Performant Financial

SR Director, Process Excellence

Performant Financial$150K — $180K *
Healthcare
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of experience in process excellence or operational leadership
  • Proven ability to develop and execute strategic initiatives across cross-functional teams
  • Strong background in change management and organizational development
  • Experience leveraging data analytics for decision-making and performance improvement
  • Excellent leadership and talent development skills
  • Expertise in quality management frameworks and continuous improvement methodologies
  • Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills

Responsibilities

  • Set and execute the Pricing Solutions strategy for process improvement
  • Drive and document end-to-end workflow improvements across teams
  • Define KPIs and reporting frameworks for operational transparency
  • Lead change management initiatives for new processes and tools adoption
  • Provide executive insights into performance trends and improvement opportunities
  • Oversee the Quality, Performance & Enablement team, enhancing overall effectiveness
  • Establish metrics to quantify impact on operational and financial outcomes

Benefits

  • Dynamic hybrid work environment with flexible location options
  • Opportunities for professional development and leadership growth
  • Engagement in innovative projects involving automation and AI
  • Collaboration with cross-functional teams for impactful results
  • Inclusive culture fostering continuous learning and innovation
Full Job Description
Position Overview
The Sr. Director of Process Excellence sets the Pricing Solutions strategy for how Zelis designs, governs, and continuously improves the processes that drive operational efficiency, scalability, and alignment across the organization.

This leader serves as a strategic partner and thought leader to Product, Technology, Finance, and Operations, establishing best-in-class frameworks that enable transparency, speed, and measurable business outcomes. This role is the critical link between strategy and execution, setting the frameworks, governance models, and organizational analysis for operational efficiencies and cross-functional alignment. The Sr. Director leads the Process Excellence organization and is accountable for building the leadership, talent, capabilities, and organizational structure required to execute the function's strategy. This includes leading through the Sr. Manager, Quality, Performance & Enablement and providing strategic direction and executive oversight for the broader Process Excellence team. In addition, this role drives continuous improvement across the business, identifying opportunities to modernize processes through automation and AI, and elevating overall performance outcomes

Key Responsibilities

Product Development Strategy & Prioritization
  • Set the strategy and operating model for intake and prioritization of initiatives across Pricing Solutions.
  • Own the Pricing Solutions strategy for centralized intake of all product development initiatives across the organization
  • Define scalable frameworks and governance standards for evaluating, triaging, and routing incoming requests
  • Drive data-driven prioritization strategy, leveraging analytics to inform executive decision-making and ensure alignment with enterprise objectives
  • Establish and facilitate a structured stage-gate governance model, including leadership review forums to align on priorities, trade-offs, and sequencing


Process Transformation & Change Management
  • Drive organizational change management efforts to ensure adoption of new processes, tools, and governance models
  • Set Pricing Solutions standards for end-to-end workflow documentation, ensuring consistency and repeatability across teams
  • Act as a change agent, influencing stakeholders and driving alignment across complex, cross-functional environments


Performance Management & Operational Transparency
  • Define enterprise KPI strategy and governance across Out-of-Network (OON) and other Pricing Solutions products
  • Establish clear reporting frameworks to create transparency, accountability, and performance visibility for leadership
  • Provide executive-level insight into performance trends, identifying risks, bottlenecks, and strategic opportunities for improvement
  • Direct the development of executive-level dashboards and reporting mechanisms to support ongoing governance


Operational Efficiency & Continuous Improvement
  • Set the strategic direction for operational efficiency by leveraging data, performance trends, and insights from the Operations Analysis function to identify priority areas for improvement across the organization.
  • Provide leadership and oversight to Operational Analysts responsible for evaluating operational performance, identifying recurring trends, constraints, root causes, and emerging opportunities to improve efficiency, quality, throughput, and scalability.
  • Translate analytical findings into clearly defined improvement opportunities, ensuring areas of focus are prioritized based on business impact, operational risk, customer impact, and strategic value.


Quality, Performance & Enablement Leadership
  • Provide strategic leadership & oversight to the Quality, Performance & Enablement team, responsible for building and leading a comprehensive Enablement function across Pricing Solutions, anchored in Quality, Performance, and Training.
  • Set the vision and expectations for a mature, data-driven Quality program that provides meaningful visibility into operational performance, identifies trends and systemic opportunities, and creates actionable insights that improve quality and business outcomes.
  • Guide the development of a modern Quality framework that leverages operational data, analytics, and AI to enhance monitoring capabilities, identify emerging patterns and risks, strengthen root-cause analysis, and enable more proactive performance management.
  • Sponsor the development of a foundational Training and Enablement program for Pricing Solutions, establishing consistent approaches for onboarding, role-based learning, ongoing development, knowledge reinforcement, and readiness as processes and business requirements evolve.
  • Ensure Quality and Training operate as an integrated feedback loop, using quality findings, operational performance data, and identified trends to inform training priorities, process improvements, coaching opportunities, and broader enablement strategies.
  • Set the vision to establish the governance, standards, measurement frameworks, and operating rhythms necessary to scale the Enablement function and demonstrate measurable impact on quality, accuracy, associate performance, and operational outcomes.
  • Serve as executive sponsor for the continued evolution of Quality, Performance & Enablement, removing organizational barriers, facilitating cross-functional partnership, and ensuring the function remains aligned with Pricing Solutions' strategic and operational priorities.


Value Realization & Financial Partnership
  • Establish, track, and report on success metrics tied to both operational and financial outcomes
  • Partner closely with Finance to quantify business impact, including cost savings, efficiency gains, and ROI
  • Monitor performance post-implementation/delivery (e.g., 90-day reviews) to ensure expected outcomes are achieved and sustained


People Leadership & Organizational Capability
  • Lead and develop a multi-layered teams, including people leaders and senior professionals, setting clear expectations and accountability for business and team outcomes.
  • Build organizational capability through talent development, succession planning, coaching, performance management, and thoughtful workforce and organizational design.
  • Develop leaders who effectively translate strategy into execution, lead through change, and create high-performing teams grounded in accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and innovation.
  • Assess current and future talent and capability needs and evolve team structure, skills, and capacity to support Pricing Solutions' strategic priorities.
  • Foster an inclusive, high-performing culture that encourages continuous learning, responsible adoption of AI and new ways of working, and development of future leaders.


Please note at this time we are unable to proceed with candidates who require visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Location and Workplace Flexibility

Zelis is headquartered in the U.S., with multiple locations across the country and in Hyderabad, India. Check out our locations to learn more about our offices. All employee work locations are based on the needs of the position and are determined by the Leadership team. In-office work and activities vary based on work and team objectives in accordance with Company policies.

While location expectations vary by role, candidates within approximately 50 miles of a U.S. office are generally preferred to support collaboration when needed. Our hybrid approach is flexible, and in-office presence is guided by team and business needs rather than a fixed weekly schedule.

About Performant Financial

Performant Financial Corporation is a business services company that provides technology-enabled recovery and related analytics services in the United States. The company primarily offers recovery services to the government and private clients in various markets, such as healthcare, student loans, and general collections. Performant Financial Corporation was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Livermore, California.
Learn more about Performant Financial
Size
1,269 employees
Market Cap
$237.8 million
Industry
Net Income
-$21.5 million
Founded
1976
5 Year Trend
-2.5%
Revenue
$159.7 million
NASDAQ

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