Operational Excellence Principal

Zilch is a payment tech company on a mission to create the most empowering way to pay for anything, anywhere. Combining the best of debit, credit and savings, we give our customers the option to earn instant cashback or spread the cost of pricier purchases, completely interest free and with no late fees. We started in 2018 with a small team and a big dream – to make credit accessible to all. Since then, we’ve achieved double unicorn status and taken on more than 5 million customers. There are some exciting projects coming up and we’ve got big growth plans.

The Operational Excellence Principal is the most senior operational practitioner within the Operational Excellence function, responsible for leading the delivery of the organisation's most complex operational excellence initiatives and ensuring Operational Excellence frameworks are applied consistently across the business. Working across Product, Engineering, Customer Operations, Risk, Compliance and other business functions, the role translates customer and operational insight into measurable improvements, ensuring strategic change is operationally ready, effectively embedded and delivers sustainable customer and business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the delivery of the organisation's most complex and strategically significant Operational Excellence initiatives.
• Translate customer, operational and business signals into clearly defined problems, practical solutions and measurable business outcomes.
• Lead cross‑functional initiatives that improve customer experience, operational performance, scalability and operational resilience.
• Ensure initiatives remain aligned to organisational priorities and deliver agreed customer and commercial benefits.
• Lead structured investigations into complex operational challenges, synthesising customer insight, operational data and business context into clear recommendations.
• Support the Director of Operational Excellence in managing the Operational Excellence portfolio.
• Assess new improvement opportunities, recommend prioritisation and ensure work is routed through the appropriate governance and delivery approach.
• Maintain visibility of portfolio risks, dependencies and delivery progress, escalating where required.
• Ensure improvement activity remains aligned to organisational priorities and available capacity.
• Lead Operational Readiness activities for Tier 1 and strategically significant change initiatives.
• Chair Operational Readiness forums, driving cross‑functional accountability and delivery.
• Provide independent operational readiness assessments to support Go / No‑Go decisions.
• Ensure operational risks, dependencies and readiness activities are identified, tracked and resolved prior to implementation.
• Oversee Early Life Support and successful transition into Business as Usual.
• Identify opportunities to continuously improve Operational Readiness practices based on delivery experience.
• Lead complex cross‑functional improvement initiatives from discovery through implementation.
• Facilitate structured workshops to identify root causes, validate assumptions and develop sustainable solutions.
• Ensure Post‑Implementation Reviews are completed and lessons learned are embedded into future delivery.
• Validate that expected customer, operational and commercial benefits are realised, challenging initiatives where measurable outcomes are not achieved.
• Promote structured problem solving and evidence‑based decision making across improvement activity.
• Ensure Operational Excellence governance frameworks are applied consistently across strategic initiatives.
• Produce executive‑quality reporting that provides clear insight into portfolio health, operational readiness, delivery risks and realised benefits.
• Represent Operational Excellence within governance forums, providing operational insight to support effective decision‑making.
• Recommend improvements to Operational Excellence methodologies, governance and delivery standards based on practical delivery experience.
• Act as the senior technical practitioner within Operational Excellence.
• Coach and develop Operational Excellence Analysts, strengthening capability in analysis, root cause investigation, facilitation, process improvement and benefit realisation.
• Review complex analysis, recommendations and business cases, ensuring a consistently high standard of quality across the function.
• Lead by example, promoting disciplined thinking, structured problem solving and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Build trusted relationships across Product, Engineering, Customer Operations, Risk, Compliance, Data and other business functions.
• Influence strategic priorities through operational insight, customer evidence and measurable business impact.
• Represent Operational Excellence within cross‑functional governance forums and senior stakeholder discussions.
• Represent the Director of Operational Excellence where appropriate, ensuring continuity of governance, decision‑making and delivery.

Measures of Success:

• Strategic initiatives delivered to agreed Operational Readiness and governance standards.
• Operational Excellence initiatives delivering measurable customer, operational and commercial benefits.
• Benefits realised and validated following implementation.
• High levels of stakeholder confidence in Operational Excellence delivery and governance.
• Consistent application of Operational Excellence frameworks and standards across the organisation.
• Operational risks proactively identified, managed and mitigated throughout change delivery.
• High‑quality coaching and development of Operational Excellence Analysts.
• Delivery portfolio managed within agreed governance, quality and delivery expectations.

What We’re Looking For:

• Significant experience in Operational Excellence, Business Transformation, Continuous Improvement or Operational Change.
• Extensive experience leading complex cross‑functional improvement and transformation initiatives.
• Strong experience delivering operational readiness, governance and change within a regulated environment.
• Demonstrable experience translating operational and customer insight into practical, measurable business improvements.
• Experience facilitating complex root cause analysis and structured problem‑solving activities.
• Experience producing executive‑quality reporting and presenting recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Experience coaching or developing colleagues through technical leadership rather than formal line management.

Skills:

• Excellent analytical and problem‑solving capability.
• Strong facilitation and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels of the organisation.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands‑on delivery.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to quantify customer and business impact.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Desirable:

• Financial Services or FinTech experience.
• Lean, Six Sigma or Agile qualifications.
• Experience working with conversational analytics, operational intelligence or AI‑driven insight.

Benefits:

• GP consultations (video, telephone or face‑to‑face).
• Prescribed medication.
• In‑patient, day‑patient and out‑patient care.
• Mental health support.
• Optical, dental remote working Tuesday and Friday.
• Casual dress code.
• Workplace socials.
• Healthy snacks.