Director, Customer Experience, Trading API

Your Role:

Alpaca is looking for a Director of Customer Experience to lead and develop the customer-facing support functions across Trading API.

Trading API serves a diverse and increasingly sophisticated customer base, from active traders and developers to trading firms and institutional customers. As we expand our products, markets, and global customer base, the customer experience function needs to scale with the complexity and demands of the business.

This role will lead our existing teams across General Support and VIP Support and evolve how we support customers globally. The Director will build a follow-the-sun operating model, develop the team and its capabilities, establish clear service standards and use data, AI, and automation to continuously improve how we serve customers.

The role will also be a key partner to Product, Engineering, Trading, Operations, and Compliance. Customer interactions provide an important source of insight into where customers encounter friction and where our products and processes can improve. The Director will be responsible for turning those insights into actionable feedback and working across the organization to drive improvements to the customer experience.

We expect this person to spend time understanding the customer experience firsthand, particularly early on. They should develop a deep understanding of how customers use Alpaca, the issues they encounter, and how those issues move through the organization. The goal is to translate that knowledge into a high-performing global function that can scale with Trading API.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Support and Global Coverage

• Lead and develop the Trading API customer support team
• Build a follow-the-sun model providing 24/5 coverage and ultimately 24/7
• Establish service levels, escalation paths, and effective handoffs across regions
• Ensure timely, high-quality support across Trading API products
• Identify recurring issues and partner across teams to address root causes

Data, AI and Continuous Improvement

• Establish KPIs across service levels, resolution times, customer satisfaction, escalations, and other measures of customer experience
• Build reporting to identify trends, customer friction, and areas for improvement
• Use data to set goals and continuously improve team performance
• Own the use and fine-tuning of customer-facing AI support
• Use AI, automation, and self-service tools to improve quality and scalability

VIP and Institutional Support

• Build a differentiated support model for customers with greater scale, complexity, or support requirements
• Ensure VIP customers have responsive escalation paths for critical issues
• Build strong knowledge of customer integrations, trading workflows, and operational requirements
• Strategize with the Head of Trading to establish a trading desk with smooth handoffs for institutional orders
• Work closely with the business owners responsible for VIP and institutional customer relationships

Customer Experience and Product Partnership

• Build a structured process for identifying recurring customer pain points
• Partner with Product to improve onboarding, usability, self-service, and the overall customer experience
• Use data and customer feedback to identify and prioritize areas for improvement
• Represent the needs of Trading API customers and identify opportunities to make the platform easier to use
• Measure the impact of customer experience initiatives

Leadership and Team Development

• Lead, coach, QA and develop the existing customer-facing support teams
• Evolve the organization, processes, and staffing model as Trading API scales
• Establish clear goals, accountability, and a data-driven operating culture
• Hire and develop talent as the organization grows
• Stay close to customers and frontline teams while building a function that does not depend on the Director to manage individual issues

Who You Are

• Experienced building and leading customer-facing teams in brokerage, trading, or financial markets
• Strong understanding of brokerage products, trading workflows, order lifecycle, and the needs of active and institutional traders
• Series 7 required
• Series 24 required, or ability to obtain the Series 24 within an agreed timeframe after joining
• Strong people leader with experience developing existing teams
• Experience managing customer support across multiple regions and time zones
• Highly data-driven with experience establishing and managing against KPIs
• Technically fluent and comfortable with APIs, integrations, and complex customer issues
• Experience using AI and automation to improve customer support
• Strong cross-functional operator who can work across Product, Engineering, Trading, Operations, Compliance, and Sales