Senior Director, Customer Operations

Forge Performance Group; Calgary; Hybrid; CAD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Forge Performance Group is seeking a Senior Director, Customer Operations in Calgary, Alberta (hybrid) to lead a broad, enterprise-level customer operations function. You will shape strategy across support, implementations, service operations, and governance while partnering with Finance, Sales and Product to drive growth and efficiency.

The role requires a strong balance of strategic thinking and hands-on problem solving, with a track record of scaling complex operations and delivering

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Operations, Engineering or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience within operations or customer operations.
• Experience overseeing multiple operational functions within a complex or geographically distributed organization.
• Experience leading through other leaders and developing accountable management teams.
• Strong commercial and financial understanding, including linking operational decisions to cost and performance.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic direction for a broad customer operations portfolio, including support, order activities, implementation and service operations.
• Develop and implement operational strategies to support growth and customer expectations.
• Establish standards, performance measures and accountability across the customer lifecycle.
• Identify opportunities to improve customer experience while increasing consistency and scalability.
• Monitor service performance and address gaps before they impact customers.
• Own key operational metrics and initiatives to improve business performance.
• Collaborate with Finance on budgeting, forecasting and workforce planning.
• Develop KPIs, reporting tools and dashboards for informed decision-making.
• Lead modernization and automation initiatives in customer operations.
• Improve onboarding, implementation, service and ongoing support experiences.
• Ensure service reliability and scalability as the business grows.
• Oversee commercial administration and governance related processes.

Skills

Leadership

Financial acumen

Stakeholder management

Communication

Change management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business/Operations/Engineering

Tools

CRM systems

ERP systems

Business Intelligence

Job description

Senior Director, Customer Operations

Location: Calgary, Alberta preferred; flexibility may be considered
Type: Full-Time
Industry: Technology / Connected Solutions

The Opportunity

Our client is a growing technology organization with a global customer base and a strong focus on delivering reliable, high-value solutions to its customers.

They are looking for an experienced Senior Director, Customer Operations to join their leadership team and help shape the next stage of operational growth. This is a broad, enterprise-level role for an accomplished operations leader who can connect customer experience, people, processes, technology and financial performance.

The successful candidate will bring a practical, commercially minded approach to improving how a complex customer operation functions at scale. You will work across multiple teams and business areas, identify opportunities to improve efficiency and service delivery, and help build an operating model that can support continued growth.

This position will suit someone who enjoys both strategic thinking and hands-on operational problem solving and who is comfortable working in a fast-moving, evolving environment.

What You'll Be Responsible For

Customer Operations & Service Delivery

• Provide overall direction for a broad customer operations portfolio spanning customer support, order-related activities, implementation, service operations and commercial administration.
• Develop and implement operational strategies that support business growth and customer expectations.
• Establish clear standards, performance measures and accountability across the customer lifecycle.
• Identify opportunities to improve the customer experience while increasing consistency and scalability.
• Monitor service performance and address operational gaps before they become customer issues.

Operational & Financial Performance

• Take ownership of key operational metrics and initiatives that contribute to improved business performance.
• Identify opportunities to increase productivity, simplify processes and reduce unnecessary operating costs.
• Work closely with Finance on budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning and business cases.
• Develop meaningful KPIs, reporting tools and dashboards to support informed decision-making.
• Evaluate resources, workflows and service models to ensure they remain effective as the organization grows.

Transformation & Continuous Improvement

• Lead initiatives designed to modernize and streamline customer operations.
• Look for practical applications of automation, AI, technology and systems integration.
• Standardize processes where appropriate while maintaining flexibility for customer and business requirements.
• Work with technology and system owners to improve the effectiveness of customer-facing platforms and operational tools.
• Build a culture where continuous improvement is part of everyday operations.

Customer Experience & Implementation

• Improve the experience customers receive throughout onboarding, implementation, service, fulfillment and ongoing support.
• Establish processes that improve responsiveness, efficiency and time-to-value.
• Identify operational opportunities that support customer retention and long-term account growth.
• Partner with commercial and customer-facing teams to resolve operational challenges and improve the overall customer journey.

Service & Safety Operations

• Provide senior oversight of a global, service-oriented operations function where reliability and responsiveness are critical.
• Ensure appropriate processes, staffing models, technology and performance standards are in place to support consistent service delivery.
• Promote operational resilience, quality and scalability as the business expands.

Commercial Operations & Governance

• Provide oversight of operational processes associated with customer agreements and commercial administration.
• Partner with Sales, Finance, Legal and Customer Success to improve workflows, governance and execution.
• Support complex customer initiatives by ensuring operational requirements are clearly understood and effectively managed.

Enterprise Collaboration

This role will work closely with leaders across areas such as:

• Sales and Customer Success
• Finance
• Product and Engineering
• Manufacturing and Supply Chain
• Business Technology / IT
• Legal
• Executive Leadership

You will be expected to build strong working relationships across the organization and translate operational priorities into practical business outcomes.

What Success Looks Like

In this role, success will be demonstrated through measurable improvements in areas such as:

• Customer satisfaction and service performance
• Operational productivity and efficiencyCost management and financial performance
• Implementation timelines and customer time-to-value
• Service reliability and scalability
• Contract and administrative efficiency
• Process automation and technology adoption
• Accuracy and usefulness of operational reporting
• Employee engagement and leadership development
• Cross-functional execution
• The organization's ability to scale without sacrificing customer experience

What We're Looking For

Required Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Engineering or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience within operations, customer operations, customer service, professional services or a related environment.
• Demonstrated experience overseeing multiple operational functions within a complex or geographically distributed organization.
• Experience leading through other leaders and developing strong, accountable management teams.
• Strong commercial and financial understanding, including experience connecting operational decisions to cost and business performance.
• A track record of leading significant process improvement, transformation or operational scaling initiatives.
• Ability to balance strategic priorities with day-to-day operational realities.
• Strong communication, relationship-building and problem-solving skills.
• Comfort working in a high-growth environment where priorities can evolve quickly.

Experience That Would Be An Asset

• Background in technology, SaaS, industrial technology, telecommunications, safety solutions or another subscription/service-based environment.
• Experience with customer support, implementation, service centre or contracts-related operations.
• Familiarity with CRM, ERP, customer service and business intelligence systems.
• Experience with automation, AI, digital transformation or systems integration.
• Lean, Six Sigma or another continuous improvement methodology or certification.

The Leadership Profile

We're looking for an operational leader who is:

• Strategic, but not removed from the details.
• Commercially minded, with a strong understanding of the connection between service, cost and business performance.
• Customer focused, while maintaining appropriate operational discipline.
• Data driven, using metrics to identify issues and measure progress.
• Collaborative, with the ability to influence across departments.
• Change oriented, comfortable improving processes and challenging the status quo.
• People focused, with a demonstrated ability to develop leaders and create accountability.

If you're an experienced operations leader looking for an opportunity to influence a growing organization at an enterprise level, we'd welcome the opportunity to hear from you.