Senior Director, Global Operations Excellence

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf®; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 320,000 - 520,000; Full time

Job summary

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® seeks a senior Operations Excellence leader based in Malaysia to drive global standards and scalable operating models for café operations. You will partner across functions to evolve the Café of the Future and ensure reliable execution across markets.

You will lead a team to optimize formats, technology ecosystems, and quality across franchise and company-owned venues, with a strong emphasis on measurable impact and global consistency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field.
• Strong analytical and scientific mindset for building scalable systems and processes.
• Experience with data analytics, dashboards, and operation tech integration.
• Exceptional leadership and stakeholder management across multi-market teams.
• Experience with global quality standards, compliance frameworks, and SOP governance.

Responsibilities

• Build global Operations Excellence roadmap aligned with CBTL growth strategy.
• Translate market needs into scalable operating models, processes, tools, and systems.
• Define global non-negotiables and determine where local flexibility is allowed.
• Partner with markets to translate standards into practical café execution and learning materials.
• Lead governance for standards approval, communication, and market exceptions.

Skills

Leadership

Analytics

Stakeholder management

Process design

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, or related field

Job description

Since opening our first store in 1963, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® has grown into a global specialty coffee and tea brand with more than 1,000 cafés worldwide, supported by our Global Headquarters in Singapore.

Our purpose is to help people Find Their Flavor through uplifting experiences that make their day better. Guided by our vision to deliver "Simply the Best" coffee and tea experience in every community we serve, we're committed to creating meaningful experiences for our guests, partners, and one another.

As part of our Global Brew Crew, you’ll find an environment where you can be your best, belong and grow.

This is where you Find Your Flavor.

This role will develop the standards, systems, and capabilities required to support CBTL’s global growth while protecting quality, consistency, customer experience, café economics, and the brand experience. The role also leads the optimization of café formats, shapes the Café of the Future, and defines the global café technology ecosystem and roadmap.

The mandate is global, with particular emphasis on enabling franchise partners to grow and operate successfully. Based in Malaysia, one of CBTL’s largest operating markets, the role has the opportunity to work closely with the local team, understand frontline realities, and use the market as a proving ground for selected initiatives. All solutions must be designed for global scale and application.

A central mandate is to establish a common global operating core across café operations, product execution, quality, customer experience, technology, and equipment. This includes defining global non-negotiables, determining where local flexibility is appropriate, and reducing unnecessary variation across markets.

The role partners closely with Learning & Development, Market Operations, Quality, Global Customer Experience, Marketing, Product, Supply Chain, Technology, Finance, Development, and Procurement to ensure global standards are practical, understood, and consistently executed. It will also build strong partnerships with equipment and technology providers to support innovation, reliability, and scalability.

The role reports directly to the Global CEO and is a member of the CBTL Global Leadership Team, reflecting the central importance of Operations Excellence to CBTL’s strategy and growth agenda.

Key Responsibilities

In this role, you will:

1. Build Operations for Global Scale

• Develop and drive the global Operations Excellence roadmap in support of CBTL’s growth strategy.
• Translate business and market needs into scalable operating models, processes, tools, and systems.
• Evaluate the operational implications of new markets, formats, products, and technologies.
• Provide clear recommendations on operational priorities, risks, and opportunities.
• Represent Operations Excellence on the Global Leadership Team and contribute to CBTL’s broader strategy and decision-making.
• Lead the development and governance of a common global operating core across café operations, customer experience, product execution, quality, equipment, and technology.
• Define global non-negotiables and where intentional local flexibility is permitted.
• Partner with Marketing, Product, Supply Chain, Quality, Global Customer Experience, and markets to translate brand, customer experience, product, and quality standards into practical café execution.
• Partner with Learning & Development to translate global standards into clear learning materials, certification requirements, and café-level capability programs.
• Establish clear governance for approving, communicating, and reviewing standards and market exceptions.

3. Enable Franchisee and Market Success

• Place franchisee needs, café economics, and ease of execution at the center of the Operations Excellence agenda.
• Develop practical standards, tools, and solutions that work across markets of different sizes and maturity.
• Engage franchisees and market leaders in solution development, testing, and implementation.
• Drive adoption while addressing capability, cost, and implementation barriers.
• Optimize CBTL’s café formats to improve customer experience, operational efficiency, scalability, and café economics.
• Shape the Café of the Future, working across functions to translate CBTL’s brand and growth ambitions into practical operating concepts.
• Define the global café technology ecosystem and roadmap to improve execution, productivity, reliability, customer experience, and data visibility.
• Apply analytical and engineering principles to process design, problem-solving, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Development and Procurement to support scalable, capital-efficient café formats and equipment strategies.
• Build strong partnerships with equipment and technology providers to support innovation, reliability, scalability, and cost efficiency.

5. Test, Scale, and Drive Adoption

• Use the role’s location in Malaysia as an opportunity to work closely with the local market and test selected solutions with potential global relevance, while maintaining a clearly global mandate.
• Partner with Learning & Development and market teams to support effective rollout, capability-building, certification, and sustained adoption across company-owned and franchised markets.
• Establish clear success measures for pilots and convert validated solutions into scalable global practices.
• Coordinate implementation across functions, company-owned markets, and franchise partners.
• Lead and develop the global Operations Excellence team, with clear priorities and accountability.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, or related field.
• Minimum 15 years of global F&B leadership experience and proven successful growth in franchise operations, sales and development.
• 10+ years’ experience in F&B Operations
• Track record of successfully managing an organization through extensive unit expansion.
• Strong analytical and scientific mindset oriented toward building systems, standards, and scalable processes.
• Demonstrated success leading complex organisational change across multiple markets and cultures.
• Track record in process design, technology integration, quality systems, and operational performance improvement.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience with global quality standards, compliance frameworks, and SOP governance.
• Familiarity with data analytics, performance dashboards, and operation tech integration.
• Experience in technology-enabled operational transformation.

Performance & Rewards

At The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, we embrace a high-performance culture that rewards and encourages our values of teamwork, ownership, and respect for one another.

We believe in the fundamental truths that guide us through our daily lives:

• FRIENDLINESS - We go above and beyond in everything we do. Friendliness and customer‑centricity is embedded in our culture.
• RESPECT - We are inclusive and honour each other’s values, opinions and diversity.
• OWNERSHIP - We take ownership and accountability for our individual, team and business results, every day.
• TEAMWORK - As a team, we collaborate, innovate, and leverage our diverse strengths to grow the business.
• HONESTY - We live up to the highest levels of integrity by being truthful and transparent with each other, the business and ourselves.

At The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, we are a global company committed to representing the neighborhoods we serve. We welcome all to apply to our Brew Crew and we value the impact of diversity on our culture and in our work.