Director, Operational Excellence

POSITION OVERVIEW
The Director of Operational Excellence assesses, develops, communicates and maintains all policies, procedures, and process improvement initiatives impacting employees, customers, contractors and stakeholders of Churchill Downs Racetrack. This position works under the direction of the General Manager and acts as a liaison between the senior leadership teams and the operating departments to document and improve all processes and procedures at the venue. This position will document and manage a workflow system to ensure that operational processes are well documented and transparent across the organization.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Work across existing teams to identify key processes and document those efforts as a standard operating procedure.
• Owner and champion of process workflow system designed to streamline planning and requests related to operations.
• Incorporate processes into workflow system, where applicable, to improve operational efficiency.
• Document polices and processes related to new projects to ensure the successful integration into existing operations.
• Develop and report on operational KPIs to monitor operational efficiency.
• Initiate, communicate and manage investigations into process and service (internal & external) issues to identify root causes, develop corrective actions, and implement solutions.
• Lead and document regular collaboration and coordination meetings amongst all departments to ensure all goals documented and achieved.
• Track open items out of collaboration meetings and follow up with appropriate stakeholders to ensure timely completion.
• Create and manage all department readiness checklists to ensure all planning milestones are established and communicated.
• Create and maintain internal and external libraries of information, policies and procedures related to venue operations.
• Manage document-sharing platform to ensure all internal groups are informed and up to date with the latest planning details.
• Identify areas for process improvement and create plans to implement new and improved processes.
• Work with internal and external departments to document specific processes around operations, to include but is not limited to, delivery manifests and procedures, load-in and load-out times and staffing plans.
• Create, maintain and continually update a Derby Event Project Manual to ensure all steps related to the Kentucky Derby setup, operation and teardown are documented in a form that can be shared with internal and external stakeholders to ensure superior event execution.
• Assist with developing, monitoring, and forecasting departmental operating and capital budgets and identify ways to optimize spending related to process improvement initiatives.
• Other projects as assigned based on workload.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

None

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) or equivalent from four-year College; at least 5 of process improvement experience preferably in the hospitality industry. Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certification. Candidate should be proficient with Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Project (or equivalent project management tool). Excellent interpersonal skills to effectively interact with executives, peers, customers and team members along with a collaborative, team-building style.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The employee is expected to work include long hours, including some weekends in advance of and including the Kentucky Derby.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to sit; climb or balance; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.