Director of Operational Excellence

Phil
San Francisco, CA
Remote

Who this role is best for

Geared toward candidates with experience in building operational infrastructure and leading teams in regulated environments, comfortable with AI-enabled process design and cross-functional accountability.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience building operational infrastructure from the ground up in regulated environments
    — “Demonstrated ability to build operational processes and infrastructure from the ground up
  • Candidates who have led and scaled operational teams in high-volume, complex settings
    — “5+ years leading and scaling operational teams or functions, not solely operating within an existing structure
  • Candidates with a strategic mindset and hands-on approach to process design and automation
    — “strategic and hands-on leader — setting direction and building the team while staying close to the work

Things to consider

  • Travel commitment of up to 20% may be necessary despite remote flexibility
    — “Ability to travel up to 20%

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience with AI and automation in operational process design
    — “Own the agenda for leveraging AI and automation to improve how the Operations organization works
  • Emphasize your track record of measurable improvement in operational efficiency
    — “Demonstrated ability to build operational processes and infrastructure from the ground up, with a track record of measurable improvement
  • Showcase your ability to lead cross-functional teams and drive accountability
    — “Drive improvement initiatives across partner teams, holding leaders accountable to committed timelines and measurable outcomes
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Mid Level

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

What success looks like

  • Built and standardized processes
  • Improved operational efficiency
  • Enhanced quality control
Typical background
Experience in Operations ManagementBackground in Quality Assurance

Skills & requirements

Required

Operational Infrastructure DesignProcess DesignAi-enabled OperationsQuality OversightContinuous ImprovementCross-functional Collaboration

Preferred

AI And Automation Implementation

Stack & domain

AI TechnologiesAutomationQuality OversightProcess DesignCloud PlatformsLeadershipStrategic ThinkingProblem-solvingCommunicationTeamworkOperationsQuality AssurancePharmaceuticalsHealthcare

About the role

Original posting from Phil via Ashby

Company Overview

Founded in 2015, PHIL is a Series D health-tech startup that is building a platform that interfaces between doctors, pharmacies, and patients to streamline the process of patients receiving prescriptions. This is a complex, archaic industry, and we've set out to change that.

PHIL's B2B2C platform provides an end-to-end prescription management and delivery service. Our robust platform connects patients, prescribers, pharmacies, and manufacturers, enabling easy and affordable access to medicine. Through its digital stakeholder experiences, patient access services, market access solutions, and distribution models, pharma manufacturers can deliver affordable and timely therapy access to patients, resulting in more patients staying on their treatment plans longer. Consequently, pharma manufacturers are enabled for more innovation.

The team at PHIL is a group of like-minded individuals from varying backgrounds, passionate about creating a new and innovative healthcare platform that is focused on patient experience and overall human wellbeing. Ready to join our team of mission-driven, analytical, and passionate people? Keep reading!

Position Overview

Phil is seeking a highly experienced and proactive Director of Operations to join our Operational Excellence team. This role is responsible for building and scaling the infrastructure, processes, and systems that enable our Operations organization to perform at its best. Reporting to the Vice President of Operational Excellence, you will work closely with Operations, Product, Engineering, and Client Success.

Our Operations organization is large and multifaceted, spanning patient support, pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. You will serve as a strategic and hands-on leader — setting direction and building the team while staying close to the work. Quality sits within your purview, and you will also own the broader operational process agenda across the organization, ensuring that every function has the structure, tooling, and standards it needs to operate effectively and scale.

Responsibilities:

Operational Infrastructure and Process Design

Build and standardize the processes, documentation, and workflows that underpin our patient support, pharmacist, and pharmacy tech functions. Identify gaps in how work gets done and design scalable solutions that reduce friction and improve consistency. Partner with Engineering and Product to ensure systems reflect how work actually flows, embedding controls at the point of work rather than inspecting after the fact.

AI-Enabled Operations and Continuous Improvement

Own the agenda for leveraging AI and automation to improve how the Operations organization works. Build AI-driven monitoring that surfaces error signals and risk patterns in real time, and partner with Engineering and Product to embed intelligent controls directly into operational systems. Define a forward-looking roadmap for emerging AI capabilities — evaluating new tools, piloting them, and integrating them into the operating model as they mature. The goal is an organization where technology does the heavy lifting on detection and prevention, freeing the team to focus on higher-order problem solving.

Quality Oversight

Own the quality function — including audit, analysis, and quality engineering — and drive a shift from reactive, manual auditing toward automated, system-embedded controls and predictive monitoring. Ensure quality issues are escalated quickly, owned clearly, and resolved with documented outcomes.

Cross-Functional Accountability and Execution

Drive improvement initiatives across partner teams, holding leaders accountable to committed timelines and measurable outcomes. Own escalation frameworks that ensure every cross-functional issue has an assigned owner and a defined path forward. Escalate blockers quickly with a proposed solution and ensure no initiative stalls — this is a role for someone who originates work and drives it to completion.

Team Leadership and Executive Communication

Lead and develop a team spanning operational excellence, quality, and process design. Build reporting infrastructure that gives leadership real-time visibility into performance and process health. Produce clear, data-driven narratives for executive and business reviews covering metrics, trends, root cause, and actions taken.

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
  • 10+ years of operations, operational excellence, or process improvement experience in a complex, high-volume environment
  • 5+ years leading and scaling operational teams or functions, not solely operating within an existing structure
  • Demonstrated ability to build operational processes and infrastructure from the ground up, with a track record of measurable improvement
  • Hands-on experience leveraging AI, automation, or software-based tools to improve operational performance and quality monitoring
  • Experience building or overseeing a quality function, including automated and system-embedded controls
  • Proven ability to influence stakeholders and drive accountability across teams without direct reporting authority
  • Self-motivated and proactive, with a demonstrated bias toward originating work rather than waiting for problems to be defined
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present to senior leadership
  • Experience in a regulated, high-accuracy environment such as pharmacy, healthcare, or clinical operations preferred
  • Ability to travel up to 20%

Benefits

Ground floor opportunity with one of the fastest-growing startups in health-tech

Fully remote working environment available in the following states: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, MA, MI, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV

Competitive compensation (commensurate with experience)

Full benefits (medical, dental, vision)

401(k) contribution opportunity

PHIL Inc. is an equal-opportunity employer.

Source: Phil careers (Ashby)

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