Director of Business Excellence and Operations

OPSWAT

$200K — $250K *
Business Services
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 9+ years experience in business operations or Chief of Staff role, preferably in B2B SaaS or enterprise software.
  • Expertise in running company-wide operating reviews and planning processes.
  • Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and address organizational inefficiencies independently.
  • Fluency in operational detail and executive-level strategic framing across multiple business functions.
  • Ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the organization, particularly in high-stakes environments using clear written and verbal communication.
  • Proficiency in using AI tools for research, analysis, and communication.
  • Ambitious and motivated to drive impactful change within the organization and contribute to its growth.

Responsibilities

  • Drive the operating review structure across the company, establishing cadences and governance models.
  • Ensure operating reviews are grounded in data-driven insights for leadership discussions.
  • Identify and eliminate organizational bottlenecks and inefficiencies to enhance operational efficiency.
  • Manage high-priority special projects that require cross-functional collaboration and ownership.
  • Establish accountability measures to ensure follow-through on commitments from all functions throughout the company.

Benefits

  • Direct access to the CEO and CFO for substantial influence on business operations.
  • Visibility into all functions of the company to enhance strategic alignment.
  • Participation in IPO readiness and mergers & acquisitions processes for significant operational experience.
  • Sponsorship from senior leadership for professional development and career progression.
Full Job Description
Director, Business Excellence and Operations
Protecting the World's Critical Infrastructure

OPSWAT is scaling, and the operating infrastructure needs to scale with it. We are hiring a Director, Business Excellence and Operations to serve as a trusted strategic partner to the CEO and CFO - owning the operating cadence, driving cross-functional accountability, and delivering the clarity and rigor that enable executive leaders to run a complex, high-growth business with confidence.

This role reports to the CFO and works closely with the CEO. It is an individual contributor role - there are no direct reports. Its leverage comes not from headcount but from influence, rigor, and the ability to drive cross-functional alignment and accountability at senior levels. It operates across a wide aperture - strategy, operating execution, business intelligence, and high-priority special projects - moving fluidly between long-horizon strategy and hands-on execution as the situation demands.

This is not a program manager who tracks work other people own. It is an operator with real accountability for how OPSWAT runs - someone who independently identifies what is broken, names it clearly, and drives it to a clean outcome. The personality matters as much as the capability: we need someone with high energy, directness, and the confidence to surface difficult truths without waiting for permission. Ambitious, sharp, and collaborative is the target.
What You'll Own
Operating Cadence & Performance Accountability

Own the rhythm of how OPSWAT runs. Design and drive the operating review structure across the company, establishing operating cadences, governance models, and execution frameworks that drive cross-functional accountability and enable sustainable results. This spans business reviews, QBRs, planning, and the day-to-day operating cadence, ensuring every function is held to its commitments consistently, not just once a quarter. This means designing the reviews, following through on action items, and course-correcting when something goes off track.
Operational Intelligence

Partner with FP&A, Enterprise Applications and Business Intelligence, and business functions to ensure operating reviews and leadership discussions are grounded in decision-ready intelligence - not reporting for its own sake. You contribute to, challenge, and leverage the KPI framework, and play a key role in determining what is surfaced at operating reviews and how it is framed for leadership. Proactively identify risks and surface critical trade-offs, equipping the CEO and CFO with the analysis they need to make well-informed, timely decisions.
Operational Efficiency & Scaling

Design and implement scalable operational solutions by identifying organizational bottlenecks, process inefficiencies, and execution gaps then driving actual change in how OPSWAT operates. This includes process improvement across functions, operating model design, and the work that enables the company to scale without adding proportional overhead. Initial areas of focus may include commercial strategy and end-to-end alignment between marketing and sales, and AI value creation.
Special Projects

You will be the person the CEO and CFO turn to when something important is complex, cross-functional, and needs a single owner to drive it from framing to execution, particularly problems at the seams of multiple teams or functions where no one else has clear ownership. Some of your time will go to high-priority initiatives that do not fit cleanly into any existing org structure. You see that ambiguity as a feature of the role. Examples might include kicking off AI Adoption initiatives, standing up a new function that didn't exist before, leading a due diligence or integration workstream, and assisting with public company readiness initiatives. The scope varies; the pattern is consistent with something important, no natural owner, needs to get done right.
How You'll Ramp

We have the data, processes, and plans already in place - you're expected to get up to speed fast and start delivering value early.

First 30 Days: Diagnose and establish presence.
Get deep on how OPSWAT actually operates - the processes, the disconnects, and where the real bottlenecks are. Complete OPSWAT Academy. Learn the company strategy and operating plan, and each department's plan. Establish working relationships across the business.

Months 2-4: Enhance the sales and marketing operating engine.
Leverage existing dashboards and KPIs to establish a clear operating cadence across Sales and Marketing - driving accountability, structured follow-through, and visible progress against commitments - refining dashboards and KPIs where gaps exist. This is where you prove the model.

Month 4 and Beyond: Expand across the company.
Apply the same operating model cadence, KPIs, accountability, and follow-through to additional functions. Drive broader company efficiency and raise the bar on how OPSWAT runs as a business.
This Role Is a Great Fit If You...
  • Have 9+ years of experience in business operations, strategy & operations, or a Chief of Staff role ideally in B2B SaaS or enterprise software at a company you helped scale, with meaningful time in management consulting or a high-accountability analytical function
  • Have built and run company-wide operating reviews and planning processes
  • Are operationally obsessed: you independently identify what is broken, name it clearly, and drive it to a clean outcome without waiting to be asked
  • Can operate credibly across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Engineering, and IT, moving fluently between functional detail and executive-level framing, across strategy, operations, GTM, and analytics, without being boxed into a single lane
  • Surface difficult truths early and push for answers because you know that is what actually moves things forward, and you do not confuse being liked with being effective
  • Have high energy. You move fast, create momentum, and bring the kind of presence that makes people take a commitment seriously
  • Are analytically strong and financially fluent, comfortable with operating plans, unit economics, and working alongside Finance as a true partner
  • Communicate with exceptional clarity at every level in written materials for board packages and executive reviews, verbal alignment in a room full of functional leaders
  • Use AI tools and agents as a default part of how you work, not as an experiment, but as a force multiplier across research, synthesis, analysis, and communication
  • Are genuinely ambitious. You are not here for a comfortable seat. You are here to drive the business, build something, and grow with it
Strong Differentiators
  • Judgment to distinguish between what needs to be fixed now versus what will resolve itself as the company scales and the discipline not to over-engineer processes that the business has already outgrown
  • Experience supporting a company through an IPO readiness process
  • Background in management consulting with a direct transition into a high-accountability operating role
  • Fluency with ARR-based business models and the metrics that drive them: ACV, ARR, CARR, NDR, GDR, and pipeline coverage ratios
  • Experience supporting board or investor-facing reporting in a fast-moving environment
What Success Looks Like
  • Operating reviews are running consistently across the company, and departments are being held to their commitments with documented follow-through, not just conversation
  • The CEO is spending less time on operational pressure - because this role has absorbed it
  • Efficiency initiatives across Sales, Marketing, Finance, and IT are delivering measurable results
  • OPSWAT's operating infrastructure is ready for what's next: scale, scrutiny, and the standards a public company requires
Career Path

This role is designed for someone with serious long-term ambitions. OPSWAT is on a trajectory that creates real opportunity for the right person and this role puts you at the center of that trajectory. We expect this person to grow with the company, not through it. From this role, you can grow into a broader leadership position as OPSWAT scales. What you build here will be foundational infrastructure for the business at one of the most consequential moments in its history.
What We Invest In You

To set you up for that trajectory, here is what you get from day one:
  • Direct, substantive access to the CEO and CFO not filtered through layers
  • Visibility across every function in the company
  • Exposure to IPO readiness, M&A, and other high-stakes processes most operators don't encounter until much later in their careers
  • Active sponsorship from senior leadership for your development and next step
Base Pay Range: San Francisco Bay Area $200,000.00 - $250,000.00

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