Head of Strategic Operations (Sr. Manager/Director)

Collective•San Francisco, CA

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

Collective is a financial services firm for businesses-of-one, aiming to redefine how they operate. Their platform and advisors assist members with financial independence, covering business incorporation, accounting, bookkeeping, tax services, and community access. The company focuses on enabling self-employed individuals to benefit from tax savings similar to large corporations, allowing them to concentrate on their passions rather than administrative tasks. Collective has received recognition from various prominent publications and is backed by notable investors. The Head of Strategic Operations will lead the design and testing of operations within this AI-native firm, reporting to the Head of Member Operations. This role acts as the design layer, functioning as an applied operations research team with the capability to model, prototype, and instrument operations. The objective is to design the workflows for a self-driving financial back office at the forefront of an industry shifting towards outcome-based services.

Requirements

10+ years in operations strategy, applied operations research, industrial process engineering, or ops management at a high-volume service business.
Experience in financial services, fintech, marketplace, or logistics backgrounds.
A management-science mindset with a strong understanding of throughput, utilization, queuing, variance, cycle time, and first-pass yield.
Deep SQL and data modeling skill (BigQuery preferred); ability to write queries and design schemas independently.
Hands-on fluency with low-code and AI-assisted application development (e.g., AppSheet, Retool, Bolt, Cursor, Claude Code).
Workflow and process design experience, including BPMN or equivalent, with a focus on operations as a flow.
Strong analytics skills in SPC, root cause analysis, capacity modeling, and variance analysis.
A clear point of view on scaffolding versus product development, understanding when to build quick instruments, lobby for roadmap items, or retire tools.
Ability to ship operating reality, not abstract designs.
Strong cross-functional communication skills, capable of translating operational issues into requirements that Engineering can accept.

Responsibilities

Own the design of every Member Operations workflow as a productized funnel, including structured inputs, orchestrated execution, automated feedback loops, measurable quality, and SLA-bound delivery.
Own the Operations Intelligence Warehouse, the data layer responsible for making throughput, quality, variance, and capacity inspectable and decision-ready.
Implement statistical process control across all production workflows to replace anecdotal evidence with data-driven insights.
Build queuing and capacity models to inform staffing decisions and identify bottlenecks before they impact operations.
Encode standards into Policy-as-Code for automated enforcement of bookkeeping quality gates, tax scorecards, and AI exception logic.
Lead the prototype-to-Engineering handoff, utilizing low-code and AI-assisted development to rapidly ship and validate working operating models before graduating stable designs to Engineering.
Build bridge tools rather than permanent solutions.
Build and lead a small team of operations analysts, process architects, and tool builders, hiring generalists capable of modeling, designing, and prototyping.

Benefits

Remote-Friendly Environment (US-based remote candidates considered; hybrid schedule for Bay Area employees)
$200 quarterly reimbursement for well-being
Fresh Lunch provided on in-office days (for hybrid schedule)
$150 monthly reimbursement for transit expenses (for hybrid schedule)
Flexible PTO
14 company holidays
100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees
75% coverage for dependents' medical, dental, and vision
16 weeks fully paid parental leave
401k plan
Equity package
Quarterly virtual team events
Annual in-person summit