Operational Excellence & Procedures Lead

About Allica Bank Allica is the UK’s fastest growing company - and the fastest-growing financial technology (Fintech) firm ever. Our purpose is to help established SMEs, one of the last major underserved opportunities in Fintech. Established SMEs are the backbone of local communities - representing over a third of our economy - yet have been largely neglected both by traditional high street banks and modern fintech providers. Role Description The Operational Excellence & Procedures Lead is responsible for driving continuous improvement across Operations, ensuring that operational processes, procedures, knowledge management and supporting technologies evolve in line with the Bank's growth strategy. Sitting within the Operations – Financial Crime and Customer Experience function, this role acts as the bridge between Operations, Product, Technology, Risk and Change, ensuring operational processes remain efficient, scalable, customer focused and well governed. The role goes beyond traditional business procedure management by including the adoption of AI-enabled solutions across Operations. The successful candidate will identify opportunities to automate manual activities, improve colleague productivity, enhance knowledge management and embed intelligent workflows that support better customer and business outcomes, while ensuring that the process for keeping procedures updated remains efficient and scalable. This is a key role in shaping the future operating model of Operations, driving operational excellence, process optimisation and AI adoption to ensure Allica remains at the forefront of modern banking operations, with well mitigated operational risk. Operational Excellence - Own and continuously evolve the way Operations works. - Lead process/procedure reviews across all operational functions, identifying opportunities to simplify, standardise and automate activities. - Facilitate workshops to map, review and optimise end-to-end customer journeys and operational processes. - Partner with operational teams to identify pain points, risks and inefficiencies, delivering practical and measurable solutions. - Ensure operational processes remain scalable and aligned to the Bank's strategic objectives. - Track and report on process performance metrics and continuous improvement outcomes. - Support the successful operational embedding of new products, services, regulatory changes and technology enhancements. Process & Procedure Governance - Maintain oversight of operational process documentation and procedure standards across Operations. - Support Procedure Owners in maintaining accurate, compliant and version-controlled procedures. - Own reviews and updates for central operations procedures, ensuring any updates are signed off by key business stakeholders and communicated to end users. - Routinely review and update FAQs, seeking appropriate stakeholder signoff and publishing on the website. - Ensure operational procedures remain aligned to Bank Policies, Risk Frameworks and regulatory requirements. - Conduct impact assessments for product, technology and regulatory changes to identify documentation updates and operational implications. - Attend Product, Change and Governance forums to ensure operational readiness considerations are captured. - Facilitate procedure review activities and monitor closure of agreed actions. - Promote best practice standards for process mapping, documentation and operational governance. AI Enablement & Innovation - Lead the adoption of AI capabilities across Procedures and Training to improve productivity, quality, colleague experience and customer outcomes. - Design, develop and continuously improve AI-enabled workflows using approved technologies, including Microsoft Copilot and other emerging AI tools. - Measure, track and report on tangible benefits realised through AI adoption and automation initiatives. - Champion a culture of innovation and continuous improvement across operational teams. Change Delivery & Business Readiness - Support the successful delivery of operational change initiatives within the Operations department. - Lead requirements gathering and discovery workshops with business stakeholders. - Coordinate operational readiness assessments and implementation planning. - Develop robust procedures and supporting materials to support change adoption. - Maintain and continuously develop Management Information (MI) reporting across all areas of Operations, ensuring accurate, timely and meaningful reporting to support performance management, operational oversight and informed decision-making. Personal Attributes & Experience - Significant experience within Operational Excellence, Business Process Improvement, Procedure Management and Stakeholder Management. - Strong process mapping and end-to-end process design capability. - 2+ years of line management experience. - Excellent understanding of operational governance, risk management and control environments. - Experience identifying and implementing operational efficiencies through automation or digital solutions. - Strong understanding of applicable AI technologies, including Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude or similar platforms. - Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills. - Strong workshop facilitation and business engagement experience. - Exceptional written communication, documentation and presentation skills. - Strong analytical capability with experience using data to support decision making. - Highly organised with the ability to manage multiple priorities and projects simultaneously. Desirable - Experience designing AI prompts, knowledge assistants or AI-enabled workflows. - Understanding of Operational Resilience, Consumer Duty and FCA regulatory requirements. - Experience working within a fast-growing bank, fintech or regulated financial services environment. Working at Allica Bank At Allica Bank we want to ensure our employees have the right tools and environment in which to succeed in their role and in support of our customers. Our employees are at the heart of everything we do, so our benefits are designed with you in mind: - Full onboarding support and continued development opportunities - Options for flexible working - Regular social activities - Pension contributions - Discretionary bonus scheme - Private health cover - Life assurance - Family friendly policies including enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave Don’t tick every box? Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills or requirements listed on the job description. If you think you’ll be a good fit, we’d still love to hear from you! Flexible working We know the ‘9-to-5’ isn’t right for everyone. That’s why Allica Bank is fully committed to flexible and hybrid working. Please let us know what is best for you and, if we can, we will do our best to accommodate. Diversity We’re a diverse bunch here at Allica, with all kinds of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles. Our openness and differences make us stronger, and we want everybody to feel comfortable bringing as much of themselves to work with them as they like.