Senior Director, Central Operations

Senior Director, Central Operations

New York, New York

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Who We Are

At Justworks, you’ll enjoy a welcoming and casual environment, great benefits, wellness program offerings, company retreats, and the ability to interact with and learn from leaders in the startup community. We work hard and care about our most prized asset - our people.

We’re helping businesses get off the ground by enabling them to focus on running their business. We solve HR issues. We’re data-driven and never stop iterating. If you’d like to work in a supportive, entrepreneurial environment, are interested in building something meaningful and having fun while doing it, we’d love to hear from you.

We're united by shared goals and shared motivations at Justworks. These are best summed up in our company values, which are reflected in our product and in our team.

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If this sounds like you, you’ll fit right in.

Who You Are

You're an operations leader who sees this moment in operations for what it is: a rare inflection point where AI and automation are reshaping what's possible, and where the leaders who move first will define the next generation of operational excellence. You bring deep expertise in standards, systems, and process design, paired with the vision to imagine what operations can become and the discipline to get there. You've built operational infrastructure before: the SOPs, controls, systems, KPI frameworks, and governance cadences that turn a high-performing team into a high-performing organization. You're a builder at heart, energized by creating structure where there isn't any, and you lead teams through ambiguity and change with conviction and clarity. You influence across the organization, earning trust, driving adoption, and making change stick even where you don't have direct authority. You're also a natural connector between Operations and the partners across Technology, Customer Success, Revenue, and Finance who are critical to making the company's transformation agenda real.

Your Success Profile

As the Senior Director of Central Operations, you will lead the transformation of our Operations organization at one of the most exciting moments in the function's history. You will build the operational backbone that sets the standards, systems, and capabilities for how the organization works, and you will lead the AI and automation agenda that will fundamentally reshape how operations gets done. This is a rare opportunity to stand up a centralized function from the ground up, shape its vision, and drive change that will be felt across every team in Operations.

You will own a portfolio of centralized functions including operational excellence, data and KPIs, third-party systems, AI and automation transformation, and learning and development. You will elevate Central Operations as the strategic engine that raises the performance bar across the entire organization and positions Operations as a competitive advantage for the business.

LEAD THE TRANSFORMATION AND AUTOMATION AGENDA

• Lead the Operations transformation agenda at a pivotal moment, with a particular focus on identifying, prioritizing, and deploying AI and automation solutions that fundamentally reshape how the organization operates.

• Reimagine long-standing workflows and unlock step-change improvements in efficiency, quality, and speed.

• Serve as the primary Operations liaison for company-wide automation and AI initiatives, partnering with Technology, Customer Success, Revenue, and Finance to identify shared opportunities, align on priorities, and ensure that what gets built reflects operational realities and scales across functions.

• Build a change management muscle within the org to ensure transformation sticks, focusing on how teams embrace and adopt change, not only what gets shipped.

BUILD AND LEAD THE CENTRAL OPERATIONS TEAM

• Build, develop, and retain a lean, high-performing team, setting a high bar for excellence and creating an environment where people take ownership and do their best work.

• Set a clear strategic vision, aligning the team around shared goals and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

DRIVE OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION

• Define and maintain the standards framework for the Operations org, including SOPs, controls, and quality benchmarks, ensuring consistency and accountability across all ops teams.

• Drive continuous process improvement, identifying and closing gaps between how work is designed and how it gets done in practice.

• Build and manage a governance cadence that keeps standards current as the business evolves.

OWN DATA, KPIs, AND OPERATIONAL REPORTING

• Own the KPI framework for Operations, including metric definitions, ownership, and target-setting in partnership with ops leadership.

• Ensure the org has timely, reliable, and actionable reporting, overseeing dashboards and data quality across operational functions.

• Serve as the authoritative source for how Operations measures success.

GOVERN SYSTEMS AND TOOLS

• Own the Operations tool stack, including configuration, governance, vendor relationships, and license management across third-party platforms.

• Ensure tooling reflects and reinforces the processes the team standardizes, and that changes in process are reflected in how tools are configured.

• Evaluate and introduce new tools in partnership with IT and Engineering as the org's needs evolve.

BUILD THE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

• Own L&D for the Operations organization, including onboarding, skills development, manager training, and the capability programs needed to support transformation initiatives.

• Ensure that as tools and processes evolve, the team's skills evolve with them, preparing the org for a future where AI and automation are embedded in how work gets done.

• Build scalable L&D infrastructure rather than one-off programs.

How You Will Do Your Work

As Senior Director of Central Operations, how results are achieved is as important as what you achieve. You'll demonstrate:

Vision and Forward-Looking Leadership: You anticipate where operations is going before others see it and position your team to lead rather than react. You think in systems, connect near-term execution to long-term capability, and make bold bets on where the organization needs to go.

Decisive, Data-Driven Leadership: You define what good looks like before measuring it. You use analytics and operational insights to set standards, track performance, and drive improvements across the org. You hold the line on data quality and metric integrity even when it's inconvenient.

Change Management and Transformation: You know that shipping a solution is only half the job. You lead the shift toward automated, AI-enabled operations and bring teams along through change, building the adoption muscle that makes transformation stick.

Horizontal Leadership and Influence: You drive outcomes across teams you don't own. You build credibility through expertise, earn trust through follow-through, and shape standards and practices org-wide through partnership rather than positional authority.

Inclusive, Growth-Oriented Leadership: Foster psychological safety, encourage diverse perspectives, and develop emerging leaders across your team.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in operations, business operations, product, or a related function, with at least 3-5 years leading teams.

• Demonstrated success building operational infrastructure (SOPs, KPIs, controls frameworks) in a fast-growing or scaling organization.

• Proven track record leading transformation or automation initiatives, including hands-on experience evaluating, deploying, or governing AI or process automation tools in an operational context.

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to define metrics, oversee data quality, and turn reporting into actionable insights.

• Hands-on experience owning and governing operational tools and third-party platforms.

• Experience building or overseeing L&D programs, particularly in an operations context.

• Exceptional influencing and communication skills, with a proven ability to drive change across teams outside of direct ownership and influence at the executive level.

• Experience operating in a compliance-adjacent, regulated, or high-stakes service environment where quality and accuracy have direct customer or legal impact is a plus.

• Familiarity with process improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent) is a plus.

This role is based in our New York City headquarters. The base wage range for this position will be $240,000 - $310,000 annually.

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Actual compensation is based on multiple factors that are unique to each candidate, including and not limited to skill set, level of relevant experience, and specific work location. Salary ranges for positions based in other locations may differ based on the cost of labor in that location.

For more information about Justworks’ Total Reward Philosophy, including all of the perks and benefits we are proud to offer our team members, please visit Total Rewards @ Justworks ( .

Diversity At Justworks

Justworks is committed to maintaining a workplace where diversity of identity, culture, and life experience is the norm and is celebrated authentically and respected consistently. Diversity in our work, our people, and our product drives creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial leadership and integrity, competitiveness, and collaboration throughout our business and in the market. We depend on our differences to make our team stronger, our workplace more dynamic, and our product accessible to all of our customers.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer open to all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or familial status, disability, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status. Justworks is fully dedicated to providing necessary support to candidates with disabilities who may require reasonable accommodations. We also provide reasonable accommodations to employees based on their sincerely held religious beliefs, as well as for other covered reasons consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. If you're in need of a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at View email address on click.appcast.io. Your comfort and success matter to us, and we're here to ensure an inclusive experience.

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