Associate Director / Principal Project Manager / Senior Project Manager, Operational Excellence & Automation team, Custo

About Agoda

At Agoda, we bridge the world through travel. Our story began in 2005, when two lifelong friends and entrepreneurs, driven by their passion for travel, launched Agoda to make it easier for everyone to explore the world.

Today, we are part of Booking Holdings [NASDAQ: BKNG], with a diverse team of over 7,000 people from 90 countries, working together in offices around the globe. Every day, we connect people to destinations and experiences, with our great deals across our millions of hotels and holiday properties, flights, and experiences worldwide.

No two days are the same at Agoda. Data and technology are at the heart of our culture, fueling our curiosity and innovation. If you’re ready to begin your best journey and help build travel for the world, join us.

Get to Know our Team

The Customer Experience Group (CEG) of Agoda effectively serves our customers and partners to ensure satisfying results. This great task is accomplished with the support of our Global Service Verticals (GSV) team. We serve as the backbone for CEG’s global operations. Our team is comprised of project managers, process owners, analysts, and talent management. Together we work nonstop to improve the quality and efficiency of our customer and partner support processes.

We are a very data-driven environment, eager to move fast and learn through experimentation. A clear focus on supporting our customers and partners is bolstered by a strong, entrepreneurial culture that enriches us and Agoda’s business performance.

This role is within the Operational Excellence and Automation team , which is a part of CEG’s Global Service Verticals. The team focuses on driving end‑to‑end customer experience and process improvements, and scaling impact through automation, AI, and tooling across both customer-facing and agent-facing journeys.

The Opportunity

This role is responsible for leading a portfolio of global operational excellence and automation initiatives in the Customer Experience Group (CEG), with a focus on:

(i) automation, AI, and tooling to enhance customer and agent experience, and

(ii) process optimization and CX improvements across the post‑booking customer journey.

You will lead a high‑performing team of project managers/experts to drive measurable impact on customer satisfaction, efficiency, quality, and cost. The role combines strategic problem solving, hands‑on data-driven execution, and strong stakeholder management with both technical (Product/Tech/Data) and non‑technical (Operations/Support/Commercial) teams.

In this Role, you’ll get to

Lead and Own a Portfolio of Transformational Initiatives

Own from end‑to‑end a collection of projects and/or areas of business in CEG (global coverage), spanning automation/AI and process excellence initiatives.

Prioritize, plan, and drive initiatives that improve mission‑critical metrics: customer satisfaction (e.g., CSAT), service levels, automation quality, productivity, cost efficiency, and employee/agent engagement.

Ensure CEG readiness to support Agoda’s new business and product initiatives by working closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Marketing, Strategic Partnerships, Partner Services, Finance, Legal, and other CEG teams.

Drive Automation & AI driven solutions

Identify opportunities to leverage automation, AI, and tooling across customer and agent journeys (e.g., self‑service, workflow automation, AI quality testing).

Partner with Product Management / Technology / CEG teams to design, prioritize, and implement solutions, from experimentation and configuration through to global rollout and impact measurement.

Oversee the configuration and governance of operational flows and low‑code/automation tools, ensuring solutions are robust, scalable, and aligned with business goals and CX standards.

Shape End‑to‑End Customer & Process Improvements

Continuously improve CEG end‑to‑end processes across the post‑booking journey to remove pain points, and improve operational performance through targeted initiatives and data driven insights.

Own and evolve frameworks and roadmaps for how we continuously improve our internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and related processes; balancing CX/PX outcomes vs. efficiency/cost.

Drive strategic initiatives across CEG such as improving Localization support in key growth markets, regulatory initiatives and partner closely with our commercial teams in order to improve partner/supplier pain points.

Define clear problem statements and build business cases to define and prioritize customer/partner pain points and success metrics.

Lead and Develop a High‑Performing Team

Set long‑term vision, strategy, and annual/quarterly OKRs for your team, aligning with CEG and Agoda-wide priorities.

Manage and coach a team of project managers (and potentially people managers), building talent, capability, and succession within the Operational Excellence and Automation team.

Provide structured feedback, mentoring, and support to enable your team’s growth and to consistently raise the bar for quality and impact.

Build trusted relationships with senior leaders and stakeholders across CEG and other functions, effectively influencing priorities and decisions.

Monitor project milestones, identify risks and dependencies, troubleshoot issues, and implement mitigation plans—acting at all times as the ultimate owner of the portfolio’s outcomes.

What you’ll Need to Succeed

Experience & Background

At least 8–10+ years of experience in project/program management, operations, customer experience, process improvement, strategy, management consulting, or similar fields.

Significant people leadership experience, including building and managing high‑performing teams (ideally including people managers and individual contributors).

Proven track record of leading complex, cross‑functional initiatives from idea to implementation, with clear, measurable business impact.

Experience working closely with Product/Technology/Data teams on technical or automation/AI-focused projects is highly advantageous.

Technical & Analytical Skills

Strong analytical mindset; comfortable with numbers and quantitative problem solving. Able to define analysis structures, interpret data, challenge existing metrics, and make recommendations.

Familiarity with data and analytics tools (e.g., SQL, Tableau, Metabase, VBA, or similar) and experience leveraging them to drive decisions.

Comfort working with or overseeing workflow / automation / agent guidance tools, and the ability to engage in technical discussions with Product/Engineering/Data teams. Coding ability is a plus (you have to be willing to learn)

Exposure to AI/ML‑driven solutions in an operational or CX context (e.g., chatbots, recommendation engines, routing, classification, or decision support tools) is a strong plus.

CX, Process, and Delivery Skills

Demonstrated experience in process improvement and CX transformation, ideally in operations or customer support environments.

Strong project and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives in parallel, structure complex problems, and orchestrate cross‑functional teams.