Zilch
Operational Excellence Principal
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Who we are:
Zilch is a payment tech company on a mission to create the most empowering way to pay for anything, anywhere. Combining the best of debit, credit and savings, we give our customers the option to earn instant cashback or spread the cost of pricier purchases, completely interest free and with no late fees. Pretty great, right?
We started in 2018 with a small team and a big dream - to make credit accessible to all. Since then, we've achieved double unicorn status and taken on more than 5 million customers. There are some exciting projects coming up and we’ve got big growth plans.
Want to join us?
About the Role
The Operational Excellence Principal is the most senior operational practitioner within the Operational Excellence function, responsible for leading the delivery of the organisation's most complex operational excellence initiatives and ensuring Operational Excellence frameworks are applied consistently across the business.
Working across Product, Engineering, Customer Operations, Risk, Compliance, and other business functions, the role translates customer and operational insight into measurable improvements, ensuring strategic change is operationally ready, effectively embedded, and delivers sustainable customer and business outcomes.
The Operational Excellence Principal provides technical leadership across the Operational Excellence team, coaching analysts, maintaining high standards of analysis and delivery, and leading complex problem-solving across the organisation.
As the senior operational leader within the function, the role represents Operational Excellence within governance forums and provides continuity for the Director of Operational Excellence where appropriate, ensuring governance, delivery, and strategic initiatives continue to progress effectively.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Excellence Delivery
- Lead the delivery of the organisation's most complex and strategically significant Operational Excellence initiatives.
- Translate customer, operational, and business signals into clearly defined problems, practical solutions, and measurable business outcomes.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives that improve customer experience, operational performance, scalability, and operational resilience.
- Ensure initiatives remain aligned to organisational priorities and deliver agreed customer and commercial benefits.
- Lead structured investigations into complex operational challenges, synthesising customer insight, operational data, and business context into clear recommendations.
Portfolio Leadership & Prioritisation
- Support the Director of Operational Excellence in managing the Operational Excellence portfolio.
- Assess new improvement opportunities, recommend prioritisation, and ensure work is routed through the appropriate governance and delivery approach.
- Maintain visibility of portfolio risks, dependencies, and delivery progress, escalating where required.
- Ensure improvement activity remains aligned to organisational priorities and available capacity.
Change Delivery & Operational Readiness
- Lead Operational Readiness activities for Tier 1 and strategically significant change initiatives.
- Chair Operational Readiness forums, driving cross-functional accountability and delivery.
- Provide independent operational readiness assessments to support Go / No-Go decisions.
- Ensure operational risks, dependencies, and readiness activities are identified, tracked, and resolved prior to implementation.
- Oversee Early Life Support and successful transition into Business as Usual.
- Identify opportunities to continuously improve Operational Readiness practices based on delivery experience.
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Continuous Improvement & Benefit Realisation
- Lead complex cross-functional improvement initiatives from discovery through implementation.
- Facilitate structured workshops to identify root causes, validate assumptions, and develop sustainable solutions.
- Ensure Post-Implementation Reviews are completed and lessons learned are embedded into future delivery.
- Validate that expected customer, operational, and commercial benefits are realised, challenging initiatives where measurable outcomes are not achieved.
- Promote structured problem-solving and evidence-based decision-making across improvement activity.
Governance & Operational Assurance
- Ensure Operational Excellence governance frameworks are applied consistently across strategic initiatives.
- Produce executive-quality reporting that provides clear insight into portfolio health, operational readiness, delivery risks, and realised benefits.
- Represent Operational Excellence within governance forums, providing operational insight to support effective decision-making.
- Recommend improvements to Operational Excellence methodologies, governance, and delivery standards based on practical delivery experience.
Technical Leadership & Capability Development
- Act as the senior technical practitioner within Operational Excellence.
- Coach and develop Operational Excellence Analysts, strengthening capability in analysis, root cause investigation, facilitation, process improvement, and benefit realisation.
- Review complex analysis, recommendations, and business cases, ensuring a consistently high standard of quality across the function.
- Lead by example, promoting disciplined thinking, structured problem-solving, and a culture of continuous improvement.
Strategic Partnership
- Build trusted relationships across Product, Engineering, Customer Operations, Risk, Compliance, Data, and other business functions.
- Influence strategic priorities through operational insight, customer evidence, and measurable business impact.
- Represent Operational Excellence within cross-functional governance forums and senior stakeholder discussions.
- Represent the Director of Operational Excellence where appropriate, ensuring continuity of governance, decision-making, and delivery.
Measures of Success
- Strategic initiatives delivered to agreed Operational Readiness and governance standards.
- Operational Excellence initiatives delivering measurable customer, operational, and commercial benefits.
- Benefits realised and validated following implementation.
- High levels of stakeholder confidence in Operational Excellence delivery and governance.
- Consistent application of Operational Excellence frameworks and standards across the organisation.
- Operational risks proactively identified, managed, and mitigated throughout change delivery.
- High-quality coaching and development of Operational Excellence Analysts.
- Delivery portfolio managed within agreed governance, quality, and delivery expectations.
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What We're Looking For
Experience
- Significant experience in Operational Excellence, Business Transformation, Continuous Improvement, or Operational Change.
- Extensive experience leading complex cross-functional improvement and transformation initiatives.
- Strong experience delivering operational readiness, governance, and change within a regulated environment.
- Demonstrable experience translating operational and customer insight into practical, measurable business improvements.
- Experience facilitating complex root cause analysis and structured problem-solving activities.
- Experience producing executive-quality reporting and presenting recommendations to senior stakeholders.
- Experience coaching or developing colleagues through technical leadership rather than formal line management.
Skills
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving capability.
- Strong facilitation and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels of the organisation.
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery.
- Strong commercial awareness and ability to quantify customer and business impact.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Desirable
- Financial Services or FinTech experience.
- Lean, Six Sigma, or Agile qualifications.
- Experience working with conversational analytics, operational intelligence, or AI-driven insight.
Benefits
Compensation & Savings:
- Pension scheme.
- Death in Service scheme.
- Income Protection.
- Permanent employees enjoy access to our Share Options Scheme.
- 5% back on in-app purchases.
- £200 for WFH Setup.
Health & Wellbeing:
- Private Medical Insurance including;
- GP consultations (video, telephone, or face-to-face).
- Prescribed medication.
- In-patient, day-patient, and out-patient care.
- Mental health support.
- Optical, dental & audiological cover.
- Physiotherapy.
- Advanced cancer cover.
- Menopause support.
- Employee Assistance Programme including:
- Unlimited mental health sessions.
- 24/7 remote GP & physiotherapy.
- 24/7 helpline for emotional & practical support.
- Savings & discounts on everyday shopping.
- 1:1 personalised well-being consultations.
- Gym membership discounts.
Family Friendly Policies:
- Enhanced maternity pay.
- Enhanced paternity pay.
- Enhanced adoption pay.
- Enhanced shared parental leave.
Learning & Development:
- Professional Qualifications.
- Professional Memberships.
- Learning Suite for e-courses.
- Internal Training Programmes.
- FCA & Regulatory training.
Workplace Perks:
- Hybrid working: office-based Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday; remote working Tuesday and Friday.
- Casual dress code.
- Workplace socials.
- Healthy snacks.
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