Head of Operational Excellence (Process Improvement and Automation)

• The Head of Operational Excellence, Process Improvement and Automation is a cross-functional role spanning Operations and Commercial
• You will act as a trusted operator for the senior team — someone who can jump into any situation across the business, assess the problem accurately, triage it, and either resolve it directly or drive it to resolution with a clear recommendation
• Alongside the triage mandate, you own the automation and process-improvement agenda across the operational funnel, supporting the business target of ~20% efficiency gain by year-end
• That means identifying where manual effort is concentrated, building the documentation foundations automation depends on, and driving initiatives from idea through to embedded change
• This is a permanent role designed to grow. As the operational agenda matures, the scope will extend organically into commercial work — transformation is the entry point, not the ceiling
• Act as first point of escalation for cross-team issues spanning operations and commercial; investigate, triage and resolve directly, or route with a recommended solution
• Own and drive the automation initiative portfolio tied to the ~20% efficiency goal — current priorities include payments administration (beneficiary adds, callbacks), complaints handling, and onboarding straight-through processing
• Lead the documentation programme: get process knowledge out of people’s heads and into SOPs across operations and commercial, creating the foundation for AI and automation tooling
• Progress the “one front door” customer contact model — a single triage point routing customers to the right team — including enabling the CCI team on payments queries post-Connect migration
• Support the de-risking of scheme and bank relationships: help distribute relationship ownership across leads and establish a regular QBR/MBR cadence with banking partners
• Manage and develop one direct report (analyst)
• Work day-to-day with operations, commercial, product and fin crime leadership to keep improvement work aligned with business priorities
• Track and report progress on automation and efficiency initiatives to the senior team

Benefits

• Contributory pension
• Life assurance
• Health insurance through BUPA
• Our Employee Assistance Programme offers a 24/7 confidential advice line for health, bereavement and other areas of support
• 25 days holiday per year + your birthday off
• We are members of the cycle to work scheme
• We offer Season Ticket Loans
• Free onsite Nuffield Health gym & pool (London) and discounted gym membership elsewhere
• Interbank currency rates on travel money and international transfers
• Opportunities for progression, development and learning new skills

A natural bridge between teams: you translate between operational detail and commercial priorities

Curious about automation and AI tooling, and pragmatic about where it genuinely removes work

Deeply contextual: you know how the organisation fits together and hold strong existing relationships across commercial, product and operations

Comfortable operating without a playbook — and disciplined about writing the playbook (SOPs, processes) as you go

Resilient and diplomatic — able to operate through periods of organisational change

A trusted pair of hands: you assess messy, ambiguous situations quickly and land on a workable recommendation

Solid experience in payments / fintech operations, with hands-on knowledge of support, onboarding, fraud/disputes and payments processes

Experience managing or coaching others

Demonstrated track record of process improvement or automation delivery — from identifying the opportunity through to embedded change

Familiarity with support and workflow tooling (e.g. Freshdesk, Amazon Connect) and an understanding of how AI/automation applies to operational work

Strong stakeholder management up to exec level; confident presenting recommendations and MI