Senior Director of Operations

The Driver Provider

• $125K — $150K *
Transportation
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7-10 years of leadership experience in transportation or logistics
  • Proficiency in dispatch operations and real-time service execution
  • Expertise in workforce planning and scheduling
  • Demonstrated ability in developing and tracking operational KPIs
  • Strong judgement in complex and rapidly changing environments
  • Experience mentoring and developing emerging leaders
  • Effective communicator across various departmental levels

Responsibilities

  • Oversee daily operations of Dispatch, leading and coaching managers
  • Define roles and protocols to clarify decision-making processes
  • Assess dispatch workflows and align resources with business demand
  • Establish operating rhythms such as communication and performance reviews
  • Set and manage operational KPIs to enhance performance
  • Identify and resolve recurring operational issues with sustainable solutions
  • Facilitate collaboration across departments to improve service delivery

Benefits

  • Opportunity to influence operational design and strategy
  • Access to leadership development and coaching programs
  • Dynamic, fast-paced work environment
  • Collaborative culture focused on problem-solving and improvement
  • Challenging role with high visibility and impact in the organization
Full Job Description
The Driver Provider is seeking a Senior Director of Operations to lead and strengthen our day-to-day transportation operations, with an immediate and significant focus on Dispatch.

This is not a role for someone who simply maintains an existing operation.

We are looking for an experienced operational leader who can walk into a fast-moving environment, quickly understand what is working and what is not, develop the leaders already in place and build the structure, accountability and operating discipline necessary to support continued growth.

Our operation runs in real time. Vehicles move. Schedules change. Clients have expectations. Chauffeurs need support. Problems do not wait for the next staff meeting.

The right leader knows how to create order in that environment without becoming the person who personally solves every problem.

What You Will Own

The Senior Director of Operations will provide leadership and oversight of core operational functions, with Dispatch as the immediate priority.

You will be responsible for creating an operation that is proactive, measurable and increasingly capable of solving problems at the appropriate level.

Key responsibilities include:
  • Lead the day-to-day performance of Dispatch and provide direct leadership, coaching and accountability to operational managers
  • Establish clear roles, decision rights and escalation protocols so employees understand what they own, what they can resolve and when leadership involvement is required
  • Evaluate current dispatch workflows, staffing models, schedules and coverage to ensure resources align with actual business demand
  • Build strong operating rhythms including daily communication, leadership meetings, performance reviews and follow-through
  • Establish and manage meaningful operational KPIs related to service execution, staffing, scheduling, response times, preventable failures and other critical performance indicators
  • Identify recurring operational problems, determine root causes and implement sustainable solutions rather than temporary fixes
  • Strengthen communication and coordination between Dispatch, Chauffeur Management, Fleet/Maintenance, Safety & Compliance, Client Services and other departments
  • Ensure new accounts, events and operational requirements are effectively integrated into day-to-day service delivery
  • Develop managers into confident, accountable leaders who can independently run their areas of responsibility
  • Evaluate processes, technology and tools and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, visibility and operational control
  • Create appropriate contingency plans for staffing shortages, vehicle issues, service disruptions and other operational risks
  • Maintain a strong understanding of daily operations without unnecessarily inserting yourself into work that should be owned by managers
  • Escalate material risks quickly, clearly and with recommended solutions
  • Partner with executive leadership on operational strategy, organizational design, capacity planning and continued growth


What We Are Looking For

We are looking for a leader who understands that being accountable for an operation does not mean personally doing everyone else's job.

You should be comfortable walking into complexity, asking difficult questions and making decisions with incomplete information. You should know how to distinguish an isolated mistake from a broken process and how to build controls that prevent the same problems from recurring.

You should also be someone who develops people rather than simply replacing them.

Our ideal candidate brings:
  • Significant progressive leadership experience in transportation, logistics, dispatch, fleet operations or another complex, time-sensitive service environment
  • Demonstrated experience leading managers and multi-layer operational teams
  • Strong understanding of dispatch operations, workforce planning, scheduling and real-time service execution
  • Experience developing and using operational KPIs to drive accountability and improvement
  • Proven ability to identify operational gaps and turn them into practical, sustainable processes
  • Strong judgment and the ability to remain calm and decisive when circumstances change quickly
  • Experience developing emerging leaders and strengthening management capability
  • Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively across departments and leadership levels
  • Comfort challenging existing practices when the data or results indicate there is a better way
  • A strong bias toward ownership, urgency and follow-through
  • Experience in chauffeured transportation, passenger transportation, charter operations or another high-touch transportation environment is valuable.


What Success Looks Like

Success in this role will be visible.

Dispatch operates with clear leadership and accountability. Managers know what they own and are capable of owning it. Staffing and schedules reflect actual operational needs. Problems are identified earlier. Recurring failures decrease. Departments communicate instead of operating in silos. Leadership has meaningful visibility into performance.

And when something does go wrong - because in transportation, something eventually will - the organization knows who owns it, responds quickly and learns from it.

Most importantly, the operation becomes less dependent on heroics and more dependent on strong systems, capable leaders and consistent execution.

The Opportunity

The Driver Provider is in a period of growth and organizational evolution. That creates both complexity and opportunity.

This role will have meaningful influence over how our operational organization is built for the future. You will work closely with executive leadership and have the opportunity to strengthen existing leaders, improve systems and help build an operation capable of supporting the next stage of the company.

We are not looking for someone to simply inherit a department.

We are looking for someone to make it better.

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at The Driver Provider

More Transportation Jobs

Find similar Senior Director of Operations jobs: