The Chief Process Officer (CPO) is responsible for designing, implementing, enforcing, and continuously improving the company’s operational processes. This role ensures that how work gets done is clear, repeatable, measurable, and followed across all departments.
The CPO is not a passive advisor. This role has authority and accountability to enforce standards, eliminate inefficiencies, and drive operational discipline at every level of the organization.
Requirements
Key Responsibilities
Process Design & Standardization
- Design end-to-end business processes across all core functions (Operations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, HR, Product, Customer Support).
- Document processes using clear SOPs, workflows, playbooks, and decision frameworks
- Ensure all processes are scalable, repeatable, and aligned with company goals.
Process Enforcement & Compliance
- Own process governance and ensure teams follow defined processes consistently.
- Establish accountability mechanisms for process adherence.
- Identify and correct process violations, breakdowns, or workarounds.
- Partner with leadership to address resistance to process adoption.
Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement
- Identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, redundancies, and failure points.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives (Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent).
- Use data and KPIs to measure process performance and outcomes.
- Drive automation and systemization where appropriate.
Cross-Functional Alignment
- Act as the central authority for how work flows between departments.
- Eliminate silos by ensuring handoffs, ownership, and responsibilities are clearly defined.
- Ensure all departments operate under a unified operating model.
Change Management & Adoption
- Lead company-wide rollout of new or updated processes.
- Train leaders and teams on processes, expectations, and best practices.
- Ensure processes are embedded into tools, systems, and daily workflows.
- Monitor adoption and adjust as needed without losing discipline.
Leadership & Governance
- Serve as the executive owner of the company’s operating system.
- Establish process review cadences and operational audits.
- Provide regular reporting to the CEO on process health and execution quality.
- Build and lead a process excellence or operations team as the company scales.
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of experience in operations, process improvement, or operational leadership.
- Proven track record of building and enforcing processes in growing or complex organizations.
- Strong experience with process frameworks (Lean, Six Sigma, BPM, Agile Ops, etc.).
- Ability to influence, challenge, and hold senior leaders accountable.
- Highly analytical with strong documentation and systems-thinking skills.
- Comfortable driving change and handling organizational resistance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in high-growth companies, scale-ups, or operational turnarounds.
- Background in consulting, operations leadership, or enterprise process transformation.
- Experience implementing process tooling (ERP, BPM, workflow automation, dashboards).
- Certification in Lean Six Sigma, PMP, or similar is a plus
