Director, Global Operations

Position Overview

CHAI’s Global Operations team has the mandate to maximize operational effectiveness and efficiency across the organization. The Director, Operations reports to the Chief Operating Officer and oversees three distinct functional areas:

• Internal AI transformation - leading the adoption of AI across the organization, in close partnership with the Innovation team.
• Strategic operations - process design and optimization, leading cross-functional operational priorities in collaboration with HR, Finance, IT, Legal & Compliance, etc.
• Operational infrastructure - managing the foundational functions that enable the organization to operate effectively, including safety & security and knowledge management.

These three areas are not separate bets. They are interdependent. AI is no longer optional in any high-performing operations function, process improvements only stick when the underlying infrastructure is reliable, and stable infrastructure is what makes both transformation and continuous improvement possible.

What Success Looks Like

The following give a concrete sense of the kinds of outcomes we are looking for; they should be viewed as illustrative, and not comprehensive:

• CHAI is, at its core, radically more efficient due to the following three levers:
• AI has fundamentally changed how CHAI works.
• Core business processes have been reengineered to leverage the benefits that AI can provide.
• Staff are not occasional users - they are confident, capable practitioners who reach for AI instinctively when solving problems.
• CHAI can now deliver more with the same resources.
• Cross-functional work is streamlined and moves ahead rapidly, rather than getting stalled between functions.
• The energy that used to get lost in unwieldy processes or misalignment between functions is now spent moving the mission forward.
• Routine operational infrastructure has been streamlined so that teams are no longer spending their time re-inventing the wheel on the same processes.
• Global Ops is considered the go-to team to figure out the most effective and efficient way to accomplish day-to-day general management and operational tasks.
• The organization’s biggest operational pain points and risks are tackled successfully - from emergent issues that arise on an ad-hoc basis and require significant attention from the Leadership team, to long-standing issues that remain unresolved.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent and at least 12 years of relevant professional experience, including demonstrated success in a leadership role with direct management of teams and cross-functional accountability.
• Strong operational generalist background with the credibility and range to oversee functions where you are not the deepest subject-matter expert.
• Genuine working knowledge of AI tools, their capabilities, and limitations, and how they can be applied to transform enterprise workflows; deep technical expertise on AI is not required, but the ability to lead CHAI’s internal AI adoption agenda credibly and engage substantively on AI strategy is.
• Demonstrated experience leading change management or organizational transformation initiatives, including shifting staff behavior and building new ways of working across a distributed workforce.
• Prior experience navigating ambiguity and providing organizational direction in decentralized environments with limited formal structure.
• Proven ability to build and manage high-performing teams, with experience in coaching and developing staff at the mid-manager level.
• Willingness to travel internationally, up to 30% annually.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience improving how work gets done across an organization - whether through process redesign, restructuring teams, building new operating models, or leading operational change initiatives.
• Experience working closely with C-suite leaders to make data-driven recommendations and drive successful execution on leadership priorities.
• Experience in fast-paced and high-rigour sectors, such as management consulting or tech.
• Experience in global health, international development, or a comparable mission-driven sector.
• Exposure to safety, security, or risk management functions in an international operating context.
• Experience managing geographically dispersed teams across multiple countries, time zones, and cultural contexts.