Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Operations Fellow

🎯 Role Definition

The Operations Fellow is an early- to mid-career operations leader-in-training who partners with cross-functional teams to scale repeatable processes, improve operational efficiency, and deliver measurable business outcomes. As a program-focused generalist, the Operations Fellow drives end-to-end operational programs — from discovery and process design to implementation, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement — while serving as a trusted partner to product, finance, customer success, and engineering teams.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Program Coordinator or Program Associate at a startup or mid-size company
Business Analyst or Operations Analyst in finance, customer success, or product operations
Management consulting analyst or rotational leadership program participant

Advancement To:

Operations Manager / Program Manager
Business Operations Partner / Senior Operations Analyst
Head of Ops, Director of Program Management, or Product Operations Lead

Lateral Moves:

Product Operations
Customer Success Operations
Revenue Operations (RevOps)
Strategy or Corporate Development rotational roles

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end operational initiatives by defining scope, setting timelines, assigning stakeholders, and delivering program milestones that reduce cycle time, increase throughput, or lower cost per transaction.
Design, document, and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs) and playbooks for recurring workflows; maintain version control and training materials to ensure consistent execution across teams.
Build and maintain KPI dashboards and operational reports (using Excel, Google Sheets, Tableau, or Looker) to monitor performance, identify trends, and surface escalation items to senior leadership on a weekly and monthly cadence.
Conduct root cause analysis of operational failures or customer escalations using quantitative and qualitative data, present actionable recommendations, and lead cross-functional corrective action plans to closure.
Aggregate and analyze transactional and system data to identify process bottlenecks and automation opportunities; partner with engineering or automation vendors to implement API/ETL or RPA solutions that reduce manual work.
Manage vendor relationships and third-party contracts, including vendor selection support, SLA definition, performance reviews, and cost reconciliation to ensure services align to expected outcomes and budgets.
Own day-to-day operational execution for high-impact programs such as launches, onboarding waves, campaign rollouts, or large-scale migrations, coordinating across product, marketing, finance, and support teams.
Develop capacity and demand models to forecast hiring needs, anticipated workload, and resource allocation; present scenarios to leadership and refine plans based on business drivers and seasonal patterns.
Lead cross-functional working groups and weekly stand-ups to drive alignment, unblock work, gather input, and maintain momentum on multi-team projects.
Execute quality assurance sampling and process audits to ensure compliance with internal standards, regulatory requirements, and contractual obligations; recommend corrective measures and track remediation.
Prepare executive-ready presentations and briefing documents that summarize program status, risks, financial impact, and recommended decisions for leadership reviews and board-level updates.
Support transactional finance tasks including month-end reconciliations, chargeback analysis, invoicing support, and cost allocation for programs under your ownership.
Implement and maintain operational tooling and data hygiene practices within CRM/ERP systems (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Netsuite) to ensure accurate reporting and efficient workflow automation.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives by running Kaizen-style workshops, documenting process maps and SIPOC diagrams, and running A/B pilots to measure the impact of process changes.
Serve as the primary escalation point for time-sensitive operational incidents, triaging issues, coordinating incident response, communicating status to stakeholders, and driving to root cause and prevention.
Design and deliver training materials, onboarding curricula, and enablement sessions for new hires and cross-functional partners to ensure fast and consistent ramp-up on operational processes and systems.
Analyze customer feedback, NPS comments, and support ticket trends to surface product issues and operational friction; partner with product and engineering to prioritize fixes and measure post-release outcomes.
Support pricing, billing, and contract operations — including setup, renewals, adjustments, and policy interpretation — to minimize revenue leakage and improve cash collection timelines.
Plan and coordinate logistics for large-scale operational efforts such as inventory movements, fulfillment changes, or campus/program events, ensuring detailed runbooks and contingency plans are in place.
Drive data-driven prioritization by building business cases that quantify expected ROI, resource requirements, and key success metrics for proposed operational investments or pilots.
Maintain a backlog of operations improvements, prioritize using business impact frameworks, and shepherd initiatives through discovery, scoping, and implementation phases.
Mentor junior operations staff, provide performance feedback, and contribute to hiring and onboarding to build a strong, scalable operations function.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced Excel and Google Sheets skills: pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, array formulas, and data modeling for operational reporting and scenario analysis.
SQL proficiency for extracting, aggregating, and validating operational data from production databases and data warehouses.
Experience building dashboards and visualizations with Tableau, Looker, Power BI, or equivalent business intelligence tools to support decision-making.
Familiarity with CRM and ERP systems (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Netsuite) for process configuration, data hygiene, and reporting.
Working knowledge of project management and collaboration tools such as Jira, Asana, Confluence, or Trello to manage cross-functional programs.
Experience with process documentation and mapping tools (Lucidchart, Miro, Visio) and formal process improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen).
Basic financial acumen: budgeting, forecasting, cost-benefit analysis, and understanding P&L impacts of operational changes.
Ability to write clear, reproducible SQL or scripted extracts and to validate datasets for accuracy and data integrity.
Familiarity with workflow automation tools and integrations (Zapier, Workato, UIPath) and an ability to scope automation opportunities.
Experience running QA programs, audits, and compliance checks with documented corrective action plans.

Soft Skills

Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills; able to influence without direct authority and build consensus across teams.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to distill complex operational issues into executive summaries and compelling narratives.
High attention to detail and a rigorous approach to data quality, documentation, and process adherence.
Problem-solving mindset with a bias for action: comfortable scoping ambiguous problems, testing hypotheses, and iterating quickly.
Project prioritization and time management skills to manage competing deadlines and deliverables in a fast-paced environment.
Proactive ownership and accountability: drives initiatives to completion and escalates risks and blockers early.
Adaptability and comfort operating in ambiguous environments, particularly in start-up or high-growth contexts.
Coaching and mentoring abilities to upskill junior team members and improve team performance.
Customer-centric orientation with a focus on operational experience, reliability, and continuous improvement.
Ethical judgment and integrity when handling sensitive customer, partner, or financial data.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in a business, technical, or analytical role.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Data Analytics, Finance, or related fields.
Certifications such as Lean Six Sigma (Green Belt), PMP, or relevant data/BI coursework are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration / Operations Management
Industrial or Systems Engineering
Data Analytics / Statistics
Finance / Accounting
Computer Science or Information Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

1–4 years of relevant experience in operations, program management, business operations, consulting, or analytical roles. Fellowship programs often accept earlier-career candidates with strong ownership and cross-functional exposure.

Preferred:

2–5 years of demonstrated experience managing cross-functional projects, building operational processes, and delivering measurable operational improvements in a startup, growth-stage company, or enterprise program setting.
Prior experience with CRM/ERP administration, building dashboards, and conducting data-driven process improvement preferred.