Vice President of Service

Position Overview

Our client, a U.S.-based commercial vehicle manufacturer, is seeking a Vice President of Service to build and lead its end-to-end service, warranty, charging, and customer support organization.

This is a highly entrepreneurial leadership opportunity for an executive who wants to architect a post-sale service strategy from the ground up. The VP of Service will establish the infrastructure, processes, partner network, technology, and team required to support a growing fleet of electric and hybrid commercial vehicles across transit agencies, municipalities, and commercial fleet customers throughout the United States.

Reporting directly to executive leadership, this individual will have significant influence over how the organization approaches vehicle uptime, field service, warranty, charging infrastructure, technical support, and the overall customer experience.

Key Responsibilities

Service Network Strategy

• Design and build a scalable national service network utilizing authorized service providers, mobile service capabilities, regional service hubs, and other strategic partners.
• Establish service standards, technician certification programs, tooling requirements, and operating procedures across the network.
• Develop service partner agreements, SLAs, performance expectations, and accountability metrics.
• Establish a parts distribution and inventory strategy designed to maximize vehicle uptime and improve parts availability.
• Partner with Engineering and Technology teams to develop remote diagnostics, telematics, and predictive maintenance capabilities.
• Develop the infrastructure necessary to support a rapidly expanding installed fleet.

Warranty Strategy & Management

• Build the organization's warranty strategy, including coverage structures, policies, terms, claims processes, and high-voltage component coverage.
• Establish warranty administration processes and systems, including claims adjudication and service provider reimbursement.
• Develop supplier warranty recovery programs in partnership with Supply Chain and Engineering.
• Establish closed-loop processes that use field and warranty data to drive engineering and product improvements.
• Track warranty cost per vehicle, field failure trends, reliability metrics, and potential future liabilities.
• Benchmark warranty programs against leading commercial vehicle and transportation OEMs.

Charging Infrastructure & Support

• Develop the company's customer-facing charging infrastructure and support strategy.
• Establish strategic relationships with EVSE manufacturers, charging software providers, utilities, and other infrastructure partners.
• Help fleet customers navigate charging deployment, including site assessment, electrical load planning, infrastructure design, commissioning, and ongoing support.
• Establish protocols for charging diagnostics, remote monitoring, troubleshooting, and escalation.
• Develop and track KPIs around charging uptime, reliability, and customer experience.

Customer Support & Technical Assistance

• Build and lead a customer-facing Technical Assistance Center capable of supporting Level 1–3 technical escalations.
• Establish customer onboarding, operator training, technician training, and technical documentation programs.
• Develop service manuals, technical service bulletins, diagnostic procedures, and other field support resources.
• Implement customer satisfaction metrics including CSI, NPS, first-call resolution, and response-time measurements.
• Develop escalation protocols for critical vehicle issues, safety events, recalls, and high-priority customer concerns.
• Build the people, technology, processes, and knowledge management infrastructure necessary to scale technical support alongside fleet growth.

Executive Leadership

• Serve as the senior executive responsible for the organization's overall service and aftermarket strategy.
• Partner closely with Engineering, Sales, Supply Chain, Operations, and Finance to ensure service readiness for new vehicle and product launches.
• Build and manage the service and warranty P&L, including annual budgets, warranty reserves, forecasting, and cost-reduction initiatives.
• Represent the organization's service capabilities with major fleet customers, municipalities, transit agencies, and other stakeholders.
• Establish executive-level reporting around vehicle uptime, warranty performance, field reliability, service responsiveness, and customer satisfaction.
• Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing service organization capable of scaling with the business.
• Maintain awareness of evolving EV technology, service models, charging infrastructure, and relevant regulatory requirements.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for a builder rather than a caretaker. The ideal candidate has led service, aftermarket, or technical operations within the commercial vehicle, transit, EV, or broader transportation equipment industry and has experience creating or significantly transforming a service organization.

This executive should understand how to build the infrastructure required to support vehicles operating in demanding, high-uptime environments. Experience spanning field service, dealer/service networks, warranty, parts, technical support, connected vehicle technology, and customer experience will be particularly valuable.

The successful candidate will combine strategic thinking with a hands-on operating mentality. They should be equally comfortable developing a national service strategy, negotiating with external service partners, reviewing warranty economics with Finance, solving field reliability issues with Engineering, and engaging directly with technicians and fleet customers.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Operations, or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience in service, aftermarket, technical operations, or customer support within an automotive OEM, commercial vehicle, transit, EV, or transportation equipment environment.
• Demonstrated experience building, scaling, or significantly transforming a service organization.
• Experience developing national or regional dealer, distributor, or authorized service networks.
• Strong understanding of warranty strategy, claims administration, warranty cost management, and supplier recovery.
• Experience supporting new product or vehicle launches and establishing service readiness prior to deployment.
• Strong knowledge of electric and/or hybrid vehicle systems, including high-voltage systems, battery technology, diagnostics, and charging infrastructure.
• Familiarity with telematics, connected vehicle technology, remote diagnostics, and predictive maintenance.
• Experience supporting fleet customers, transit agencies, municipalities, or other demanding commercial vehicle customers strongly preferred.
• Strong financial acumen with experience developing budgets, managing service economics, modeling warranty reserves, and building business cases.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in an entrepreneurial environment where processes, teams, and infrastructure are still being built.
• Executive-level communication skills with the ability to engage effectively from the technician level through senior executives and customers.