Senior Director, Process Excellence

Coursera was launched in 2012 by two Stanford Computer Science professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 124 million registered learners. Coursera partners with over 300 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, Guided Projects, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Institutions around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in fields such as data science, technology, and business.

Coursera became a B Corp in February 2021. As a B Corp, we're committed to driving positive social and environmental impact while delivering high-quality learning experiences. Our platform is used by institutions worldwide to upskill and reskill employees, citizens, and students across industries, including data science, technology, and business.

Join us in our mission to create a world where anyone, anywhere can transform their life through access to education. We're seeking talented individuals who share our passion and drive to revolutionize the way the world learns.

We at Coursera are committed to building a globally diverse team and are thrilled to extend employment opportunities to individuals in any country where we have a legal entity. We require candidates to possess eligible working rights and have a compatible timezone overlap with their team to facilitate seamless collaboration. As a remote-first company, our interviews and onboarding are entirely virtual, providing a smooth and efficient experience for our candidates.

Job Overview:

We are looking for a senior leader experienced in transforming the way a business runs through process optimization. With rapid growth comes scaling challenges. To maintain and accelerate growth, we’re investing in how we operate more efficiently and effectively across the entire company.

The Senior Director of Process Excellence will be responsible to drive this relatively new function. The vision for the team is a single center of excellence accountable for the design and implementation of business processes optimized to support employee productivity (first and foremost), as well as the growth, service level, and cost performance of all teams across Coursera. This leader must work very closely with functional leaders to identify pain points, build a roadmap, and manage the team who will drive detailed redesign and re-engineering of current processes and / or establish new, breakthrough processes to ensure Coursera fulfills its goals and mission.

You bring a strong leadership point of view, including proven experience building new teams (e.g. charter definition, KPI establishment, org design, people management, roadmap building). You have a deep working knowledge of Lean Six Sigma principles and tools. This role is a high-visibility position and requires both technical process design, analysis, and / or modeling skills, as well as advanced team leadership and communication skills. The position will be directly involved in the largest and most important transformation efforts at the company. You will be responsible for managing the company’s most core, complex, and cross-functional processes.

Responsibilities:

• Use problem solving skills and statistical techniques to lead cross-functional teams forward in their identification of root cause and corrective action / continuous improvement
• Deliver business process transformations - both redesign of existing and creation of new
• Be the company’s Lean Six Sigma expert, enabling all Coursera process owners and up-leveling the entire company’s ability to optimize processes
• Build and manage a team of high-performing individual contributors - e.g. staffing, performance planning and reviews, team morale, capacity planning, and personal development
• Define the company’s process optimization roadmap, identifying which to optimize in what order to maximize employee productivity, and secure executive leadership alignment on prioritization and required resourcing
• Be the leader accountable for process performance, continually and quantitatively measuring how each process delivers against its clearly defined objectives
• Respond with urgency to organizational needs and exhibit excellent judgment while delivering results
• Manage change to activate the company around central processes, ensuring every user understands their value and fully adopts their practice

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of 5 years of people management experience leading a team of project managers or similar professionals
• A Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Quality, Computer Science, Computer Software, Information Management, Business Management or related experience
• Demonstrated execution of project management for company-level, large, complex projects with excellent understanding of project management theory and techniques
• Expertise understanding of Lean Six Sigma problem solving tools and techniques
• Minimum 8 years of professional experience in a role that required extensive and skilled change management and implementation of employee productivity systems and processes in an organization of 1500+ employees
• Confidence and skill working in a high-growth, fast-paced environment, resolving conflicting and / or ambiguous challenges (e.g. tech company)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with product lifecycle management systems and tools
• Proficiency in project management software tools related to agile methodologies
• Lean Silver or Gold certification
• Green Belt, Black Belt or Master Black Belt certification
• Project Management qualification (PMP) or equivalent

If this opportunity interests you, you might like these courses on Coursera:

• Six Sigma and the Organization (Advanced)

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The starting base pay for this role is between $139,000 and $303,000. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs, and location. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, and benefits.

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Coursera is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and considers all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected class.

If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, please contact us at [email protected].

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