OverviewCHAI’s Global Operations team has the mandate to maximize operational effectiveness and efficiency across the organization. The Director, Operations, reports to the Chief Operating Officer and oversees three distinct functional areas:
- Internal AI transformation – leading the adoption of AI across the organization, in close partnership with the Innovation team.
- Strategic operations – process design and optimization, leading cross-functional operational priorities in collaboration with HR, Finance, IT, Legal & Compliance, etc.
- Operational infrastructure – managing the foundational functions that enable the organization to operate effectively, including safety & security and knowledge management.
These three areas are not separate bets. They are interdependent: AI is no longer optional in any high-performing operations function, process improvements only stick when the underlying infrastructure is reliable, and stable infrastructure is what makes both transformation and continuous improvement possible. CHAI is looking for a leader with the breadth and adaptability to oversee all three areas, and the credibility to move across very different domains while holding clear strategic direction.
This role offers unusual breadth of operational exposure across a complex, fast-moving global health organization, and is well suited to a leader eager to take on expanded organizational leadership responsibility over time.
This role can be offered at either the Director or Senior Director level, commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate. The base location is flexible; candidates can be based in any of the geographies that CHAI operates in, subject to work authorization and necessary approvals.
What Success Looks Like
The following give a concrete sense of the kinds of outcomes we are looking for; they should be viewed as illustrative, and not comprehensive. CHAI is, at its core, radically more efficient due to the following three levers:
AI has fundamentally changed how CHAI works. Core business processes have been reengineered to leverage the benefits that AI can provide. Staff are not occasional users – they are confident, capable practitioners who reach for AI instinctively when solving problems. CHAI can now deliver more with the same resources.
Cross-functional work is streamlined and moves ahead rapidly, rather than getting stalled between functions. The energy that used to get lost in unwieldy processes or misalignment between functions is now spent moving the mission forward.
Routine operational infrastructure has been streamlined so that teams are no longer spending their team re-inventing the wheel on the same processes. Global Ops is considered the go-to team to figure out the most effective and efficient way to accomplish day-to-day general management and operational tasks.
The organization’s biggest operational pain points and risks are tackled successfully – from emergent issues that arise on an ad-hoc basis and require significant attention from the Leadership team, to long-standing issues that remain unresolved.
Responsibilities
- Set the direction for CHAI’s internal AI transformation in partnership with the C-suite and the Innovation team, and provide strategic and management oversight to the team that delivers it.
- Lead and facilitate cross-functional operational initiatives across CHAI’s global and country teams, including complex priorities that cut across departmental lines.
- Identify and drive process improvements across CHAI’s internal operations, designing better ways of working and ensuring changes are implemented durably.
- Provide executive oversight of CHAI’s global safety and security function, led day-to-day by an Associate Director, Safety & Security, ; serve as the senior organizational escalation point for significant incidents.
- Build and oversee an effective, right-sized knowledge management system for CHAI that is aligned with the organization’s AI transformation goals.
- Lead a Global Operations team of seven FTEs (which scope to grow further, as needed) – providing direction, coaching, and meaningful investment in each team lead’s development.
- Serve as PMO for high-priority cross-functional initiatives at the request of CHAI Leadership.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent and at least 12 years of relevant professional experience, including demonstrated success in a leadership role with direct management of teams and cross-functional accountability.
- Strong operational generalist background with the credibility and range to oversee functions where you are not the deepest subject-matter expert.
- Genuine working knowledge of AI tools, their capabilities, and limitations, and how they can be applied to transform enterprise workflows; deep technical expertise on AI is not required, but the ability to lead an AI team credibly and engage substantively on AI strategy is.
- Demonstrated experience leading change management or organizational transformation initiatives, including shifting staff behaviour and building new ways of working across a distributed workforce.
- Prior experience navigating ambiguity and providing organizational direction in decentralized environments with limited formal structure.
- Proven ability to build and manage high-performing teams, with experience in coaching and developing staff at the mid-manager level.
- Willingness to travel internationally, up to 30% annually.
Advantages:
- Experience improving how work gets done across an organization – whether through process redesign, restructuring teams, building new operating models, or leading operational change initiatives.
- Experience working closely with C-suite leaders to make data-driven recommendations and drive successful execution on leadership priorities.
- Experience in fast-paced and high rigor sectors, such as management consulting or tech.
- Experience in global health, international development, or a comparable mission-driven sector.
- Exposure to safety, security, or risk management functions in an international operating context.
- Experience managing geographically dispersed teams across multiple countries, time zones, and cultural contexts.
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