Stay up to date with the automotive industry and customer service: roadside assistance, electric mobility, professional German and careers at the Volkswagen Group Services Contact Center.
Andreia Santos 2 minSince 2021, the Volkswagen Group Services Contact Center in Portugal has been supporting customers and partners of the Volkswagen Group in several European markets, combining specialised service, product knowledge and a strong focus on the customer experience.
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Catarina Duarte 2 minBehind every call, email or digital interaction there is a person. And that human dimension is at the centre of the work done by the Volkswagen Group Services Contact Center teams.
Read articleWhat if every contact with the brand were faster, simpler and more personal? That was the aim behind Automotive Service, a project the Volkswagen Group Services Contact Center developed to provide specialised support to Volkswagen Group customers.
This is not a generic call centre: it is resolving a situation for someone stranded on the road. Calls come in by phone, in German, from drivers whose car has broken down. The job is to understand quickly what is going on, get the right help on its way, and follow through until it is resolved. It is remote, full-time and organised in shifts.
What changes is the experience asked for and the salary band. The language, education and shift requirements are exactly the same across all three. Native German or C1, fluent English and availability for shifts are mandatory in all three, and secondary education is preferred. The difference is in the years of customer support – and those are listed as preferred, not required.
In shared service centres, mostly. It is a sector with more than 30,000 jobs in Portugal, 93 operations running and an average of four languages per centre. Speaking German is not an extra line on a CV here: it is often the criterion that opens the door.
If your English is not fluent, look at Automotive Service – it is the only one of the four where English is not mandatory, and its posting does not ask for shifts either (which does not mean there are none: the working hours are not described). If you have fluent English and are available for shift work, apply for Roadside Assistance: there are three open roles, one per level, against a single role on the other side. Native German or C1 is mandatory in all four – that does not separate them at all.
Shifts exist because breakdowns do not keep office hours – and Portuguese law frames them with mandatory minimum rest and limits on shift length and, for those who work at night, free health checks and, as a rule, 25% more pay. What the law does not set is a shift allowance – where there is one, it comes from a collective agreement or from the contract. And the actual rota for this operation is not published anywhere.
The change is less in the mechanics and more in the conversation. An electric car breaks down less often than a combustion car of the same age, but the call that reaches the service desk is different: it is about the 12 V battery, charging, apps that will not unlock the car and range that will not reach the destination. Whoever answers in German still does the same job – understand, dispatch, follow through. What has grown is the list of things you need to be able to explain over the phone.
Yes. No specific language certificate is required for the advertised Contact Center roles. The requirement is German at native level or at least C1. The job posting does not list Goethe, telc or ÖSD certificates as a requirement.
There is, and it is concentrated in service centres and German-language customer service – the shared services sector in Portugal has more than 30,000 jobs, 93 operations and 88 companies, and German is on the list of languages in shortest supply on the market. That is the context in which a company in Palmela is looking for people to assist customers in German. Your language is not an extra on your CV – it is the main requirement of the role.
It can, but that depends on the diploma you have, and it does not count on its own. Your diploma becomes valid in Portugal through an application for equivalence of foreign qualifications. You submit it at a Portuguese basic or secondary school, it is free of charge and it has a reference timeframe of 30 days. That application produces the paper that says which level of Portuguese education your qualification corresponds to (which may not be 12th grade), and with what grade. Without that paper, you have a diploma nobody here can read.
They count – they are not lost. European social security coordination requires each country to add up the insurance periods completed in the others to decide whether you are entitled to a pension. It is called aggregation and it is in Regulation (EC) No 883/2004. What does not happen is a transfer: your German contributions stay in Germany, and Germany pays the German part of your pension. That is the difference that confuses everyone, and it is the only thing you need to understand properly.
There has to be a written agreement, and that agreement has to say where you work, what your working hours are, how much you earn and who owns the equipment. The law adds the rest: the employer pays for the equipment and the additional expenses, cannot contact you during your rest period, cannot impose a permanent camera or microphone connection, and cannot pay you less than it would pay for the same role on site. It does not depend on anyone's goodwill – it is in the Código do Trabalho (Labour Code), articles 165 to 171 and 199-A.
There are around fifty words, and almost all of them fit into five moments of the call: the breakdown, charging, where the person is, what happens next and after-sales. You don't need to know mechanics in German. You need to recognise quickly what the person is describing, and have the matching technical term to hand to write in the record. This glossary is organised in that order, not alphabetically, because that is how the words reach your ear.
Junior level in Roadside Assistance: breakdown support in German by phone, fully remote from Portugal. No previous experience required.
ApplyMiddleMiddle level in Roadside Assistance: breakdown support in German by phone, fully remote from Portugal. A minimum of 2 years of experience preferred.
ApplySeniorSenior level in Roadside Assistance: breakdown support in German by phone, fully remote from Portugal. A minimum of 4 years of experience preferred.
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