Manager - Operational Excellence

Role Summary

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 organisation.

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 organisation, 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. This is also to be done 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 programmes 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.