Head of Strategic Operations (Sr. Manager/Director)

Collective•San Francisco, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Collective is an AI-native financial services firm looking for a Head of Strategic Operations to design and test the operational framework that supports its AI. This role is crucial for ensuring the AI's effectiveness by optimizing the underlying operations. The Head of Strategic Operations will report to the Head of Member Operations and collaborate with Product Operations and Service Operations. This function acts as the design layer, applying operations research principles with technical expertise to model, prototype, and instrument the operation. The goal is to design the workflows for a self-driving financial back office, positioning the company 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 is particularly well-aligned.
A management-science mindset with a strong understanding of throughput, utilization, queuing, variance, cycle time, and first-pass yield.
Deep SQL and data modeling skills (BigQuery preferred), with the ability to write queries and design schemas independently.
Hands-on fluency with low-code and AI-assisted application development tools (e.g., AppSheet, Retool, Bolt, Cursor, Claude Code).
Experience with workflow and process design, including BPMN or equivalent, viewing operations as a flow.
Strong analytics skills in statistical process control (SPC), root cause analysis, capacity modeling, and variance analysis.
A clear understanding of scaffolding versus product development, knowing when to build quick instruments, advocate for roadmap items, or retire existing tools.
Strong cross-functional communication skills, capable of translating operational issues into requirements that Engineering can act upon.

Responsibilities

Own the design of every Member Operations workflow as a productized funnel, ensuring 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 proactively identify operational bottlenecks.
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 skilled in modeling, design, 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