CEO Advisory Lead, Operational Excellence

About the Role

This senior advisory position is designed for an experienced professional in operational excellence, transformation, or executive advisory to support a growing organisation in enhancing operational performance and improving leadership decision quality. You will collaborate closely with the CEO, executive stakeholders, and key functional leaders to analyze critical operational challenges, identify actionable improvements, and facilitate disciplined execution across the company. Note that this role does not inherently include line-management, budget control, or delegated executive authority unless explicitly granted by the employer.

Key Challenges To Tackle

As organisations expand, strategic aspirations may surpass operational discipline, requiring enhanced performance insight, stronger cross-functional coordination, more effective operating rhythms, and practical assistance to translate priorities into measurable outcomes. You will assist the CEO and executives in diagnosing operational issues, balancing trade-offs, enhancing risk visibility, and advancing improvement initiatives, thereby enabling senior leadership to move from discussion to coherent execution.

Tasks and Responsibilities

• Provide advisory support to the CEO and executive leaders on priorities, risks, trade-offs, and improvement opportunities related to operational excellence.
• Analyze operational performance challenges using both qualitative and quantitative data.
• Produce concise recommendations, decision documents, presentations, and implementation plans tailored for senior management.
• Assist in designing, monitoring, and reporting operational KPIs, performance reviews, and improvement initiatives.
• Coordinate cross-functional workstreams to maintain clear visibility of actions, dependencies, risks, decisions, and key milestones.
• Lead structured problem-solving sessions with operational and functional leaders.
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes, reduce operational friction, and enhance execution discipline.
• Help leadership teams improve collaboration, decision-making, and alignment on priorities.
• Track progress on agreed initiatives and escalate significant delivery risks through governance channels.
• Build trusted relationships with executives, operational managers, and subject-matter experts.

Expected Impact

• Provide clear, evidence-based advice for key operational decisions.
• Improve visibility of operational performance, risks, and delivery dependencies.
• Establish improvement initiatives with clearly defined outcomes, ownership, milestones, and metrics.
• Enhance executive and cross-functional alignment on critical priorities.
• Implement sustainable practical process and operational improvements.
• Foster disciplined execution translating strategic priorities into daily operations.

Qualifications and Experience

• Proven background in operational excellence, business transformation, continuous improvement, strategy execution, consulting, or equivalent senior operational advisory roles.
• Experienced in engaging senior executives and translating complex analyses into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving abilities, comfortable with performance data interpretation.
• Skilled in creating executive-level materials such as business cases, operating reviews, and transformation roadmaps.
• Excellent stakeholder management, facilitation, influencing, and written communication skills.
• Sound business judgement, discretion, and a results-oriented delivery mindset.
• Experience navigating complex, cross-functional environments.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Management, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Advanced academic qualifications or professional certifications are advantageous but not mandatory.

Additional Valuable Experience

• Expertise in continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Leadership in business operations or performance management.
• Background in transformation, strategic planning, and executing strategy.
• Experience in executive coaching, mentoring, or leadership development.
• Work involving operating-model redesign or process improvement.
• Familiarity with finance, HR, risk, or compliance-related operational environments.
• Experience in technology, professional services, banking, or other complex, scaling organisations.
• Proficiency with reporting, analytics, project management, or process mapping tools.

Why This Position Is Appealing

• Opportunity for direct interaction with the CEO and executive team on crucial operational issues.
• Unique blend of executive advisory work with hands-on operational improvement tasks.
• Chance to impact the quality of strategic analysis, recommendations, and operational visibility for senior decision-makers.
• Cross-functional engagement enabling translation of strategic priorities into actionable, measurable results.

Equal Opportunity Statement

The employer is fully committed to fostering equal opportunities and inclusive hiring practices, making employment decisions based exclusively on skills, experience, qualifications, and organizational requirements.