Senior Manager, Preferred

About The Team

The Zillow Preferred group collaborates with leading real estate professionals to provide exceptional homebuyer experiences. This is achieved through a combination of trusted partnerships, operational excellence, and innovative Zillow products. The team is advancing beyond traditional high-touch support to a next-generation partner success model; one that integrates AI-driven functionalities when appropriate, retains human oversight where critical, and remains focused on delivering excellent customer outcomes.

Role Overview

The Senior Manager, Preferred (M4) serves as a senior frontline leader. This role entails guiding a team of Growth Specialists to implement Zillow Preferred’s evolving partner support and growth approach. The key responsibilities are translating Zillow’s AI-enabled service vision into actionable frontline practices, establishing scalable operational processes, fostering strong coaching, and driving measurable improvements in partner success.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and refine a scalable AI-augmented, human-guided support model balancing growth, quality, and cost efficiency for Zillow Preferred partners.
• Convert organizational and segment strategies into specific workflows, team standards, coaching frameworks, and collaboration routines enabling Growth Specialists, management, AI tools, and partners to collectively improve outcomes.
• Drive transition from custom recurring services to product-led, data-driven, and trigger-based partner engagement while maintaining trust and nuanced human decisions.
• Lead and cultivate a high-performing team of Growth Specialists setting rigorous standards in judgment, accountability, coaching, and customer impact.
• Build team capabilities to excel in technology-enabled environments, leveraging AI and signal-driven prioritization alongside essential human judgment for complex, sensitive cases.
• Recruit, mentor, and retain top talent capable of leadership development, resilience amid uncertainty, and fostering a culture of innovation, inclusivity, ownership, and performance excellence.
• Design and maintain operational rhythms including cadences, performance evaluations, escalation frameworks, and quality controls to ensure measurable, repeatable, and scalable support delivery.
• Implement clear criteria for human review and intervention, ensuring training focuses on real-world workflows instead of abstract AI theory.
• Utilize leading performance indicators, alerts, and partner health metrics to prioritize strategic and timely interventions.
• Drive partner success by promoting adoption of Zillow tools, enhancing operational performance, and supporting growth that benefits partners and customers alike.
• Coach leadership and specialists to translate data insights into actionable plans, fostering sustainable behavioral change and effective intervention when partners experience challenges.
• Serve as a senior escalation contact for critical partner issues requiring executive decision-making and cross-functional coordination.
• Collaborate across departments to integrate frontline insights into product improvements, operational enhancements, AI quality, self-service design, and partner experience optimizations.
• Advocate with senior stakeholders on tradeoffs, prioritization, investment, and scalability strategies relevant to the broader Preferred organization.
• Align partner support metrics with broader Zillow business objectives such as growth, retention, adoption, and marketplace health.
• Identify and address systemic challenges proactively, making informed decisions amidst ambiguity and influencing organizational solutions beyond immediate teams.
• Act as an organizational leader representing the emerging AI-enabled support model in leadership forums, defining modern service approaches.

Additional Information

This position is categorized as a Field role, requiring employees to work primarily within a designated geographic region and to reside within a reasonable commuting distance. Zillow has not defined a specific commuting distance; employees should apply personal judgment on this matter, understanding time and cost implications.

Salary ranges vary by location: In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC, the typical base salary is between 155200 and 247800 USD annually. For Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia, the range is from 147400 to 235400 USD annually. These figures are location-specific and may differ elsewhere. Besides competitive base pay, the role is eligible for equity awards adjusted for experience, performance, and geography. Compensation will respect the relevant state exempt employee salary threshold.

Candidate Profile

• Minimum of seven years in leadership roles related to customer success, partner operations, support strategies, account management, or service operations, including experience leading frontline teams; prior leadership of managers or large frontline groups is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully guide teams through significant transformations involving new tools, workflows, or operating models.
• Strong strategic mindset capable of linking customer requirements, operational design, and business objectives into actionable plans.
• Comfort with AI-integrated workflows and ability to guide teams in responsibly adopting such technologies alongside critical human oversight.
• Systems-thinking skills to develop operational controls, monitor performance, and use data-driven methods for prioritization and course correction.
• Exceptional leadership qualities fostering talent development, clarity, and momentum within ambiguity.
• Executive presence suitable for influencing senior stakeholders and partner executives in complex/high-impact situations.
• Proven cross-functional collaboration skills bridging frontline realities with overarching enterprise goals.
• Experience in real estate, property technology, marketplace businesses, or performance-driven partner models is highly advantageous.

Success Metrics

Exceeding immediate targets is expected; the core achievement is establishing a high-performing team and operational framework capable of scaling with Zillow’s ambitions. Success entails expedited, trustworthy, and effective partner support, mastery of AI-human balance, empowered team leadership with actionable insights, and a sustainable partner success model at scale.

Company Overview

Zillow is revolutionizing real estate experiences, assisting buyers, sellers, and renters by simplifying transactions and decision-making. As the leading real estate platform nationally, Zillow offers job opportunities across technology, sales, operations, and design, supporting industry transformation and career advancement.

Equal Opportunity

Zillow Group is dedicated to fostering an inclusive, innovative workplace. Employment decisions are made irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability status, veteran status, or other protected categories. Accommodation requests are welcomed. Applicants with arrest or conviction records will be evaluated in compliance with applicable laws.

Los Angeles County Additional Notice

Employees here are expected to work safely and collaboratively, maintain professionalism even under stress, communicate respectfully, and comply fully with laws and company policies. Criminal history may impact the capacity to perform some duties effectively. Employment consideration will include qualified individuals with relevant records per the county's Fair Chance Ordinance.