Manager - Operational Excellence

About the Role
We are looking for an experienced Manager - Operational Excellence to build and lead the Operational Excellence function, initially within Customer Service and progressively across the wider Operations organization. This is a broad, hands-on leadership role responsible for establishing the frameworks, standards, and governance that drive quality, customer experience, operational insights, process excellence, knowledge management, learning effectiveness, and continuous improvement.
The role will lead a small specialist team across Quality, Business Analysis, SOP/Knowledge Management, and Training, while working closely with Operations, Product, Technology, Risk, and Compliance to identify operational problems, understand root causes, and translate insights into measurable improvements. As a tech-first organization, we are looking for someone who is comfortable operating in a technology-led environment and understands how data, automation, AI, and operational tools can enable better quality, efficiency, and customer outcomes. The longer-term objective is for Operational Excellence to become a central capability across Operations, providing consistent quality, process, knowledge, and improvement standards across both customer-facing and back-end operations.

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously develop the end-to-end Quality Management Framework across Customer Service and, progressively, wider Operations.
• Establish consistent quality standards, scorecards, sampling methodologies, calibration processes, and governance across internal and outsourced/BPO Operations.
• Own the CSAT improvement framework and provide structured analysis of the drivers impacting customer satisfaction.
• Analyse customer feedback, contact drivers, QA findings, and operational data to identify recurring customer pain points.
• Translate customer insights into clear improvement opportunities for Operations, Product, and Technology.
• Conduct structured analysis to determine root causes rather than treating individual symptoms.
• Map customer and operational journeys to identify failure points, unnecessary steps, and opportunities for simplification.
• Support requirements gathering, process design, testing/UAT, and operational readiness where required.
• Create clear ownership and review cycles for operational knowledge.
• Provide direction to the Trainer, who will design and deliver training programs in line with the agreed framework.
• Support adoption of capabilities such as automated QA, speech/text analytics, AI-supported knowledge management, workflow automation, and operational analytics where appropriate.
• Maintain a prioritised pipeline of operational improvement opportunities.
• Use QA, CSAT, complaints, operational data, employee feedback, and customer insights to identify opportunities.
• Lead and develop a specialist Operational Excellence team of approximately 4–5 employees across Business Analysis, Quality, SOP/Knowledge Management, and Training.
• Set clear objectives, priorities, and performance expectations for the team.
• Build strong working relationships across Customer Service, Back-End Operations, Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, and other business functions.

Requirements

• 7–10 years of experience across Operational Excellence, Customer Experience, Quality, Business Analysis, Continuous Improvement, or related operational disciplines.
• At least 3 years in a leadership or management role within Operational Excellence, Quality, Transformation, or a comparable function.
• Demonstrated experience building or managing an end-to-end Quality Management Framework.
• Strong experience in Root Cause Analysis, process improvement, and operational problem solving.
• Experience using data and operational insights to identify problems and drive measurable improvements.
• Good understanding of Business Analysis, including requirements gathering, process mapping, and translating operational needs into business/technology requirements.
• Experience establishing or managing SOP, knowledge management, and training governance frameworks.
• Strong understanding of customer experience and CSAT improvement methodologies.
• Comfortable working with technology, automation, AI, CRM, and operational platforms in a technology-first environment.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams including Product, Technology, Risk, and Compliance.
• Experience managing specialist teams across multiple Operational Excellence disciplines.
• Experience within fintech, financial services, payments, lending, telecom, e-commerce, or other technology-led service environments is preferred.
• Banking experience is advantageous but not mandatory.
• Excellent analytical, stakeholder management, communication, and leadership skills.