Senior Operational Excellence Program Manager
Pie's mission is to empower small businesses to thrive by making commercial insurance affordable and as easy as pie. We leverage technology to transform how small businesses buy and experience commercial insurance.
Like our small business customers, we are a diverse team of builders, dreamers, and entrepreneurs who are driven by core values and operating principles that guide every decision we make.
In this Individual contributor role, the Senior Operational Excellence Manager drives cross-functional operational improvement initiatives across multiple business domains. They design and implement programs that increase efficiency at scale, bridging operational execution with strategic enterprise thinking, and building stakeholder relationships to influence organizational change. The Senior Operational Excellence Manager will use proven methodologies to identify multi-domain improvement opportunities and deliver measurable business value. As a member of the Operational Excellence team, the Senior Operational Excellence Manager will create sustainable operational advantages through process improvement and systems designed to compound value over time.
Pie organizes improvement work through the Ephemeral Team model. Cross-functional teams form around Opportunities and Deliverables. In this model, not every solution is custom software. Many high-value outcomes are process change, operational system design, workforce and vendor design, and AI-assisted or low-code operational tooling. This role operates at that intersection: applying the Operational Excellence Model across domains while helping teams redesign how work runs as automation and agentic tools mature.
How You'll Do It
Multi-Domain Program Leadership
- Lead operational excellence programs across 2+ business domains, learning and independently applying our proprietary Operational Excellence Model to identify strategic improvement opportunities aligned with business objectives.
- Coordinate cross-functional teams to build improvement portfolios that maximize value creation across assigned domains while developing understanding of competitive landscape and market positioning implications.
- Successfully execute 10-12 major operational transformation programs annually with strong stakeholder adoption rates and demonstrated impact lasting 18+ months.
- Achieve measurable efficiency improvements across 2+ domains within the first year, with documented cross-organizational metrics and sustained cost savings.
Cross-Domain Process Architecture
- Independently manage complex operational challenges from discovery through delivery, breaking down ambiguous problems into comprehensive improvement initiatives while executing solutions that span multiple domains.
- Orchestrate stakeholder relationships and dependencies across multiple concurrent initiatives while demonstrating advanced judgment in resource allocation and timeline management.
- Progress from optimizing individual domains to architecting integrated solutions that create synergies across multiple connected domains and can be replicated organization-wide.
Advanced Methodology Application & Coaching
- Demonstrate deep expertise in operational excellence methodologies and master our proprietary Operational Excellence Model alongside advanced Lean, Six Sigma applications across multiple domains.
- Independently apply structured problem-solving techniques while serving as coach to teach these methods to business stakeholders, effectively navigating complex organizational dynamics and building consensus across functional areas.
- Coach and mentor team members and business stakeholders on advanced methodologies, becoming a knowledge multiplier who elevates organizational operational maturity.
Strategic Decision-Making & Risk Management
- Apply advanced problem-solving methodologies and first principles thinking to deconstruct complex operational challenges, revealing underlying structures and interdependencies across multiple domains.
- Make strategic decisions balancing competing factors across domain priorities and resource constraints while seeking coaching on highest-stakes decisions and utilizing advanced risk frameworks with comprehensive contingency strategies.
- Operate independently executing complex multi-domain programs while demonstrating sophisticated judgment.
- Implement operational frameworks that become more valuable over time, creating compound benefits that differentiate the organization in the market beyond 24 months.
Senior Stakeholder Influence & Communication
- Create comprehensive communication strategies that drive alignment across multiple operational domains while influencing department-level stakeholders through sophisticated relationship building.
- Lead high-stakes conversations that build consensus while navigating competing priorities, demonstrating ability to translate complex operational concepts across functional boundaries and bridge technical and business perspectives effectively.
- Establish trusted advisor relationships with department heads and VP-level stakeholders, as the expert for cross-domain operational challenges and strategic operational decisions.
AI-Assisted Operational Design
- Identify high-volume operational workflows where AI-assisted tools or agents can reduce manual work, improve consistency, or accelerate cycle time, partnering with technical stakeholders where appropriate.
- Build and iterate operational AI tools, agent workflows, and agent skills (instruction sets, guardrails, and exception paths) that encode how work should run, not only document the current state.
- Redesign processes with AI in the loop: define where human judgment and exception handling stay, where automation is appropriate, and how to measure quality, adoption, and sustainment.
- Use AI tools, agents, and skills in your own operational work; coach stakeholders on building, testing, monitoring, and retiring operational automations responsibly.
- Support adoption of operator-as-orchestrator models where repetitive transactional work shifts to agents and humans focus on exceptions, quality, and continuous improvement.
Cross-Functional Program Collaboration
- Cultivate strategic relationships across multiple operational domains while fostering effective collaboration between traditionally siloed teams through structured frameworks.
- Lead cross-functional operational initiatives that span multiple departments, navigating complex dynamics while maintaining clear governance and developing comprehensive strategies for operational changes with strong adoption across business units.
The Right Stuff
Educational Background:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Operations Management, or related field preferred; Master's degree in Business Administration, Engineering, or related field a plus.
Certifications:
- One or more advanced methodology certifications such as Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Advanced Lean, PMI advanced credentials (PgMP, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), or Prosci Change Management, with demonstrated expertise across multiple process improvement frameworks and business contexts.
Experience:
- 8+ years of experience in operational excellence, process improvement, program management, or similar roles with increasing responsibility and demonstrated results across multiple business domains, showing progression from single-domain optimization to multi-domain strategic program coordination.
- 3+ years of program leadership experience managing complex multi-stakeholder initiatives with demonstrated ability to influence department-level stakeholders and navigate competing organizational priorities across different business areas.
- Six Sigma Black Belt certification from an accredited provider (IASSC, ASQ, university, or corporate program) with multiple project completions across different business contexts; or Lean Master certification with demonstrated multi-domain application; or PMP with multiple process project completions.
- Proven track record of successfully leading large-scale operational transformation programs that span multiple domains with measurable cross-organizational impact, including documented before/after metrics and sustained results over 18+ month periods.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with experience analyzing complex operational performance data across multiple business areas, identifying interdependencies and patterns, and translating insights into actionable multi-domain improvement strategies and program roadmaps.
- Advanced communication and influence skills with experience presenting to and influencing department heads, executive stakeholders, and senior leadership, including facilitation of high-stakes conversations that build consensus across competing organizational priorities.
- Cross-functional collaboration expertise with demonstrated ability to build strategic relationships across multiple operational domains, navigate complex organizational dynamics, and lead initiatives that require sophisticated stakeholder coordination.
- Technology or product organization experience with knowledge of product development lifecycle, agile methodologies, and their intersection with operational excellence across domains such as engineering, product management, customer experience, and business operations.
- Advanced knowledge of operational excellence frameworks, structured problem-solving approaches, and business process optimization methodologies with demonstrated ability to adapt approaches across different organizational cultures and business environments.
- Experience with enterprise-level operational tools and systems including performance measurement platforms, process mapping software, data analytics tools, program management platforms, and operational dashboard development.
- Change management and organizational development expertise with demonstrated ability to navigate complex organizational dynamics, build consensus across competing priorities, and lead transformational initiatives with measurable adoption and sustainment results
- Senior leadership collaboration experience including working with VP+ executives on strategic operational decisions, contributing to enterprise strategy development, and influencing resource allocation decisions across multiple business areas.
- Demonstrated experience applying AI to change how operational work gets done, with specific examples of workflow redesign or automation adoption (not generic chat tool usage alone).
- Ability to reason about AI limits, coach stakeholders on practical use and guardrails, and partner on process-plus-tooling Deliverables; exposure to agentic automation or low-code operational tooling is a plus.
The use of AI in Application Review: To support a fair, efficient, and consistent hiring process, we use AI-powered tools to assist in the initial screening of applications. These tools help us identify qualifications and prior work experiences that align with the requirements of the role. We may also use AI assistant video tools during interviews to support note-taking and candidate evaluation. All AI-powered outputs are still subject to human oversight and decision-making at multiple stages of the process. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to Pie utilizing these AI technologies to assist in our evaluation process.
Base Compensation Range
$100,000—$125,000 USD
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive cash compensation
- Comprehensive health plans
- Generous PTO
- Future focused 401k match
- Generous parental and caregiver leave
- Our core values are more than just a poster on the wall; they’re tangibly reflected in our work
Making every part of working with us "Easy as Pie" - including our offer process. When we find someone we'd like as a Pie-oneer (a member of our team), we move quickly to put together a fair offer based on your skills, experience, location, and compensation expectations.
Each year Pie reviews company performance and may grant discretionary bonuses to eligible team members.
Location Information
Unless otherwise specified, this role is remote. Remote team members must live and work in the United States (territories excluded) and have access to reliable, high-speed internet.
Additional Information
Pie Insurance is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, national or ethnic origin, military service status, citizenship, or other protected characteristic.
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About Pie Insurance
Pie Insurance is an insurance company specializing in small business.