Director, Business Operations - Operational Excellence

tastytrade
Chicago, IL
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have hands-on operational leadership experience in tooling, cost modeling, or performance management. This hybrid role in Chicago demands cross-functional execution and a balance between strategic vision and operational execution.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with prior experience in operational tooling and cost to serve modeling in a hands-on leadership role
    — “You've built cost to serve models, rolled out tooling, or run performance management systems before”
  • Those who have led cross-functional process redesigns with measurable impact
    — “Lead complex, cross functional projects from diagnosis through implementation and measured impact”
  • Individuals with a track record of designing KPI frameworks that operational teams use daily
    — “Design KPI frameworks and reporting systems that operational teams actually use to run their business”

Things to consider

  • This role requires a strong presence in Chicago, with a hybrid work arrangement
    — “Location: Chicago, IL — Hybrid”
  • The position demands direct engagement with distributed operational teams and their leaders
    — “Partner with the leaders of our operational teams, and their teams directly, as a hands-on partner”

How to stand out

  • Highlight specific operational tooling implementations and cost optimization successes in your resume
    — “Identify where manual, duplicative, or broken workflows are slowing down operational teams”
  • Showcase your ability to align operational metrics with financial impact through past projects
    — “Partner with Finance to connect operational metrics to P&L impact”
  • Emphasize your influence and communication skills when presenting analyses to leadership
    — “Present analyses that help leadership make tough calls, including being ready to disagree”
  • Include examples of leading process redesigns that span multiple teams and deliver measurable results
    — “Lead process redesigns that span multiple operational teams, from root cause diagnosis through implementation”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • operational efficiency
  • cost reduction
  • performance management
Typical background
business operationsoperational excellence

Skills & requirements

Required

Operational ToolingCost To ServeKPI DesignCross-functional Execution

Preferred

Company StrategyMarket Evaluation

Stack & domain

Operational ToolingCost To ServeKpisDashboardsOperational PlaybookSlasToolingPerformance ManagementData AnalysisCommunicationTeam PlayerProblem-solvingLeadershipFinanceOperations

About the role

Original posting from tastytrade via Greenhouse

Company:  tastytrade

Role:  Director, Business Operations — Operational Excellence

Location:  Chicago, IL — Hybrid

About the Role

The Business Operations team at IG North America works on many of the company's biggest opportunities and challenges. We help shape where the company is headed, identify new ways to grow, and make sure the entire organization is aligned. This role reports to the head of Business Operations and calls for someone who can think about the company's future while also getting critical work done day to day. The team moves between building multiyear plans and driving execution, depending on what the business needs most.

This particular role is the team's depth expert on operational performance: how our operating teams run day to day, what it costs to serve our customers, and where better tooling, process, or data can unlock efficiency. You'll partner closely with the leaders of our operational teams, and their teams directly, as a hands-on partner, not just a strategist handing down recommendations.

What You'll Do

Operational tooling and efficiency

Identify where manual, duplicative, or broken workflows are slowing down operational teams, and lead the build or rollout of new tools and systems to fix them.

Partner with Engineering, Data, and operational leaders to scope, prioritize, and implement automation that reduces cost and improves speed or quality.

Own the roadmap for operational tooling investments, including making the build versus buy case to leadership.

Cost to serve and unit economics

Define and maintain a cost to serve model across our operational functions, down to the channel, segment, or customer level.

Identify where costs are out of line with value delivered, and build the business case for changes to staffing, process, or technology.

Partner with Finance to connect operational metrics to P&L impact, and keep leadership honest about tradeoffs.

Operational tracking and performance management

Design the KPIs, dashboards, and reporting cadences operational teams use to run their business day to day.

Work with the data team to build reporting infrastructure that gives leadership and frontline managers the same source of truth, in near real time.

Stand up operating reviews, such as weekly and monthly business reviews, that turn data into decisions and accountability.

Cross functional execution

Lead process redesigns that span multiple operational teams, from root cause diagnosis through implementation and measured impact.

Support new product or market launches by building the operational playbook, including staffing models, SLAs, tooling, and performance targets, before go live.

Take on special projects that support the CEO's and operating leaders' top priorities.

Broader Biz Ops work

Contribute to company strategy, market evaluation, and planning processes alongside the rest of the Biz Ops team.

Support partnership or M&A evaluation when operational integration or cost to serve diligence is needed.

Who You Are

To succeed in this role, you need real depth in operations. You've built cost to serve models, rolled out tooling, or run performance management systems before, and you know the difference between a dashboard that looks good and one that changes behavior. You pair that operational fluency with the influence, communication, and analytical skills the rest of the Biz Ops team relies on.

A qualified candidate has 8+ years of work experience, including a meaningful chunk in an operations, ops strategy, or shared services role, and should be able to:

Lead complex, cross functional projects from diagnosis through implementation and measured impact, specifically in an operational context, such as tooling rollouts, process redesign, or cost structure changes.

Build and maintain cost to serve or unit economics models, and use them to make concrete tradeoff recommendations to leadership.

Design KPI frameworks and reporting systems that operational teams actually use to run their business, not just report upward.

Evaluate, scope, and help implement new operational tools and systems, working closely with Engineering and Data.

Present analyses that help leadership make tough calls, including being ready to disagree when the data points in a different direction.

Communicate clearly with different audiences, from the CEO and board to frontline operational managers.

Work comfortably and hands on with data: financial models, customer metrics, and operational dashboards.

Engage with distributed operational teams and get people motivated to adopt new ways of working.

Have fun, challenge yourself and your teammates, and keep perspective when things get intense.

Preferred Requirements

Prior experience in an operations, shared services, or ops strategy role, internal or consulting.

In that role, you owned tooling and cost to serve directly, rather than advising on it from the outside.

Company Perks + Benefits:    

Performance Bonuses    

Stock Purchase Options    

Medical/Vision/Dental Benefits  

401k Plan   

20 Paid Vacation Days (plus an additional paid vacation day the month of your birthday!)    

10 Paid Sick Days    

Gym Membership Reimbursement    

Commuter Benefits    

Pet Insurance    

Wellness & Mental Health Programs    

Charitable Donation Matching    

Two Paid Volunteer Days Off    

Daily catered lunch when in the office    

Full kitchen with snacks and beverages    

In-building gym    

Shuttle to/from Metra    

Base Salary Range: $120,000-$170,000 The actual salary offered will be based on the candidate's level of experience and qualifications. 

Discretionary Performance Bonus: 15-20% of base salary based on individual and company performance.  

About IGNA + tasty  

IG North America is home to tastytrade, tastylive & tastyfx—a family of brands built to democratize trading and empower individual investors. Founded in Chicago by the creators of thinkorswim, acquired by London-based IG Group in 2021, we combine startup innovation with the backing of a FTSE 100 fintech operating across five continents serving over 1.3m customers and handling billions of dollars in transactions – built on scale, trust, and proof. 

From our headquarters in Chicago's Fulton Market, our team builds award-winning trading platforms, produces live financial education content daily, and creates technology that makes complex markets accessible. tastytrade is our retail brokerage for self-directed investing and trading, with tastylive providing content to educate our customers. tastyfx is the fastest-growing forex broker in the US. tastycrypto provides self-custody digital wallets for decentralized finance.    

We're a lean, collaborative team that values autonomy, pragmatism, and impact. Whether you're building technology, creating content, serving customers, or supporting operations, you'll work alongside people who are passionate about disrupting traditional finance and genuinely care about helping traders succeed. Our culture rewards initiative, embraces experimentation, and measures success by the value we create for our users. The bar is high – bring a curious and forward-thinking mindset and we'll give you the platform to define what comes next. Join us at IG|tasty – the future gets built here.  

Location: Our office is in the West Loop - Chicago's growing center of tech, great cuisine, and high-end bars.  

Source: tastytrade careers (Greenhouse)

Similar roles

More roles at tastytrade