Senior Director, Enterprise Voice of Customer Activation Systems

Department: Enterprise Quality
Employment Type: Full-Time

About Ashley Furniture

Ashley Furniture is the world's largest furniture manufacturer and retailer, committed to delivering quality home furnishings and exceptional value to our customers. As we continue to grow and evolve, we're investing in enterprise-wide continuous improvement initiatives that ensure our products meet the highest standards of quality across our global supply chain.

Job Summary

The Senior Director, Enterprise Voice of Customer (VOC) Activation Systems is responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing systems to systematically assemble, structure, analyze, and activate all voice of customer data streams across the organization.

This executive leader ensures quality-related feedback and service data from all stages of the product lifecycle are collected, consolidated at the SKU level, structured for advanced analytics, and funneled into actionable intelligence. This role is critical in driving continuous improvement and project activation by turning complex customer feedback data into clear, AI-ready insights that fuel Ashley's quality initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

System Design & Data Architecture

• System Design for Data Assembly: Lead the creation of systems to collect all VOC data, including product returns, allowances, credits, replacement part orders, wholesale/retail returns, in-home service calls, shop repairs, and all forms of product quality feedback.
• SKU-Level Quality Data Architecture: Develop and refine processes to attribute quality feedback precisely at the SKU level—including causes, defect locations, and types—enabling deep root cause analytics.
• Reporting and AI-Ready Data Structuring: Ensure reporting systems present current and historical quality data in formats accessible for both leadership consumption and AI-driven interrogation, supporting predictive and prescriptive analytics.

Advanced Analytics & Intelligence Integration

• Advanced Defect Analytics: Build systems to categorize and analyze defects, identifying patterns by location, defect type, and likely root cause to drive the prioritization of quality initiatives.
• Quality Intelligence System Integration: Develop automated scripts and workflows to query Ashley's Quality Intelligence System, distinguishing between common and uncommon defects.

Project Activation & Continuous Improvement

• Continuous Improvement Project Alignment: Institute systems that cross-reference defects with ongoing or prior continuous improvement initiatives, ensuring unresolved issues prompt project inception or are recorded against existing projects.
• Project Activation and Issue Escalation: Oversee automated and manual workflows to create new improvement projects for unresolved issues, accurately linking new findings to active project burndown lists.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate and communicate effectively with executive, technical, and operational partners to ensure system adoption, data integrity, and continuous improvement across the enterprise.

Core Competencies Aligned to Ashley Values

Successful leaders at Ashley consistently demonstrate:

• Integrity & Transparency – Forthright, honest communication and ethical decision-making
• Execution Discipline – Relentless follow-through and attention to detail
• Hands-On Ownership – Willingness to "get dirty," inspect work, and solve real problems
• Leadership at Every Level – Ability to lead initiatives and influence outcomes regardless of title
• Customer & Business Mindset – Focus on delivering what is promised and driving measurable impact
• Boundaryless Collaboration – Works for the greater good of the enterprise, not functional silos
• Continuous Improvement – Learns the business deeply and improves how work gets done

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business Analytics, or related field
• Master's degree (MBA, MS Data Science, MS Engineering) strongly preferred

Experience

• 10 years of progressive leadership experience in data strategy, quality analytics, or Voice of Customer (VOC) systems
• Extensive experience designing and implementing enterprise-wide data collection and analytics architectures
• Proven track record connecting data insights to operational continuous improvement projects
• Experience in manufacturing, retail, or consumer goods industries preferred

Skills & Certifications

• Deep expertise in data architecture, advanced analytics, and AI-ready data structuring
• Strong understanding of product quality metrics, defect categorization, and root cause analysis
• Proficiency in enterprise data visualization and BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, etc.)
• Exceptional executive communication skills with the ability to translate complex data concepts into actionable business strategies
• Strong cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management capabilities
• Familiarity with Quality Management Systems (QMS) and continuous improvement frameworks (Six Sigma, Lean)

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation package including executive benefits
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Professional development opportunities
• Collaborative and innovative work environment
• Opportunity to shape data strategy and customer experience at the world's largest furniture manufacturer

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Ashley Furniture is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.