Care Specialist (Evening/Overnight Hours)

Care Specialist (Overnight Hours)

Care Team | Remote | USA

Reporting To: Care Team Lead

Location: Remote | Full Time

 

About Empathy

Empathy is on a mission to help families through life’s most challenging moments. Our award-winning product, powered by tech and driven by purpose, provides peace of mind by guiding families through all the tedious and time-consuming tasks associated with loss. With a combination of tech and human support, we enable families to focus on what truly matters and support them through the emotions that follow.

Our team is passionate, empathetic, and dedicated to providing world-class solutions to families in need. We work collaboratively to identify pain points and design elegant solutions that empower and support our users.

About the Team:

At the heart of this mission is our Care Team - a group of dedicated professionals with backgrounds in social work, grief support, crisis response, and customer care. They provide compassionate, expert guidance via phone, chat, and email, always balancing emotional sensitivity with operational excellence. 

Role Overview:

The Care Specialist (Overnight Shift) role is integral to our 24/7 operations, providing live chat and phone support to families navigating loss, short-term disability leave, and other challenging life events.

Many of the people you will speak with are navigating grief, loss, or another difficult life event. Their needs may be practical, emotional, or a blend of both. You will use empathy, sound judgment, and strong problem-solving skills to understand what is most helpful in the moment, provide clear guidance, and make space for emotion while staying within the scope of the role.Conversation topics regularly include grief, suicidal ideation, pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and other forms of loss that can be sensitive depending on someone’s own lived experience. You’ll hold space for these conversations while working within a clear scope: we do not provide therapy, but we do provide emotional and logistical support within our non-clinical scope and part of the job is knowing when and how to hand someone off to the right professional resource, warmly and without making them feel dismissed.

Working independently overnight, you’ll respond to live chats, handle inbound phone calls (including logistical questions unrelated to grief support, such as benefit payout timing), and complete task-based support requests, including detailed research to locate resources, vendors, or service providers tailored to each user’s needs.

We’re looking for someone self-motivated, tech-comfortable, and able to work with care and emotional steadiness, largely on their own, during overnight hours.

As our business continues to grow and evolve, so too will the responsibilities associated with this role. Adaptability and willingness to grow are essential, both for our team and the families we support. Shift assignments can shift with little notice (for example, moving from chat into phone coverage) based on business need.

Working Hours:

This is a full-time, fixed overnight shift:

• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 8:30 PM – 5:00 AM ET / 4:30 PM – 1:00 AM AKT / 2:30 PM – 11:00 PM HT
• Thursday: 9:30 PM – 6:00 AM ET / 5:30 PM – 2:00 AM AKT / 3:30 PM – 12:00 AM HT

(8.5-hour shift including a 30-minute unpaid meal break)

You do not need to live in Eastern Time, but the schedule is fixed in ET. If you live in another time zone, your working hours will reflect the equivalent local time.

For example, if you’re in Pacific Time, your hours on Monday will be 5:30 PM to 2:00 AM PT.

Please note, that while we aim to maintain consistency in these hours, they may be subject to change based on the evolving needs of our business. We ensure that any necessary adjustments are communicated well in advance and strive to make such changes as minimal and manageable as possible.

In this role, you will:

Support Users

• Provide expert, empathetic chat support to users, addressing both practical and emotional needs.
• Provide phone support to users, primarily via inbound calls, addressing scheduling needs, helping users understand Empathy’s offerings, and answering logistical questions, including calls unrelated to grief support (such as benefit or payout inquiries)
• Assist in creating detailed Care Plans for users. 
• Complete user requests related to closing accounts, funeral pricing and planning, sourcing vendors or professionals, and other various request types. 
• Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication, using the Empathy voice, in a way that feels human rather than scripted
• Utilize critical thinking and problem-solving abilities to resolve user challenges.

Demonstrate Exceptional Resource Navigation & Product Expertise

• Conduct comprehensive research to identify and provide access to essential resources for our users.
• Assist in the maintenance of the Care Team knowledge base and resources related to your role. 
• Act as a product expert who connects users to Empathy-specific tools and resources.
• Identify any gaps or opportunities for professional development training that can enhance both personal and team capabilities in providing an exceptional user experience.
• Relay user insights and identify knowledge gaps to support product development.

Work With Precision and Independence

• Excel in organization, documentation, and time management to meet SLA requirements.
• Work as a team player across different functions and quickly adapt to assist with tasks as needed, reflecting the dynamic nature of our operations.
• Complete all training in a timely manner and provide feedback on training to ensure the team is continually improving the way information is shared. 
• Follow guidelines to escalate issues to the appropriate team member, including your own emotional bandwidth in a given moment and operate with caution and care while working with sensitive user data.
• Engage in short-term projects that may vary based on the evolving needs of our business, as directed by management.

What we're looking for

• Someone genuinely oriented toward being present with people, not just resolving their request; if the moment calls for listening rather than a solution
• Warm-hearted, empathetic, and patient team members.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience in a customer-facing role/counseling/support/concierge services or related fields (including internships).
• Comfort with emotionally heavy subject matter, including grief, loss, and conversations that may touch on suicidal ideation; we encourage applicants to reflect on whether any specific subject matter (e.g., pregnancy loss, overdose, loss of a child) would be especially difficult for them personally.
• Ability to quickly adopt and navigate new technology, tools, and platforms with a strong ability to adapt to evolving digital environments.
• Comfort working within defined procedures while still translating complex, ambiguous situations into clear, human guidance.
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.
• Strong love of learning and conducting research in unfamiliar fields.
• Demonstrated problem-solving abilities involving challenging deadlines and priorities.
• Ability to organize multiple tasks and projects and maintain control of workflow.
• Ability to analyze situations and make independent professional judgments without close supervision.
• Genuine adaptability: comfortable when plans or priorities shift with little notice
• Preferred Experience:
  • Experience or training in crisis line support (domestic violence, assault, suicide prevention, or similar warm lines), hospice or bereavement volunteering, warm line support, grief counseling, disability services, resource navigation, or related fields.
  • Familiarity with Google Suite, Slack, Zendesk, or similar platforms.

Application Process:

Interested candidates should submit a resume and a cover letter detailing their qualifications and interest in the role via: https://www.empathy.com/careers/care-specialist-overnight-hours.12.A51-FC.60A . 

Shortlisted candidates will undergo a multi-stage interview process, including discussions with senior leadership and potential peers, along with a scenario-based exercise designed to reflect the real nature of the conversations you’ll have in this role.
 

Compensation

The starting salary range for this role is: $20-$23 hourly. Salary is determined by multiple factors including but not limited to relevant experience, knowledge, skills, locations, and other job-related qualifications.
 

Additional perks and benefits:

• Company equity in a high-growth start-up
• Annual remote work stipend
• Paid bereavement leave
• Comprehensive health insurance coverage
• Generous paid time off, including company holidays, vacation days, and paid leaves
• Retirement savings plan with employer matching
   

Empathy is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for all employees.