Group Director, Operational Excellence

Group Director, Operational Excellence

At Chanel, we are focused on creating an inclusive culture that nurtures personal growth, contributing to collective progress. We believe the uniqueness of each individual increases the diversity, complementarity and effectiveness of our teams. We strongly encourage your application, as we value the perspective, experience and potential you could bring to CHANEL.

About the role:

CHANEL is seeking a Group Director, Operational Excellence to lead the operational performance, scalability, and technology roadmap of the Client Care organization. Reporting to the Head of Client Care, this role is accountable for establishing the operating model, governance, capabilities, and technology required to deliver consistently elevated client experience across channels. The Group Director serves as the strategic operational partner to the Client Care Center (CCC) leaders, enabling the success of the Client Care organization through operational governance, workforce planning, performance management, reporting and analytics and vendor management. In close partnership with the Technology team the role will influence and drive the technology strategy and AI automation initiatives for Client Care.  While the CCC organization leads day-to-day service delivery, this role is accountable for the operating framework, insights, and capabilities that drive performance, scalability, continuous improvement, innovation and long-term business outcomes across Client Care. The Group Director as business product owner defines the business vision and priorities for Client Care technology, translates operational needs into product requirements, partners with Technology and cross-functional teams on delivery, and owns adoption and business outcomes. This is not solely an operational oversight role. It is a strategic leadership position that connects Client Care operations, data, process, and technology to enable sustainable growth and continued innovation.

What impact you can create at CHANEL:

Operational Governance, Performance Management & Strategic Enablement

• Serve as a strategic partner to the Head of Client Care and Client Care leadership team.
• Translate strategy into clear priorities, operating plans, and measurable outcomes.
• Partner with CCC leadership to define performance goals, monitor outcomes, identify risks, and drive improvement initiatives.  
• Provide strategic operational guidance, workforce planning, analytics, technology enablement, and decision support to leaders responsible for day-to-day service delivery.
• Monitor service, productivity, quality, capacity, efficiency, and client experience.
• Identify operational risks and performance gaps, leading timely corrective actions.
• Provide senior leadership with visibility into performance, trends and risks
• Balance client and advisor experience with operational efficiency and scalability.

Technology Roadmap and Business Product Ownership

• Serve as Client Care lead and influencer for CC technology roadmap and serve as the business product owner for Client Care platforms and capabilities.
• Define the business vision, priorities, requirements, and expected outcomes for technology roadmap.
• Establish a disciplined process for evaluating and prioritizing enhancements, automation opportunities, and new capabilities.
• Translate operational needs into clear use cases and business requirements.
• Partner with Technology and cross-functional stakeholders throughout design, delivery, testing, deployment, and adoption.
• Own business readiness, change management, adoption, value realization, and post-implementation performance.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of contact center technology, AI, analytics, automation, and workforce solutions.

Workforce Planning and Scalability

• Own workforce forecasting, capacity planning, staffing strategy, and scenario modeling.
• Translate demand forecasts and service expectations into actionable resourcing plans.
• Monitor productivity, staffing, utilization, and capacity performance.
• Build scalable workforce capabilities that support Client Care’s continued growth and internalization.

Analytics, Reporting, and Insights

• Provide leadership for Client Care analytics, reporting, and performance measurement.
• Establish consistent KPI definitions, reporting standards, and data governance.
• Advance analytics from recurring reporting toward diagnostic, predictive, and forward-looking insights.
• Ensure insights are translated into clear recommendations and operational actions.
• Oversee scalable dashboards and self-service reporting capabilities.

AI, Automation, and Continuous Improvement

• Define the strategic direction for the responsible use of AI and automation within Client Care.
• Prioritize opportunities that improve service, quality, efficiency, advisor enablement, and decision-making.
• Establish clear success measures for pilots and implementations, including adoption, scalability, and business value.
• Lead the continuous improvement agenda across processes, data, and technology.
• Address recurring operational challenges through structured analysis and sustainable solutions.

Vendor Strategy and Performance

• Own the governance and performance management framework for Client Care vendors.
• Establish service expectations, KPIs, reporting requirements, and review cadences.
• Ensure vendor reporting is accurate, transparent, and aligned with Client Care priorities.
• Lead performance reviews focused on service, quality, productivity, staffing, risk, and improvement.
• Partner with Indirect Procurement, Finance, Legal, and Technology on vendor strategy and requirements.

You are energized by:

• Building operating models that deliver exceptional service at scale.
• Connecting client experience, operations, technology, and data.
• Turning strategy into disciplined execution and measurable outcomes.
• Leading complex transformation across business and technical teams.
• Balancing immediate operational priorities with long-term capability building.
• Cross-functional collaboration

What you will bring to the team:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience; advanced degree is a plus.
• Experience in operational excellence, Client Care, contact center operations, transformation, or business product ownership.
• Demonstrated accountability for operational performance.
• Experience developing technology roadmaps and establishing business product priorities.
• Experience with workforce planning, forecasting, capacity management, performance governance, and vendor management.
• Experience leading analytics, reporting, automation, or AI-enabled capabilities.
• Proven ability to influence across business, technology, and senior leadership teams.
• Exceptional communication, organization and stakeholder management skills
• Experience with Salesforce, Power BI, workforce management platforms, or contact center technologies is a plus

Position Logistics:

• Location: Piscataway, New Jersey.
• Hybrid working model with three days onsite each week. 
• Travel to boutiques, partner locations, or contact center sites as required.
• Regular engagement with Client Care advisors, operational leaders, vendors, and cross-functional partners.  

Compensation:

• The anticipated base salary range for this position is $138,700 through $160,000. Base salary is one component of the total compensation for this position. Other components [may/will] include additional compensation, benefits, and perks. 
   

Benefits and Perks:

• Wellbeing resources include dedicated paid time off for wellbeing, presently a 2-week August Office Closure and a Wellbeing fund

• Family and care giving benefits (inclusive of parental leave, fertility support, MilkStork, and Care.com Membership)

• Generous paid time off policies to include vacation, holiday, sick and volunteer days

• 401K and other incentives

• Robust healthcare offerings; medical, dental, vision, MDLIVE (virtual care), One Medical, Flexible Spending Accounts (Health Care & Dependent Care), Health Savings Account and Employee Assistance Program

• Life insurance, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability, Health Advocate, International Business Travel Accident & Medical, and Commuter Transit & Parking

Additional Information:

Chanel is a private company whose values are grounded in creating the conditions for people to perform at their best and feel fulfilled and confident in their work. We offer a unique work environment where individuals are encouraged to better understand the brand, the business, and motivations, so that together we can unlock the possibilities of growth. This is reflected in:

Diversity and Inclusion:

• At CHANEL, we are intentional in promoting Diversity & Inclusion. We foster respect, empathy and dignity for all. We believe strongly that the diversity of our people across the full spectrum of human differences is essential to our organisation and the connections we have with each other and our clients.

• We offer Employee Resource Groups in the US that are voluntary, open to all, employee-led groups formed around a shared identity or lived experience, whose aim is to foster a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community aligned with the values and missions of the communities they support.

Chanel Community:

• CHANEL Community empowers our employees to channel their passions, talents and sense of purpose to contribute to and learn from our communities.

• Employees are encouraged to take time off annually to volunteer through CHANEL Community. CHANEL also matches employee donations to select charitable organizations.

Sustainability:

• CHANEL Mission 1.5° is our climate action plan. It is focused on transforming the business in line with the ambitions of the Paris Agreement on climate change to limit the average global mean temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

• Employees are encouraged to contribute to our US Sustainability efforts at the corporate level and within the divisions, through organized taskforces and initiatives.

Arts and Culture:

• We are committed to extending our legacy of cultural engagement. Global support includes the CHANEL Culture Fund, which supports a select group of leading art culture institutions across the globe, and the CHANEL Next Prize for the next generation of creative talent. US support currently includes Annual sponsorship of the MoMA film program, Tribeca Film Festival programs and Through Her Lens, Support of the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women and Sponsorship of the BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center.

Fondation Chanel:

• Since 2011, Fondation CHANEL’s mission is for women and girls to be free to shape their own destiny.  Through multi-year partnerships with financial and technical support, Fondation CHANEL is committed to improving the safety and autonomy of women and adolescent girls around the world, impacting over a million women and girls in its first 10 years.    

• For more information, please navigate to the Fondation Chanel website here  

Career and Leadership Development:

• We have dedicated in-house teams focused on supporting the onboarding of employees, developing leadership skills via custom programs like Imagine Chanel People, Heart of Leadership and group and individual coaching, and blended online and live classes offered on our Bloom platform and by skilled trainers, such as Shape Your Career, to develop career building skills.

*Chanel, Inc. benefits and perks are dependent on eligibility and subject to modification by Chanel at any time.

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