Head of Operational Excellence & Automation

Equals; Greater London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Contributory pension

Life assurance

Health insurance (BUPA)

Employee Assistance Programme

25 days holiday + birthday off

Cycle to work scheme

Season Ticket Loans

Onsite gym & pool (London)

Discounted gym membership

Interbank currency rates

Opportunities for progression

Job summary

Equals is seeking a Head of Operational Excellence, Process Improvement and Automation to drive a cross-functional transformation across Operations and Commercial. You will triage issues, recommend solutions and lead the automation program to deliver significant efficiency gains while embedding change.

The role requires building SOPs, scaling automation, and coordinating with executive stakeholders to align improvement with strategic priorities.

Responsibilities

• Cross-functional role spanning Operations and Commercial.
• Act as trusted operator for the senior team—triage, resolve or drive to resolution with a clear recommendation.
• Own automation and process-improvement agenda across the operational funnel; target ~20% efficiency gain by year-end.
• Identify where manual effort concentrates; build documentation foundations automation depends on.
• Drive initiatives from idea through to embedded change.
• Progress the one front door customer contact model; route customers to the right team.
• Lead documentation programme: capture process knowledge into SOPs across operations and commercial for AI/automation tooling.
• Support de-risking of schemes/banking relationships; establish QBR/MBR cadence with partners.
• Manage and develop one direct report (analyst).
• Work with operations, commercial, product and fin crime leadership to align improvement with priorities.
• Track and report progress on automation and efficiency initiatives to the senior team.

Job description

Equals is seeking a Head of Operational Excellence, Process Improvement and Automation to drive a cross-functional transformation across Operations and Commercial. You will triage issues, recommend solutions and lead the automation program to deliver significant efficiency gains while embedding change.

The role requires building SOPs, scaling automation, and coordinating with executive stakeholders to align improvement with strategic priorities.