Job roles in the contact centre can quickly become stale and even hold back agent development – especially when it feels like the only option is to wait for the next team leader opening.
However, there are lots of ways to create new career paths and specialisms into your contact centre that not only keep pace with tech innovation and give some much-needed attention to more niche areas but also help to retain your best talent!
To inspire you, we’ve spoken to operational and recruitment experts to put the spotlight on some of the lesser-known and emerging job roles that leading contact centres are introducing right now.
Human Escalation Strategist
Automation has made human escalation the most expensive and most sensitive part of the journey. When a bot drops the ball, the fallout lands on real people. Organizations now need someone who intentionally engineers that handover to work.
Human Escalation Strategists are therefore needed to design the moment where automation ends and a human needs to step in.
They fix broken handovers, redesign escalation triggers, and protect customers when a complaint, vulnerability or emotional situation requires real judgement and empathy – thanks to:
- Deep understanding of vulnerable customers and complaints
- Journey mapping and failure‑mode analysis
- Empathy modelling and emotional intelligence
- Strong cross-functional influence across digital, ops, risk and product
- Knowledge of where and why automation mis-routes or misreads context
Smart Team Leader
With Team Leaders being pulled in more directions than ever before – resulting in losing far too much time to firefighting – the Smart Team Leader can help to take some of the pressure off!
This is because putting someone into a dedicated to handle personal and performance issues across the full pool of agents can give Team Leaders the time back they need to log in on time and focus on what really matters: coaching, supporting agents, and driving performance.
“Every team leader’s day is interrupted by an awful lot of little things, and those little things tend to be weighted towards the start of a shift.
Those conversations can completely derail a team leader’s morning or even a full day, which is where the Smart Team Leader role really makes a difference.” – John Pearson, Contact Centre Manager at Citizens Advice Gateshead
Chief AI Officer (and Other AI-Specific Roles)
There’s an ever-growing number of AI-specific roles out there now too – ranging from board level right through to frontline support functions.
“There’s a lot of investment in technology right now. What’s followed is the emergence of Chief AI Officers, alongside new AI teams, AI specialists, and BI analysts.
And it’s definitely a good thing! Data is absolutely king in our industry now, so it’s great to see this investment in data and tech specialists.” – Katy Forsyth, Managing Director of Red Recruitment
AI Interaction Quality Lead
This growing trend in dedicated AI roles extends into QA too!
As more frontline interactions run through AI, the role of AI Interaction Quality Lead has also appeared to make sure the technology behaves like part of the brand, not a risk.
Typically, an AI Interaction Quality Lead would spend their time reviewing and refining AI-generated responses from chatbots to agent-assist, keeping interactions accurate, compliant, and in the right tone of voice.
They sit right between operations, compliance, risk and tech – with the:
- Understanding of LLMs, prompt design, and model behaviour
- Ability to spot issues in call flows, journeys, and AI decision-making
- Strong risk and compliance awareness
- Tone-of-voice, content review, and judgement-led decisioning
- Translating technical problems into simple operational improvements
“AI is no longer a pilot. It’s live, customer-facing and tied directly to risk, CX and brand reputation.
Someone needs to own the quality because AI can now do as much damage as a poorly trained advisor.” – Perry Fletcher, Resource Planning, AI, Data & Analytics Recruitment Expert at Douglas Jackson
Level 1 / Level 2 / Level 3 / Level 4 Agents
Contact centres are also creating more structured opportunities for career growth by expanding out the size of their teams with a make-up of Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 agents, whereby the multiple layers of experience support the bigger team size and reduce the pressure on the team leader.
“I’ve seen someone recently with a team of 20-plus, which is unusual – but they’ve structured it with Level 1s, Level 2s, Level 3s, Level 4s, and a team leader at the head.
In this scenario, Level 4s are truly technical experts and help coach Level 1s and 2s, whilst Level 3s are competent agents who can assist when needed.
This model can be successful – particularly for growing internal team leaders and giving them a soft landing rather than throwing them in at the deep end. It’s also great for engagement because agents feel much more involved in the success of the team.” – Katy Forsyth, Managing Director of Red Recruitment
Digital Readiness Lead
When faced with the sheer scale and pace of transformation, some contact centres are now introducing Digital Readiness Leads to help agents navigate the storm – ultimately stopping change management from being an afterthought and instead embedding it into daily operations.
“The role is all about making the experience of change an enjoyable one – including measuring ‘speed to happiness’ from the people on the frontline and using that feedback to improve how change is delivered.
Our Digital Readiness Leads now own that end-to-end process – from how change is introduced, through to the scoring, and the learning that comes alongside it. All helping to make change management part of everyday working life.” – Dan Eddie, former Director of Customer Service at Simplyhealth
Customer Insight Orchestrator
This is the hybrid thinker who turns signals from everywhere – calls, QA, complaints, digital journeys, surveys, and analytics – into one clear picture that leaders can act on.
They unify data across multiple channels, spot patterns, synthesize insight and surface the themes that actually matter to COOs, CCOs and transformation teams.
Not more dashboards, but actual decisions that stem from:
- Data storytelling and narrative building
- The ability to merge qualitative and quantitative signals
- Understanding of operational, behavioural and CX drivers
- Prioritization: turning 200 insights into the three that matter
- Influencing senior stakeholders with clarity and confidence
“Contact centres are drowning in data and noise and AI has added even more. Leaders don’t need more metrics; they need someone who can connect the dots and translate complexity into action.
After all, as automation grows, the contact centre isn’t becoming less human, it’s becoming more dependent on people with judgement, cross-functional understanding and the ability to make technology work in the real world.” – Perry Fletcher, Resource Planning, AI, Data & Analytics Recruitment Expert at Douglas Jackson
What Job Roles Have You Recently Introduced Into Your Contact Centre?
Click here to join our Readers Panel to share your experiences and feature in future Call Centre Helper articles.
With thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts for this article:
- Dan Eddie, former Director of Customer Service at Simplyhealth
- John Pearson, Contact Centre Manager at Citizens Advice Gateshead
- Katy Forsyth, Managing Director of Red Recruitment
- Perry Fletcher, Resource Planning, AI, Data & Analytics Recruitment Expert at Douglas Jackson
If you are looking for more information on career opportunities and jobs in the contact centre, read these articles next:
- How to Define Career Paths in Your Contact Centre
- CX Leaders Can’t Afford to Stand Still as Agent Roles Evolve
- 12 Effective Strategies for Successful Call Centre Recruiting
Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman
Published On: 15th Jul 2026
Read more about - Call Centre Management, Career, Dan Eddie, Employee Experience (EX), Jobs, John Pearson, Katy Forsyth, Leadership, Management Strategies, Perry Fletcher, Recruitment and HR, Top Story
