Director, Operational Excellence & Business Agility, Boston, MA

Director, Operational Excellence & Business Agility, Boston, MA

Country: United States of America

Your Journey Starts Here:

Santander is a global leader and innovator in the financial services industry. We believe that our employees are our greatest asset. Our focus is on fostering an enriching journey that empowers you to explore diverse career opportunities while nurturing your personal growth. We are committed to creating an environment where continuous learning and development are prioritized, enabling you to thrive both professionally and personally. Here, you will find ample opportunities to connect and collaborate with talented colleagues from around the world, sharing insights and driving innovation together. Join us at Santander, where you are supported by a culture of engagement and a commitment to your success.

An exciting journey awaits, if you are interested in exploring the possibilities We Want to Talk to You!

The Director, Operational Excellence & Business Agility champions a culture of agility and collaboration, driving alignment and efficiency across teams. This role is critical in fostering innovation and improving governance, processes, and routines to optimize workflows and improve velocity and quality to meet organizational objectives.

Job Family Description:

Primarily responsible for driving large-scale change, fostering innovation, and ensuring operational excellence to position the company for speed, quality, and competitiveness. A primary objective will be to unify and stimulate cross-collaboration between the different areas of the Product & Platform function as well as the wider business. Leads cultural and organizational change efforts to embed agility, efficiency, and a customer-first mindset.

Job Function Description:

Works as a strategic partner with business owners, project leaders, product managers, technology, and other stakeholders to lead the improvement of the organizations’ Agile operating model. Works with partners across the organization to implement tools and processes that will support the strategies, optimize business processes, and enhance employee and customer experiences. Will be responsible for leading the transformation and change initiatives required to both stabilize and transform the product management target operating mode.

Essential Functions/Responsibility Statements:
 

• Oversee and lead the implementation of Agile practices across the Retail Banking & Transformation organization (Santander and Openbank).
• Creates, leads, and evolves the Agile operating model across business and technology.
• Develops a roadmap to deliver on the desired target operating model, including processes and functions integral to the support of the product management function, focusing on increasing quality and speed.
• Identifies opportunities to integrate new capabilities and innovations into the company's collaboration, project management, and product management tools.   
• Partners with business owners, Risk and Compliance, Technology, and other key stakeholders to drive development and execution of Santander’s agile transformation roadmap
• Leverages research and data-driven insights to identify opportunities, propose solutions, create, and maintain roadmaps, and improve performance
• Leads the execution of agile development processes, collaborating with Product Managers, Product Owners, and Technology Leaders to improve day to day execution of program deliverables.
• Generates buy-in and facilitate cross-functional collaboration with a wide range of technical stakeholder.
• Works across departments to enable the teams to reach their goals; includes risk and change management processes.
• Drive the adoption of Agile principles and frameworks, including SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, and Lean Agile methodologies
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and coaches to identify process improvement opportunities aligned with Agile principles.
• Monitor performance metrics and collect feedback to drive continuous improvement.

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education:

• BS/BA degree or higher: Project Management, Business, Technology, or related Field - REQUIRED
• MBA – Preferred

Licenses/Certification:

• Scrum or Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) certification - Preferred

Work Experience:

• 10+ Years Industry experience in Product Management, consulting, or agile transformation experience -Required
• 5+ Years Management / leadership experience – Required

Skills and Abilities:

• Strong understanding and demonstration of Product Management
• Seasoned strategist and creative leader who is able to drive Digital strategy, creative, delivery, and real-time/ongoing optimization
• Ability to foster a positive and motivating work environment, encouraging feedback and innovation
• Strong analytical, prioritization, interpersonal, problem-solving, and presentation skills.  
• Must have excellent professional presentation skills, and the ability to interact and engage all levels of management/leadership  
• Strong leadership, initiative, and planning skills
• Experience leading high engagement, cross-functional strategy execution
• Experience driving the adoption of and achieving successful Agile practices across organizations
   

EEO Statement:  At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce.  We actively encourage everyone to apply.   

Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Working Conditions: Frequent Minimal physical effort such as sitting, standing and walking. Occasional moving and lifting equipment and furniture is required to support onsite and offsite meeting setup and teardown. Physically capable of lifting up to fifty pounds, able to bend, kneel, climb ladders.
Employer Rights: This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate at any time for any reason.

What Else You Need To Know:

The base pay range for this position is posted below and represents the annualized salary range. For hourly positions (non-exempt), the annual range is based on a 40-hour work week. The exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, training, licensure and certifications and location.

$131,250.00 USD

$225,000.00 USD

Benefits:

Santander Benefits - 2025 Santander OnGoing/NH eGuide (foleon.com)

Risk Culture:

We embrace a strong risk culture and all of our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management.

EEO Statement:

At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce. We actively encourage everyone to apply. Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
Working Conditions:

Frequent minimal physical effort such as sitting, standing and walking is required for this role. Depending on location, occasional moving and lifting light equipment and/or furniture may be required.
Employer Rights:

This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate your employment at any time for any reason.

What To Do Next:

If this sounds like a role you are interested in, then please apply.

We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible application process for all candidates. If you require any assistance or accommodation due to a disability or any other reason, please contact us at [email protected] to discuss your needs.