[Hiring] Director, Operations Excellence @Ahead

Role Description

The Director, Operations Excellence will serve as the operational conscience of AHEAD’s end-to-end operational processes — bringing cross-functional visibility, structured accountability, and continuous improvement discipline to the systems and workflows that power our client experience. This leader will own a holistic view across AHEAD’s operations, from issue identification and root cause analysis to corrective action tracking and executive reporting, ensuring that our client-facing platforms — including Hatch, Astra, and future AI-enabled tools — are backed by clean, consistent, and reliable operational data.

This is a foundational role with direct executive sponsorship from the COO. The Director will build and lead the Operations Excellence function from the ground up, working cross-functionally to establish the accountability infrastructure that AHEAD needs to scale. The right candidate will thrive at the intersection of process rigor, cross-functional influence, and executive communication — and will bring a track record of driving measurable operational improvement in complex, growing environments.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Quality Oversight & Issue Management
  • Own the centralized view of operational quality issues across the quote-to-cash process, ensuring issues are tracked, routed to the right owners, and driven to resolution with clear accountability and timelines.
  • Lead rapid triage and cross-functional coordination on the most critical and time-sensitive issues, serving as the primary escalation point for operational quality failures that span multiple teams.
  • Identify systemic patterns across the issue queue, distinguishing one-time exceptions from structural process gaps, and facilitating root cause analysis with relevant data-producing teams.
  • Track corrective actions from identification through closure, maintaining accountability across teams and escalating to senior leadership when resolution is at risk.
• Process Standards & Continuous Improvement
  • Partner with cross-functional teams to define, document, and maintain standard operating procedures for key workflows in the quote-to-cash process, ensuring process context is captured, accessible, and continuously improved.
  • Identify automation and process improvement opportunities that reduce manual effort, strengthen upstream data quality, and reduce recurring issue volume over time.
  • Build and maintain a centralized knowledge base that captures institutional process knowledge and serves as a shared reference for the broader organization.
  • Champion adoption of new ways of working across the organization, inspiring commitment and driving alignment behind quality and continuous improvement objectives.
• Reporting & Executive Communication
  • Maintain a regular cadence of reporting to senior leadership on open issues, trends, SLA performance, and corrective action progress — synthesizing complex operational data into clear, executive-ready insights.
  • Develop and own the operational quality scorecard, establishing baselines and tracking measurable improvement over time.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor and cross-functional partner to Operations, Client Applications, Enterprise Technology, and Foundry leadership on issues that affect data quality and client outcomes.
  • Provide governance and oversight for operational quality initiatives, ensuring milestones and deliverables generate measurable business impact.
• Function Building
  • Establish the Operations Excellence function, including its operating model, governance cadence, escalation paths, and engagement model with cross-functional partners.
  • Help build organizational quality capabilities by embedding best practices and fostering a culture of operational excellence across the teams that produce and consume our operational data.
• First 90 Days
  • Conduct a structured assessment of current-state operational quality gaps across the quote-to-cash process, producing a prioritized issue registry with root cause analysis and recommended corrective actions.
  • Establish a repeatable operating rhythm: cross-functional accountability meetings, issue tracking cadence, and executive reporting format.
  • Define the escalation framework — including clear criteria for when issues are escalated, to whom, and what decisions are at each level.
  • Publish a baseline operational quality scorecard covering SLA performance, issue volume and aging, and top systemic themes.
  • Define business requirements for central ticketing solution. Update operational workflows to reflect implemented solution and desired escalation paths.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in operations, process improvement, quality management, or a related cross-functional leadership role within a complex organization.
• Demonstrated track record of driving accountability and measurable improvement across organizational boundaries through influence, data, and executive partnership.
• Experience building or leading a quality management function in a scaling technology or services organization is strongly preferred.
• Experience with B2B client platforms, order management ecosystems, or IT distribution/services operations is a plus.
• Certification in project management, change management, Lean, or Six Sigma is a plus.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Natural systems thinker with the ability to identify patterns behind recurring problems and translate them into clear, actionable improvement plans.
• Strong facilitation and follow-through — comfortable leading structured problem-solving conversations with senior and executive stakeholders across functions.
• Proven ability to build governance structures and drive adoption of documented processes and standards in environments where authority is shared.
• Solid project management capabilities to prioritize, coordinate, and advance multiple improvement efforts simultaneously.
• Clear, direct communicator who can translate operational complexity into concise executive updates, dashboards, and reports.
• Collaborative mindset with an ability to build trust and drive alignment across teams with competing priorities.
• Deep curiosity about how end-to-end operational ecosystems connect — from CRM and client platforms to order management, logistics, and financial systems.
• Enthusiastic advocate for continuous improvement, with an unwavering commitment to operational excellence and data integrity.
• Familiarity with Salesforce, Jira, ServiceNow, or similar operational tooling preferred.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid company holidays
• Paid time off
• Paid parental and caregiver leave
• Plus more! See benefits here for additional details.

Compensation

$190,000 - $230,000 a year. The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location.