CX Journey Research & Service Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: CX Journey Research & Service Designer

Company: Global Payments Inc.

Location: Denver, Colorado, United States

Job Type: Full time

Category: Customer Experience Operations / Service Design

Date Posted: November 03, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-level (2-5 years)

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead the research and design of exceptional customer journeys by synthesizing complex qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights.

• Facilitate critical workshops, stakeholder discussions, and customer interviews to uncover friction points and opportunities within the customer experience lifecycle.

• Develop and maintain key CX artifacts, including journey maps, service blueprints, and ecosystem maps, to provide a clear, holistic view of customer interactions and internal processes.

• Drive process improvement initiatives by translating journey insights into practical recommendations for product, operations, training, and communication strategies.

• Collaborate cross-functionally to ensure a unified approach to customer experience enhancement, aligning business priorities with customer needs.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned within the Customer Experience (CX) domain, with a strong emphasis on operations and service design. While not a traditional Revenue Operations or Sales Operations role, the skills required—process mapping, data synthesis, stakeholder management, and driving efficiency—are highly transferable and critical for optimizing the customer lifecycle, which directly impacts revenue and customer retention. The hybrid work arrangement suggests a need for strong self-management and remote collaboration skills.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Lead and facilitate customer journey mapping workshops, stakeholder interviews, and customer interviews to gain a comprehensive understanding of both customer and internal operational perspectives.

• Synthesize diverse data inputs, including VoC (Voice of Customer) data, survey results, support ticket themes, product feedback, operational context, and stakeholder conversations, to build a multifaceted view of the customer experience.

• Manage project timelines, deliverables, and stakeholder follow-through to ensure continuous progress on journey design initiatives, navigating competing priorities and dynamic project environments.

• Create and present compelling customer journey maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, and related artifacts that clearly illustrate customer actions, emotions, needs, and the underlying backstage systems and processes.

• Identify critical pain points, experience gaps, "moments that matter," and recurring themes within customer journeys, translating these findings into prioritized opportunities for experience improvement.

• Collaborate with cross-functional partners to illuminate the complete customer experience, encompassing both front-stage interactions and the backstage operational realities (systems, processes, ownership, dependencies).

• Translate journey insights into actionable recommendations for roadmap planning, process enhancements, communication strategies, training development, product adjustments, and measurement frameworks.

• Partner with CX leadership to co-create future-state experience visions that foster organizational alignment around customer needs and strategic business objectives.

• Collaborate with management to define and implement metrics for measuring improvement, including key CX indicators (NPS, CSAT, CES, retention, loyalty, customer effort) and operational performance indicators (OPIs).

• Contribute to the development and refinement of repeatable journey mapping and service design methodologies, including templates, documentation, standards, and best practices to enable scalable adoption.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strong emphasis on process mapping, data synthesis, and cross-functional collaboration, which are core tenets of operations roles. The focus on identifying "friction points" and "backstage systems, processes, ownership, tools, and dependencies" directly aligns with operational efficiency and effectiveness. The mention of connecting insights to "roadmap conversations, process improvements, communication needs, training opportunities, product changes, or measurement plans" underscores the operational impact of this role.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field such as User Experience (UX), Human-Centered Design, Psychology, Sociology, or equivalent practical experience. Experience:

• Minimum of 4+ years of experience in customer experience, service design, UX research, product research, process improvement, or a similar insights-driven role.

• A minimum of 3+ years of demonstrated experience in creating customer journey maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, process maps, or similar tools for understanding complex experiences.

• At least 2+ years of experience actively facilitating and leading journey mapping workshops, internal discovery interviews, and customer interviews. Required Skills:

• Proficiency in synthesizing complex, often unstructured, qualitative and quantitative data into clear themes, actionable insights, and prioritized opportunities.

• Demonstrated ability to work with both qualitative (interviews, open-ended feedback) and quantitative data (surveys, operational inputs), understanding their interplay.

• Solid understanding of customer experience principles, human-centered design methodologies, and the causal link between customer pain points and business outcomes.

• Exceptional facilitation and collaboration skills, with a proven ability to engage and align cross-functional groups, even when perspectives differ.

• Strong written, visual, and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex findings and recommendations clearly and practically.

• Robust project management capabilities, including the ability to manage timelines, deliverables, and stakeholder expectations across multiple competing priorities.

• A curious, organized, and question-driven mindset, with the ability to probe deeply and uncover underlying issues.

• Comfort in asking thoughtful questions, active listening, and discerning unspoken needs or challenges. Preferred Skills:

• Experience in the Payments, FinTech, SaaS, POS systems, or other complex B2B technology environments.

• Experience with various customer journey types, including SMB, merchant, partner, or enterprise segments.

• Experience facilitating Design Thinking sessions and stakeholder alignment workshops.

• Familiarity with Voice of Customer (VoC) programs, survey analytics, qualitative coding, customer interviews, text analytics, or mixed-methods research approaches.

• A practical, grounded perspective on what teams can realistically implement, balanced with an optimistic drive for continuous improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "process improvement," "synthesizing messy inputs into clear themes," and "connecting journey insights to practical recommendations, roadmap conversations, process improvements" strongly suggests this role functions within an operations-focused team. The requirement for experience in "Payments, FinTech, SaaS, POS systems" indicates a need for understanding complex operational ecosystems.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Demonstrate experience in creating and presenting comprehensive customer journey maps and service blueprints that clearly articulate front-stage and backstage elements.

• Showcase case studies of process improvement initiatives driven by customer research, highlighting the identification of pain points and the implementation of solutions.

• Provide examples of how you have synthesized diverse data sources (qualitative, quantitative, operational) to inform design decisions and strategic recommendations.

• Include artifacts that illustrate your ability to visualize complex systems, workflows, and customer interactions, demonstrating clarity and impact. Process Documentation:

• Examples of documented processes or workflows that have been optimized based on customer journey insights, detailing the "before" and "after" states.

• Demonstrate familiarity with creating documentation for internal stakeholders that clearly explains customer journeys and the supporting operational requirements.

• Showcase how you have used documentation to drive alignment and action across different departments, such as Product, Engineering, Support, and Operations.

📝 Enhancement Note: While not explicitly stated as a "portfolio requirement," the core responsibilities heavily imply the need for a portfolio that showcases journey maps, service blueprints, and process maps. These are critical deliverables for a Service Designer and are directly analogous to process documentation and optimization artifacts valued in operations roles. The ability to demonstrate "backstage systems, processes, ownership, tools, and dependencies" is key.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Annual Salary Range: $70,000 - $80,000 USD Benefits:

• Competitive salary and benefits package recognizing employee contributions.

• Opportunities for professional growth and career development within a global organization.

• Access to learning resources, development programs, and on-the-job experiences to expand expertise.

• A supportive and inclusive team environment that values employee ideas and input.

• Opportunities to engage in community and charity initiatives.

• Global employee assistance program to support overall well-being.

• Recognition platform to celebrate individual and team achievements.

• Access to detailed benefits information via the provided link: https://jobs.globalpayments.com/en/why-global-payments/benefits/ Working Hours:

• Typically 40 hours per week, aligning with standard business operations.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is specific to the Denver, Colorado location. For operations roles at this level ($70k-$80k), it aligns with mid-level positions requiring specialized analytical and process-oriented skills. The benefits package is comprehensive, typical for a large, global financial services organization, and includes professional development which is crucial for operations professionals looking to advance their careers. The mention of "operational performance indicators" in the responsibilities further links this role to operational efficiency metrics.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Financial Services / Payments Technology

Company Size: Large Enterprise (likely 10,000+ employees based on Global Payments' public profile)

Founded: 1990s (Global Payments Inc. has a long history, with significant growth through mergers and acquisitions)

Team Structure:

• The role likely sits within a dedicated Customer Experience (CX) or Product Design team, reporting to a CX leadership role.

• This CX team operates with a matrixed structure, collaborating heavily with Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Customer Support, and various operational departments.

• Expect a culture of cross-functional collaboration where insights from this role are shared and acted upon by diverse teams responsible for different aspects of the customer lifecycle. Methodology:

• The team likely employs a blend of research methodologies, including qualitative interviews, surveys, journey mapping, service blueprinting, and potentially Design Thinking frameworks.

• Emphasis is placed on synthesizing disparate data sources to form a cohesive understanding of customer needs and operational realities.

• A data-driven approach is expected, linking customer experience improvements to measurable business outcomes and operational performance.

Company Website: https://www.globalpayments.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Global Payments is a significant player in the financial technology sector. Understanding the complexities of payment processing, merchant services, and FinTech operations is crucial for this role. The company's "think like a client, act like an owner, win as one team" ethos suggests a culture that values customer-centricity, accountability, and collaborative problem-solving—all highly relevant to operations and service design.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role represents a mid-level specialist position within the Customer Experience function, focusing on research, design, and process improvement. It bridges the gap between pure research and operational implementation.

Reporting Structure: The role likely reports to a Manager or Director of Customer Experience, Service Design, or a related CX function. Collaboration will be extensive with various operational teams, product managers, and business stakeholders.

Operations Impact: The impact of this role is significant, directly influencing customer satisfaction, retention, and operational efficiency. By identifying and addressing friction points in the customer journey, this role helps reduce customer effort, minimize support costs, improve conversion rates, and ultimately drive revenue growth and customer loyalty. The insights generated can lead to streamlined operational processes and more effective resource allocation.

Growth Opportunities:

• Specialization: Deepen expertise in specific areas of service design, journey mapping, or qualitative research within the payments industry.

• Leadership: Progress into a Senior Service Designer, CX Lead, or Managerial role, overseeing projects and potentially a small team.

• Cross-Functional Moves: Transition into related operations, product management, or strategic initiatives roles, leveraging a strong understanding of customer and operational flows.

• Industry Expertise: Develop specialized knowledge in FinTech and Payments CX, becoming a go-to expert within the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: While not a direct "Revenue Operations" title, the growth path here strongly aligns with operational career progression. The ability to analyze processes, identify bottlenecks, and propose solutions is a core operations skill. Advancing to senior or managerial roles in CX or service design often involves managing operational aspects of customer experience programs and influencing broader business operations.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is a Hybrid role, indicating a blend of remote work and in-office presence. The Denver office is specified as the primary location.

Office Location(s):

• EVO Denver, USA Office (Primary)

• Additional locations may include Tempe, Arizona; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Lindon, Utah, suggesting potential for collaboration or limited travel across these sites. Workspace Context:

• The hybrid model requires individuals to be self-directed and adept at working both independently and collaboratively.

• Expect access to standard office resources and potentially a collaborative workspace designed for workshops and team meetings when on-site.

• Remote work will necessitate effective use of digital collaboration tools (e.g., Miro, Figma).

• Opportunities for in-person interaction with colleagues on-site will facilitate ideation, problem-solving, and team building.

Work Schedule: The role is expected to maintain a standard 40-hour work week, with flexibility typically afforded within a hybrid model, allowing for adjustments to accommodate deep work and collaborative sessions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid nature of this role is common in operations and design-focused positions, balancing the need for focused individual work with collaborative sessions. The Denver location suggests a primary hub, but flexibility across other US locations indicates a distributed team structure, which is increasingly prevalent in large organizations managing complex operational footprints.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will review applications and resumes, looking for alignment with core experience requirements (journey mapping, facilitation, CX principles).

• Hiring Manager Interview: A deeper dive into your experience, focusing on specific examples of journey mapping, service design, problem-solving, and stakeholder management. Be prepared to discuss your approach to synthesizing data and facilitating workshops.

• Portfolio Review/Presentation: You will likely be asked to present a case study from your portfolio, showcasing a complex customer journey you analyzed, the methods used, your findings, and the recommended solutions. This is a critical step to assess your practical skills.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Interviews with potential peers or stakeholders from Product, Engineering, or Operations teams to assess collaboration style, communication clarity, and ability to translate insights into actionable plans.

• Final Interview: Potentially with a senior leader to assess cultural fit, strategic thinking, and overall alignment with the company's CX vision.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Select 1-2 strong case studies that demonstrate your end-to-end process: from research and synthesis to design and recommendation.

• Highlight Operations Impact: Clearly articulate how your work addressed specific operational challenges or led to process improvements, reduced customer effort, or enhanced efficiency. Quantify results where possible.

• Visualize Clearly: Ensure your journey maps, service blueprints, and other artifacts are well-organized, easy to understand, and visually compelling. Focus on the "backstage" elements and their connection to the "front-stage" experience.

• Tell a Story: Structure your presentation around a narrative: the problem, your approach, the insights, the proposed solutions, and the (potential) impact.

• Demonstrate Facilitation: Be prepared to discuss your facilitation techniques and how you managed diverse stakeholder groups.

Challenge Preparation:

• Expect a potential design challenge or case study exercise, either live or take-home, that requires you to analyze a hypothetical customer scenario and propose solutions.

• Focus on applying human-centered design principles and clearly outlining the operational implications of your recommendations.

• Practice articulating your thought process, assumptions, and the rationale behind your proposed actions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on portfolio review and case studies is crucial for operations and design roles. Candidates should prepare to demonstrate their ability to analyze complex systems, identify process inefficiencies, and propose data-backed solutions, much like a business analyst or operations specialist would.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Collaboration & Design: Figma, FigJam, Miro, LucidChart (or similar visual collaboration tools). These are essential for journey mapping, service blueprinting, and workshop facilitation.

• Journey Management: Experience with specialized tools such as TheyDo, Cemantica, or JourneyTrack is a plus, indicating familiarity with dedicated journey management platforms.

• Research & Analysis: Proficiency in synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data from various sources.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Familiarity with Voice of Customer (VoC) platforms, survey analytics tools, and potentially basic data analysis or visualization tools to interpret survey data, NPS, CSAT, and CES scores.

• Understanding of operational performance indicators (OPIs) and their relationship to customer experience metrics. CRM & Automation:

• While not a primary CRM/automation role, understanding how customer journeys interact with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) and automated workflows is beneficial for mapping backstage processes.

• Awareness of how operational systems and backend processes impact customer-facing touchpoints.

📝 Enhancement Note: The specific mention of design and collaboration tools like Figma and Miro is key. For operations professionals, understanding how these tools are used for process visualization, workflow mapping, and cross-functional alignment is important. Familiarity with VoC programs and operational metrics is also highly relevant to an operations context.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and improving the customer experience, recognizing its direct link to business success.

• Curiosity & Problem-Solving: A drive to ask "why," uncover root causes, and find practical solutions to complex challenges.

• Collaboration & Ownership: A willingness to work across teams, take accountability for outcomes, and contribute to shared goals ("act like an owner").

• Data-Driven Decision-Making: Utilizing insights from research and operations data to inform strategy and prioritize initiatives.

• Efficiency & Clarity: Striving to simplify complex processes and experiences, making them more efficient for both customers and internal teams.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: Actively engaging with diverse teams (Product, Engineering, Support, Sales, Marketing, Operations) to gather input, share insights, and co-create solutions.

• Facilitative Leadership: Guiding discussions and workshops to achieve consensus and drive action, even with differing viewpoints.

• Transparent Communication: Sharing findings and recommendations clearly through various mediums (visuals, written reports, presentations) to ensure understanding and alignment.

• Continuous Improvement: Fostering a culture of ongoing learning and iteration, refining processes and methodologies based on feedback and results.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's stated values ("think like a client, act like an owner, win as one team") directly translate into operational principles of customer focus, accountability, and teamwork. The emphasis on "finding better ways to deliver impact" speaks to a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Complexity of the Payments Ecosystem: Navigating the intricate operational landscape of the payments industry, with its diverse stakeholders and regulatory considerations.

• Data Synthesis Across Silos: Integrating insights from disparate data sources and functional teams to create a unified view of the customer journey.

• Driving Change & Adoption: Influencing cross-functional teams and gaining buy-in for proposed experience improvements, especially when they require significant operational shifts.

• Balancing Ideal vs. Practical: Recommending solutions that are both aspirational for customer experience and realistically implementable within business constraints.

• Measuring Impact: Effectively defining and tracking metrics to demonstrate the ROI of CX initiatives and their contribution to operational efficiency and business goals.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deepen FinTech CX Expertise: Gain specialized knowledge in the unique customer experience challenges and opportunities within the payments and financial technology sectors.

• Advanced Research & Design Techniques: Expand skills in areas like service blueprinting, behavioral economics, and advanced qualitative/quantitative research methods.

• Influence & Stakeholder Management: Develop strategic influencing skills to drive adoption of CX recommendations across a large, complex organization.

• Operational Process Optimization: Gain a deeper understanding of the operational levers that impact customer experience and learn to optimize them.

• Mentorship: Benefit from experienced CX leaders and cross-functional partners within Global Payments to guide career development.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges listed are highly relevant to operations roles, particularly in complex industries like FinTech. The ability to navigate complexity, synthesize data, drive change, and measure impact are core competencies for operations professionals. The growth opportunities focus on deepening specialized knowledge and gaining strategic influence, common career trajectories in operations.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you identified a significant breakdown in a customer journey. What was your process for uncovering the root cause, and what recommendations did you make?" (Focus on your methodology, data synthesis, and proposed solutions.)

• "How do you approach facilitating a journey mapping workshop with stakeholders who have different priorities or perspectives?" (Highlight your facilitation techniques, conflict resolution, and ability to drive alignment.)

• "Walk me through a service blueprint you created. What were the key backstage elements, and how did they impact the front-stage experience?" (Be ready to explain the connection between operational processes and customer outcomes.)

• "How do you ensure your research insights translate into practical, actionable recommendations for product, operations, or other teams?" (Emphasize your ability to connect insights to business impact and operational feasibility.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Global Payments and our approach to customer experience?" (Research the company's mission, values, and recent news related to CX or innovation.)

• "How do you align customer needs with business objectives and operational realities?" (Demonstrate your understanding of balancing customer advocacy with business constraints.)

• "Describe your experience working in a hybrid or remote environment. How do you stay connected and productive?" (Showcase your self-management and collaboration skills.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure: Begin with the business context or customer problem, detail your research and analysis methods, present your key findings and insights, outline your proposed solutions (including operational considerations), and conclude with the potential impact or measured results.

• Visuals: Use clear, concise visuals. Ensure journey maps and service blueprints are easy to follow. Highlight key pain points and opportunities.

• Storytelling: Frame your case study as a narrative. Explain the "why" behind your actions and the impact of your work.

• Q&A Readiness: Anticipate questions about your decision-making process, alternative approaches, and how you would handle pushback from stakeholders.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation for this role requires showcasing not just research and design skills, but also a strong understanding of operational implications, process thinking, and stakeholder management—all critical for operations roles. Be ready to discuss how your work impacts efficiency, reduces friction, and contributes to business goals.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this CX Journey Research & Service Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided Workday portal link.

• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to highlight keywords related to customer journey mapping, service design, UX research, process improvement, facilitation, stakeholder management, and specific tools (Figma, Miro). Quantify achievements wherever possible (e.g., "Identified X pain points leading to Y% reduction in customer effort").

• Portfolio Preparation: Curate 1-2 strong case studies that best demonstrate your end-to-end process, focusing on complex customer journeys and the operational/process improvements you recommended or implemented. Ensure your portfolio is polished and ready for presentation.

• Company Research: Familiarize yourself with Global Payments' business, its position in the FinTech industry, and any publicly available information on their customer experience initiatives or values. Understand the "think like a client, act like an owner, win as one team" philosophy.

• Practice Your Narrative: Prepare to clearly articulate your experience, particularly your process for synthesizing data, facilitating workshops, and translating insights into actionable recommendations with operational context. Practice your portfolio presentation.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.