Director – Central Operations

Major Accountabilities

1) Site leadership & people management

• Lead Mexico City NOCC teams and people leaders to deliver daily operational performance, reinforce expectations, and develop talent.
• Own local workforce health, including hiring plans, onboarding, performance management, recognition, attrition mitigation, and succession planning, in partnership with US functional leaders, Resources & Engagement, and Mexico P&O.
• Build a high-performing site culture that promotes accountability, engagement, and continuous development.

2) Operational execution & performance management

• Ensure delivery of agreed SLAs and KPIs across Mexico City-supported workstreams, including service, productivity, turnaround time, quality, and backlog health.
• Identify performance gaps and partner with US-based stakeholders to implement corrective actions and sustainable improvement plans.
• Support operational readiness for launches, transitions, and scaling of new or expanded capabilities.

3) Standardization, training enablement, and continuous improvement

• Partner with US Program & Systems Training to ensure training delivery excellence for PSC new hires, upskilling, and launch readiness.
• Drive standardization, process discipline, and continuous improvement across supported operations in alignment with enterprise requirements.
• Provide feedback to improve curriculum effectiveness, documentation, operational workflows, and site readiness.

4) Cross-site governance, escalations, and stakeholder management

• Serve as the primary Mexico City operations leader for US stakeholders and maintain effective communication across cross-site priorities.
• Manage site-level escalations related to operations, people, compliance, and technology, ensuring timely resolution and alignment with enterprise governance.
• Represent Mexico City site needs in planning, capacity, and change discussions to support proactive decision-making.

5) Compliance & risk management

• Ensure site adherence to relevant policies, SOPs/WPDs, data privacy requirements, and quality standards; partner with Compliance/Ethics/Risk and Performance Excellence as needed.
• Responsible for identifying and reporting adverse events via the established Novartis systems as per applicable processes.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred (MBA/MHA or similar).
• 7+ years of operations leadership experience, including 5+ years leading people leaders (managers/supervisors) in a contact center, shared services, or regulated operations environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing performance to SLAs/KPIs, using data to drive decisions and continuous improvement.
• Proven cross-site / cross-functional partnership experience with US-based teams (or global matrix organizations), including strong executive communication.
• Fluent English and Spanish (written and verbal).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in pharma hub services, patient support services, reimbursement operations, specialty pharmacy, or similar regulated healthcare operations.
• Experience supporting launches, transitions, and scaling near-shore/off-shore capabilities.
• Knowledge of quality/compliance requirements for patient support operations (e.g., documentation standards, issue escalation, PV/AE reporting awareness).
• Lean / Six Sigma or other continuous improvement training (preferred).

Core Competencies

• Operational leadership and accountability; ability to run a “performance system” (daily management, tiered huddles, visual management).
• Clear communicator in a matrix; writes crisp updates and escalations that enable decisions.
• Change leadership; can implement US-standard changes locally with adoption and minimal disruption.
• Coaching and talent development; builds bench strength and a culture of high support / high challenge.
• Analytical problem solving; uses data to diagnose, prioritize, and measure impact.
• Stakeholder management; builds trust with US functional leaders and local partners.