About the Role
Air India Express is seeking an experienced Senior Manager – Service Quality & Customer Experience to lead the airline's service quality governance, mystery audit programmes, CX assurance, and external ratings readiness. This role will drive continuous improvement across the customer journey by transforming service quality insights into measurable business outcomes.
Working closely with Inflight, Ground Operations, Training, Catering, and Commercial teams, the incumbent will help strengthen a guest-centric culture and elevate service standards across the network.
Key Responsibilities
Service Quality & Audit Governance
- Lead and enhance the airline's Mystery Guest Programme across booking, airport, inflight, disruption handling, loyalty, and post-flight journeys.
- Develop and manage audit frameworks, scorecards, and service quality standards.
- Oversee cabin and ground service quality audits across fleets, bases, and operational touchpoints.
- Manage external audit partners and build internal audit capabilities.
CX Intelligence & Reporting
- Own service quality dashboards integrating audit findings, customer feedback, NPS/CSAT, complaints, and external ratings.
- Conduct root-cause analysis and identify improvement opportunities across operations, training, routes, and partners.
- Deliver actionable CX insights and executive-level reports to leadership teams.
External Ratings & Benchmarking
- Lead airline readiness for Skytrax, APEX, and similar external assessments.
- Drive closure of identified gaps and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Monitor industry benchmarks and emerging service quality trends.
Standards & Continuous Improvement
- Partner with cross-functional teams to define and enhance Service Delivery Standards.
- Drive enterprise-wide customer experience improvement initiatives.
- Establish a robust audit-to-action framework to ensure sustainable service enhancements.
Leadership
- Lead and develop a high-performing Service Quality & CX Assurance team.
- Manage budgets, vendor relationships, capability development, and strategic CX projects.
Experience & Qualifications
Essential
- Graduate degree in Aviation, Hospitality, Business, or related field; MBA preferred.
- 14–18 years of experience in airlines, hospitality, or large-scale customer experience environments.
- Minimum 6 years in Service Quality, Audit, Customer Experience, or related leadership roles.
- Proven experience managing mystery audit or service quality programmes at scale.
- Strong analytical and stakeholder management skills with experience presenting to senior leadership.
- Exposure to external rating frameworks such as Skytrax, APEX, or equivalent.
Preferred
- Lean Six Sigma, ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, or similar quality certifications.
- Experience with CX and BI platforms such as Power BI, Tableau, Qualtrics, or Medallia.
- Experience across multiple operational locations, fleets, or network geographies.