Customer Experience Strategist — Store

Customer Experience Strategist — Store Experience

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.

The Customer Experience Strategist plays a central role in designing, optimizing, and transforming critical experiences across Upbound’s ecosystem. Reporting to the Director of Customer Experience Strategy, this role serves as the subject matter expert and owner of the Rent-A-Center store experience
, with responsibility for identifying opportunities, shaping experience strategy, leading roadmaps, and aligning cross-functional teams around improvements that deliver measurable customer, coworker, and business value.

This role will help evolve how customers and coworkers interact with Rent-A-Center across physical stores, digital touchpoints, store technology, centralized support, and emerging AI-enabled experiences
. The Strategist will identify opportunities to simplify experiences, clarify roles and handoffs, and determine how technology, AI, call centers, and store coworkers can work together to deliver a more seamless and effective experience.

A significant area of focus will be supporting the transformation of customer support and service responsibilities — including identifying opportunities to shift appropriate activities from store coworkers to AI-enabled and centralized support solutions while ensuring the overall customer experience remains connected, human, and aligned to the brand promise. This includes understanding the implications for coworker workflows, training, technology, processes, and standard operating procedures.

The ideal candidate combines strategic thinking, customer empathy, design thinking, operational understanding, and strong problem-solving skills
. They are comfortable navigating ambiguity, translating insights into action, and influencing across functions to transform complex experiences.

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

• Serve as the journey owner and subject matter expert for the Rent-A-Center store experience
  , spanning customer, coworker, operational, and technology touchpoints.
• Develop and maintain an experience roadmap that identifies key pain points, opportunities, dependencies, and strategic priorities across the store journey.
• Translate customer and coworker insights, feedback, operational data, and behavioral data into actionable improvements and strategic initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to simplify and connect experiences across stores, digital channels, contact centers, AI-enabled support, and other customer touchpoints
  .
• Partner with Design, Product, Marketing, Operations, Technology, and other functions to align on shared outcomes and execution.

• Lead journey mapping, service blueprinting, and opportunity-framing workshops to uncover moments that matter and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Apply design thinking and human-centered design principles to reimagine customer and coworker processes, communications, interactions, and support experiences.
• Identify opportunities to simplify, automate, centralize, or redesign activities while balancing customer needs, coworker experience, operational efficiency, and business value.
• Help define the future-state experience across human and technology-enabled touchpoints, including AI agents, call centers, store technology, and coworker interactions
  .
• Define success metrics and use data to measure and improve experiences over time.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to pilot, test, refine, and scale experience enhancements.

• Partner with Store Operations and functional leaders to understand how…