Customer and Merchant Advocacy III Agent at Koalafi in Richmond, VA

At Koalafi, we believe in a world where no one has to put an important purchase on hold. That’s why we’re making it easier for more people to pay for big purchases over time.

Retailers across the country rely on us to offer flexible lease-to-own financing to their non-prime consumers, while increasing sales and strengthening customer loyalty. Their 2M+ customers love us because we provide a flexible way for them to make payments and give them an opportunity to improve their credit. Our 200+ Koalafi teammates enjoy inspiring and challenging work that accelerates their careers.

Interested in learning more about how we’re transforming the financing experience and joining our team?

About the role

The CMAT III is a senior individual contributor on the Customer & Merchant Advocacy Team responsible for managing the most complex, high-risk, and time-sensitive customer and merchant escalations. This role operates at the intersection of risk management, regulatory compliance, customer experience, and operational execution. The CMAT III serves as a critical execution layer for daily CMAT operations—owning recurring processes, supporting case agents, managing strategic partner correspondence, and serving as an escalation resource across multiple internal teams.

This role requires strong independent judgment, proactive communication, exceptional ownership, and the ability to shift priorities dynamically based on business needs, volume, and risk. CMAT III agents are expected to operate with minimal oversight, communicate early and clearly when risks arise, and consistently deliver outcomes that protect both the customer experience and the company.

Key Responsibilities

Daily Operations & Task Management:

• Own and complete all assigned daily operational tasks within established timeframes, including account closure monitoring, refund processing, charge-off queries, gatekeeper queue management, strategic partner (SP) requests, and Customer Advocate (CA) inbox monitoring.
• Maintain full coverage of all daily responsibilities when a teammate is absent and escalate immediately if coverage is at risk.
• Must be capable of shifting priorities dynamically in response to complaint volume, escalation spikes, or team coverage needs.

Strategic Partner & Specialized Case Management:

• Manage ongoing casework for assigned merchant partners, including daily case review, customer and merchant follow-up, and resolution tracking.
• Prepare and distribute weekly strategic partner reports on schedule per partner-specific requirements.
• Route all outbound customer and merchant correspondence exclusively through the CA shared inbox.
• Monitor and manage SP case agent correspondence requests via the designated Slack channel and established workflow.

Escalation Handling & Agent Support:

• Serve as the senior escalation resource for CMAT agents—taking ownership of complex, high-risk, or policy-sensitive situations that exceed standard agent scope and drive them to resolution.
• Handle leadership-requested outbound contacts, negotiating outcomes that balance the needs of the customer, the merchant, and Koalafi.
• Assist with escalated inbound calls from CMAT agents and serve as backup coverage for frontline agent Slack channels if/when needs arise.
• Support ad hoc requests from cross-functional and leadership teams, responding with the same ownership and timeliness expected of all CMAT-level work.
• Support resolution of time-sensitive complaints, regulatory inquiries, and customer or merchant-impacting escalations within defined SLAs.

Reporting & Communication:

• Maintain current knowledge of company policies, product offerings, and system updates to ensure accurate, appropriate support is provided at all times; proactively close knowledge gaps as changes occur.
• Identify and surface process and product improvement opportunities—particularly recurring patterns that drive customer dissatisfaction or preventable escalations—and communicate findings to CMAT leadership and relevant business owners.
• Provide continuous, structured feedback to business owners and operations leadership to reduce escalation volume, improve agent tools, and increase first-touch resolution rates.
• Maintain transparent, timely communication in public team channels to support shared visibility, learning, and accountability.

Case Agent Quality Assurance:

• Own weekly QA review for CMAT case agents, completing the required number of case reviews per agent each week within the established cadence.
• Evaluate cases for execution quality, policy adherence, communication standards, and escalation appropriateness across all assigned QA categories; scope will expand over time as CMAT QA coverage grows.
• Document findings accurately and completely, ensuring QA records are ready for the CMAT Supervisor to incorporate into regular 1:1 discussion with case agents.
• Surface trends, recurring errors, or systemic gaps identified through QA to CMAT leadership—QA output should inform coaching, process improvements, and risk mitigation, not simply record individual errors.
• Own the creation, maintenance, and ongoing monitoring of all CMAT-facing content in Guru alongside CMAT leadership.
• Manage CMAT-facing Guru cards on their established verification schedules—review cadence varies by card; CMAT III agents are responsible for tracking and meeting each card's scheduled review date.

About You (Qualifications)

Required:

• 2+ years of experience in customer advocacy, dispute resolution, complaint handling, or other related operations role.
• Demonstrated ability to manage high volumes of time-sensitive tasks independently and with consistent accuracy.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to communicate clearly in fast-paced, multi-channel environments (Slack, email, Salesforce, and phone).
• High level of accountability and ownership; consistently follows through without requiring escalation or reminders.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and making sound decisions when not all information is available.
• Experience working within cross-functional teams with overlapping ownership and escalation paths.
• Proficiency with CRM systems (Salesforce preferred) and collaboration tools (Slack, shared inboxes).

Preferred:

• Prior experience in a senior or lead individual contributor role within an advocacy, compliance, or operations team.
• Familiarity with regulatory complaint handling processes (e.g., CFPB, state-level consumer protection).
• Experience managing merchant or strategic partner relationships.
• Background in consumer financial services, fintech, or lease-to-own operations.
• Demonstrated ability to identify systemic issues and surface operational risk signals.

Location Requirement: This position requires regular in-person attendance at our office location (Richmond, VA). Candidates must already be located within a commutable distance to this location, as relocation assistance is not available at this time.

Why choose Koalafi: A career at Koalafi means opportunities to tackle exciting challenges every single day. We take pride in a culture of innovation, trust, and ownership. You'll get outside your comfort zone, build meaningful relationships, and most of all, take charge of projects that ultimately help people get the things they need most.

Benefits:

At Koalafi, you will have a direct impact on our products and help shape the company’s success. We offer competitive compensation & benefits packages to keep you at your best:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 20 PTO days + 11 paid holidays
• 401(k) retirement with company matching
• Student Loan & Tuition Reimbursement
• Commuter assistance
• Parental leave (maternal + paternal)
• Inclusion and Associate Engagement Programs

Who we are & what we value:

• We focus on what’s most important
• We set clear expectations and deliver
• We embrace challenges to reach our full potential
• We ask, “How can this be better?”
• We move fast together