Operations Director

Role Purpose

The PS Operations Director is the CDO's execution partner on both operational performance and strategic transformation. This is one of the most senior and consequential roles in Keyloop PS — responsible for running the operational engine of the PS organisation while simultaneously driving the Services 2.0 change agenda that will take PS from a cost centre to a growth engine.

Day to day, this role owns the operational infrastructure that keeps PS performing: financial reporting, resource management, utilisation, commercial governance, and the Services Sales Desk. Strategically, this role owns the execution of the transformation roadmap — workforce distribution into RDCs and GDCs, productised services operationalisation, AI and automation adoption, and the operating model changes that will deliver Keyloop's PS margin and growth targets.

The PS Operations Director is a change agent and operational executor — as comfortable driving a transformation programme as owning the weekly performance cadence. This role sets the pace for the PS organisation, holds it to account, and ensures the distance between strategy and execution is as short as possible.

Key Responsibilities

1. CDO Execution Partner: Operations & Strategy

• Operate as the CDO's primary execution partner — translating strategic priorities into operational plans, owning delivery against them, and keeping the CDO informed and ahead of issues.
• Own the PS operational rhythm: weekly and monthly performance reviews, scorecard management, initiative tracking, and exec reporting — ensuring the CDO has the right information at the right time, without having to chase it.
• Lead the Services 2.0 transformation programme on behalf of the CDO — coordinating workstream owners, tracking milestones, resolving blockers, and maintaining momentum across all transformation initiatives.
• Develop and maintain the PS scorecard and North Star metric framework; ensure targets are current, data is trusted, and progress is visible.
• Prepare CDO-level content for board, investor, and executive audiences — including PS performance packs, transformation progress updates, and strategic proposals.
• Act as a decision-making proxy for the CDO where appropriate — trusted to represent JW's position and priorities across the PS organisation.

2.  Financial Performance & Commercial Discipline

• Own PS financial reporting in partnership with the PS Finance Business Partner: revenue, margin, utilisation, and forecast accuracy across all regions — ensuring leadership has a trusted, timely view of financial performance at all times.
• Drive commercial governance across PS: discount approval framework, SOW standards, pricing adherence, and free-of-charge tracking and approval.
• Own and operate the Services Sales Desk — central intake for all services sales requests, scoping routing, and discount governance. Auto-approve within defined parameters; escalate only what requires CDO decision.
• Lead PS budget planning and reforecasting cycles in partnership with the PS Finance Business Partner; maintain cost discipline across the PS cost base.
• Track and improve services attach rate, average deal value, and margin per engagement.
• Ensure the ARR services commercial model is operationally embedded — CSP billing, subscription tracking, and renewal visibility are all clean and accurate.
• Ensure standard day rates are published, communicated to the sales organisation, and adhered to across all new engagements.

3.  Workforce Strategy & Delivery Centre Execution

• Own Keyloop's PS workforce distribution strategy — driving the planned migration of PS headcount into Regional Delivery Centres (RDCs) and Global Delivery Centres (GDCs) to achieve target cost and capability distribution.
• Manage the headcount plan: in-geography vs. centre-based ratios, hiring approvals (non-centre hires require CDO sign-off), and headcount cost vs. budget.
• Build and grow GDC capabilities across PS functions — project management, technical services, data migration, and consulting — in partnership with Regional VPs and Domain Leads.
• Lead the PS workforce transformation milestones: FY26 27% GDC, FY27 45% GDC, FY28 60% GDC — own the plan, track the progress, and remove the blockers.
• Partner with HR and Talent Acquisition to build talent pipelines into centres; ensure GDC teams are onboarded, developed, and integrated into Keyloop delivery culture.

4.  Productised Services Operationalisation

• Own the operational implementation of Keyloop's productised services portfolio — Keyloop Traction, Keyloop SureStart, and Customer Success Plans — ensuring all required operational infrastructure is in place for each product to be sold and delivered consistently.
• Define and maintain the services catalogue, SKUs, and standard rate card; ensure pricing is current, published, and being used by the sales organisation.
• Implement and manage the standard SOW process — single quoting process, correct product selection, and commercial parameters enforced before deals are contracted.
• Track packaged delivery adoption: % of new deals quoted from standard packages vs. bespoke; drive the trend toward Keyloop's 75% packaged delivery target.
• Own sales enablement on productised services in partnership with the CRO — ensuring the sales organisation can articulate and sell Traction and SureStart confidently, and that enablement sessions are delivered and tracked.
• Agree GTM timeline for productised services with the CRO and CPO; own the operational plan to deliver it.

5.  PS Transformation Agenda

• Execute Keyloop's Services 2.0 transformation roadmap — owning the programme plan, workstream coordination, and delivery accountability across all transformation initiatives.
• Drive the AI and automation agenda within PS: identify opportunities, coordinate the AI task force, define the structured learning path for task force members, pilot use cases, and operationalise tools that reduce delivery overhead and accelerate time to value.
• Own PS document automation as an early AI priority — automating the production of standard sales and services documents (SOWs, project initiation, handover packs) to reduce manual effort and improve consistency.
• Lead the digitisation of PS delivery workflows — from order management and resource scheduling through to project reporting and customer outcome tracking.
• Own change management across the PS transformation: stakeholder communication, adoption tracking, and resistance navigation to ensure new ways of working land and stick.
• Identify and implement operational improvements that directly improve PS operating margin — with a clear line of sight from initiative to P&L impact.
• Maintain the PS transformation roadmap as a living document: updated, prioritised, and aligned to Keyloop's FY targets and PS North Star metrics.

6.  Operational Infrastructure & Reporting

• Own the PS operational cadence: weekly utilisation reviews, monthly P&L and scorecard reviews, quarterly operational reviews — ensure each is well-structured, data-driven, and action-oriented.
• Own and operate the PS KPI framework across two lenses — Run the Business (revenue, margin, utilisation, portfolio RAG, TTV, NPS, backlog, FOC, headcount) and Change the Business (eNPS, packaged delivery %, recurring services %, AI adoption, GDC %, SureStart adoption, transformation progress) — ensuring every metric has a named owner, a live data source, and appears in a consistent exec report pack issued monthly to the ELT and board.
• Build and maintain PS reporting infrastructure: all metrics live, automated where possible, and trusted. Eliminate manual data compilation — the exec pack should be generated, not assembled.
• Own the PS NPS programme: ensure project NPS is tracked across all regions, feedback loops are closed, and NPS data informs delivery improvement. North Star target: >40.
• Own the eNPS baseline and improvement plan in partnership with HR — ensure pulse survey cadence is in place, results are acted on, and the PS team's engagement trajectory is moving in the right direction from the current -8 baseline.
• Implement and manage standard operating procedures across PS — utilisation management, FOC approval, project health tracking, backlog management, time to start, and services sales governance.
• Own the PS tooling stack in partnership with IT and the CTO — ensuring PS teams have the systems they need to operate efficiently and that data flows correctly between them.
• Ensure backlog reporting is clean and actioned: volume, value, age, and scheduled vs. unscheduled visibility across all regions.

7.  Cross-Functional Engagement & Stakeholder Management

• Act as the PS interface with Finance, Sales, Product, and Customer Success on operational and commercial matters.
• Partner with the CRO on services GTM alignment: commission plan design, services attach incentives, and Sales team enablement on productised services.
• Partner with the CFO and PS Finance Business Partner on PS financial model evolution: ARR services commercial model, workforce cost arbitrage, and productivity metrics.
• Represent PS operational performance to the CDO, CEO, and board as required — with the credibility and data fluency to hold the room.

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential

• Senior operational leadership experience in Professional Services within a SaaS or enterprise software environment.
• Proven track record running large-scale PS operations: financial reporting, resource management, commercial governance, and operational cadence.
• Experience leading or executing major transformation programmes — operating model change, workforce redistribution, productisation, or digital transformation.
• Strong commercial acumen: P&L ownership, financial modelling, pricing, and discount governance.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a strategic execution partner to a senior leader — trusted to act, decide, and represent where needed.
• Data-driven: builds reporting infrastructure, works from insight, and manages by numbers not narrative.
• Strong cross-functional influencing skills: drives change and adoption across teams without direct authority.
• Executive-level communication: able to prepare and present at board and investor level with confidence.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the automotive dealer or vehicle retail industry.
• Experience in a PE-backed, high-growth SaaS environment with aggressive transformation targets.
• Familiarity with AI and automation tooling in a PS delivery context.
• Background in management consulting or operational transformation.

Qualifications

Education - Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Technology, or equivalent. MBA or equivalent desirable.
 
Experience - 12+ years in PS operations, transformation, or senior operational leadership roles within a SaaS or enterprise software environment.
 

What 'Great' Looks Like in This Role

• The CDO never has to chase an update — they already have the right information, framed the right way, before they need it.
• The PS operational engine runs smoothly and visibly: every key metric is live, trusted, and acted on.
• The transformation roadmap moves. Initiatives don't stall — blockers are named, owned, and resolved.
• Commercial discipline is felt across PS: discount governance, SOW standards, and pricing adherence are the norm, not the exception.
• The GDC migration is on track and the centres are genuinely integrated into PS delivery — not an afterthought.
• The PS Ops Director is known across Keyloop as a credible, commercially sharp operator who gets things done.