Senior Director, Operational Excellence

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Senior Director, Operational Excellence is responsible for driving operational excellence and organizational efficiency by leading the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of business processes across the enterprise. This role ensures that cross-functional processes are optimized for scalability, agility, and performance, aligning with strategic goals to deliver measurable business outcomes.

Essential Functions

• Develops and leads the organization’s process efficiency strategy, aligning with overall business goals and growth priorities.
• Oversees enterprise-wide process assessments, identifying systemic inefficiencies, and redundancies, and opportunities for improvement.
• Leads a team of process analysts to execute large scale transformation initiatives.
• Partners with executive leadership to align process improvement initiatives with strategic objectives, driving cross functional collaboration, informed decision making, and measurable business outcomes.
• Establishes and tracks key performance indicators (KPI’s) to measure process effectiveness and efficiency improvements.
• Champions the adoption of automation, AI, and digital transformation solutions to streamline operations.
• Delivers clear, data driven reports and strategic recommendations to executive leadership, translating complex process insights into actionable decisions that support enterprise goals.
• Acts as a change leader, driving engagement, alignment, and adoption of changes across all levels of EWS.
• Ensures compliance, risk management, and scalability consideration are incorporated into all process redesigns.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, operations management, industrial engineering, or related field.
• 15+ years of experience in business process improvement, operations excellence, or management consulting, with at least 5 years in a director-level role.
• Demonstrated success in leading enterprise-wide transformation initiatives with measurable impact.
• Deep knowledge of process improvement frameworks (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, BPM).
• Strong background in change management and executive stakeholder management.
• Exceptional communication, influencing, and negotiation skills.
• Background and drug screen.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree or MBA.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt certification.
• Experience in Financial Services
• Strong data-driven decision-making skills, with proficiency in BI tools and advanced analytics.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow instructions and perform other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.

The base pay scale for this position in:
New York, NY in USD per year is: $$220,000 - $274,000.
Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness 

•  Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.
• Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.
• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees. 

Early Warning Services LLC is a proud participant in E-Verify, a federal program to help ensure a legal and authorized workforce. As part of our hiring process, we electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires through E-Verify. For more information on your rights and responsibilities under E-Verify please visit Home | E-Verify.