Senior Director of Business Operations

hireVouch; Toronto; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial technology company in Toronto is seeking a Senior Director of Business Operations to unify front-line and back-office functions including Customer Support and Payments Operations. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of leadership experience in fast-paced environments, with a focus on payments and risk. Responsibilities include building an operations model that leverages AI, ensuring operations readiness for launches, and driving efficiency through data-driven management. This position offers a clear pathway to a COO role.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of Business Operations or Operations leadership experience in B2C environments.
• Proven experience leading and scaling multi-function operations teams.
• Strong working knowledge of payments operations and reconciliation controls.
• Ability to partner with Product and Engineering for launches.
• Track record of using automation and AI to improve efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a unified Operations organization across departments.
• Own launch readiness and drive cross-functional execution.
• Define strategy for an AI-first operations model.
• Ensure smooth payments operations and reconciliation oversight.
• Drive operational excellence through metrics and systems.

Skills

Business Operations leadership

Multi-function operations scaling

Payments operations knowledge

Data-driven decision making

Automation and AI utilization

Job description

As the Senior Director of Business Operations, you will get to unify and scale front‑line and back‑office operations across Customer Support, Fraud Operations, and Payments Operations into a single, high‑performing organization. This leader will own operational readiness for major product and feature launches, define and implement an AI‑first operations model, and build the systems, controls, and talent required to scale efficiently and responsibly. The role reports directly to the CEO and is designed to grow into a COO‑level position over time.

This is a senior operator role for someone who can run day‑to‑day operations flawlessly while architecting the operating model for future scale. You will consolidate multiple functions into one aligned organization, own launch readiness, drive AI‑first automation, and ensure robust payments and reconciliation controls.

What You’ll Do

Build and lead a unified Operations organization

• Consolidate Customer Support, Fraud Operations, and Payments Operations into one operating model with clear ownership, shared goals, and consistent tooling.
• Hire, develop, and lead managers and team leads; define org structure, capacity planning, career ladders, and performance management.
• Establish operating cadence including weekly metrics reviews, incident retrospectives, QA programs, SOPs, training, and continuous improvement loops.

Own launch readiness and cross‑functional execution

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Risk/Compliance, Finance, and Data to ensure operational readiness for new products and features.
• Create and own a repeatable Launch Readiness framework covering staffing, tooling, training, workflows, escalation paths, and go‑live checklists.
• Drive post‑launch retrospectives and translate learnings into durable process and product improvements.

Build an AI‑first operations model

• Define strategy and roadmap for scaling operations with AI: self‑serve support, agent assist, intelligent triage, automated investigations, and reconciliation support.
• Identify high‑ROI workflows for automation and implement guardrails, QA, and governance to ensure accuracy, compliance, and customer trust.
• Use data to measure impact across handle time, resolution rates, fraud loss, dispute outcomes, and cost‑to‑serve, and continuously optimize.

Own payments operations and reconciliation oversight

• Ensure smooth end‑to‑end payment operations, including exceptions handling, escalations, disputes/chargebacks, and partner/vendor coordination.
• Oversee daily reconciliation processes and ensure tooling and controls detect, resolve, and prevent variances.
• Partner with Finance to strengthen controls, reporting, and auditability.

Drive operational excellence through metrics and systems

• Define and own KPIs and OKRs across support, fraud, and payments; build dashboards and enforce accountability.
• Improve quality and reduce cost‑to‑serve through workflow redesign, tooling, knowledge management, and intelligent deflection.
• Establish fast, customer‑centered, and blameless escalation and incident management processes.

What We’re Looking For (Required)

• 10+ years (or 8+ with exceptional fit) of Business Operations or Operations leadership experience in complex, high‑volume B2C environments, ideally with payments and risk/fraud components.
• Proven experience leading and scaling multi‑function operations teams (Support, Risk/Fraud, Payments/FinOps).
• Strong working knowledge of payments operations: settlement flows, exception handling, disputes, and reconciliation controls.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with Product and Engineering to operationalize launches and influence roadmap prioritization.
• Track record of using automation and AI to materially improve efficiency and quality, from experimentation through rollout and governance.
• Data‑driven operator comfortable defining metrics, building operating rhythms, and driving measurable improvements.
• Exceptional ownership, judgment, and calm execution in ambiguous, high‑stakes environments.

Nice to Have

• Experience in fintech, payments platforms, marketplaces, or other high‑throughput transaction businesses.
• Experience implementing modern support and operations stacks (CRM, ticketing, QA tooling, knowledge base, workforce management).
• Familiarity with compliance and risk frameworks relevant to payments.
• Experience building shared services or “operations platform” functions that support multiple product lines.

Why This Role Is Special

You’ll own three mission‑critical teams and unify them into a single, scalable operating engine. You’ll help define what AI‑first operations look like in a real‑world payments and risk environment. The role offers a clear path to COO for a leader who can build durable systems and drive company‑wide execution.