consistency.

• Communicate progress and insights to leadership through clear storytelling and visualization.

Continuous Improvement

• Champion a culture of experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement across journey teams.

• Document and share best practices that can scale across other experience domains.

• Identify opportunities for automation, simplification, and innovation within assigned journeys.

You should apply for this role if you are:

• A compelling storyteller with an insight to action mindset, who can energize teams around opportunity areas with clear, data-backed narratives and help partners define how to address the opportunity

• An exceptional problem framer, able to structure ambiguous problem spaces, align stakeholders, and surface insights that validate opportunities for cross-functional teams to solve

• A self starter and highly curious. You’re comfortable with ambiguity and the ability to operate effectively in evolving, loosely defined roles

• A leader who can guide and delegate work across levels and functions, including leading without direct authority and build partnerships across the organization

• A strategic thinker, who understands how to connect customer needs and opportunities to financial goals and outcomes

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS:

• 5–8 years of experience in customer experience, service design, digital strategy, or product management.

• Proven success owning and improving end-to-end journeys that deliver measurable impact.

• Strong understanding of journey mapping, design thinking, and human-centered design.

• Excellent facilitation and collaboration skills; able to influence across diverse functions and levels.

• Analytical mindset with the ability to connect qualitative insights and quantitative data.

• Strong presentation and storytelling skills with executive-level polish.

• Experience in fintech, retail, or customer-facing service industries preferred.

• Passion for customers, empathy-driven innovation, and building experiences that matter.

• Must be available to work on-site at Upbound’s Plano, TX headquarters.