Assistant Vice President - Digital Ops Transformation

Job description

Job Description: EXL is seeking an AVP to join its newly established Digital Operations Transformation practice - a high-energy, execution-focused leadership role sitting at the centre of EXL's transformation delivery capability. Reporting to the Senior AVP (D2), this role is responsible for end-to-end project leadership and delivery of complex transformation programmes across a portfolio of BPM clients. The AVP will own the delivery of transformation initiatives spanning process excellence, digital automation, AI embedding, and analytics-driven improvement - working closely with client operations teams and EXL's DE and AI Solutions partners. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable running a Six Sigma improvement project, contributing to client-facing solution design, and managing a cross-functional digital delivery team. **Responsibilities: Project Leadership & Transformation Delivery** - Own end-to-end delivery of transformation projects - from scoping and diagnostics through design, implementation, and benefits sign-off - Build and manage detailed project plans, timelines, risk registers, and governance cadence; proactively manage deviations - Lead cross-functional project teams, ensuring clarity of ownership, accountability, and delivery pace - Prepare and present progress reports and steering updates for client and internal leadership **Process Excellence & Continuous Improvement** - Lead DMAIC and Lean improvement projects, applying Six Sigma rigour to opportunity identification, root-cause analysis, and solution design - Conduct operational assessments - evaluating client workflows, systems, and KPIs to surface efficiency and quality opportunities - Develop and sustain continuous improvement frameworks within client operations, building a healthy pipeline of improvement initiatives **Digital Innovation, Automation & AI** - Identify automation and digital improvement opportunities across client processes; develop business cases and lead implementation - Manage RPA, AI/GenAI, and process intelligence deployments in collaboration with EXL's technology and solutions teams - Stay current on automation, AI, and digital tooling relevant to BPM operations; bring practical recommendations to clients and the Senior AVP **Client-Facing Solution & Product Contribution** - Support and contribute to the design of client-facing transformation solutions - participating in requirements gathering, solution design workshops, and UAT - Work with clients to validate solution designs and ensure they are grounded in operational reality - Build reusable assets (playbooks, toolkits, templates) that accelerate delivery and raise solution quality across the practice **Data-Driven Insights & Analytics** - Utilize process mining, advanced analytics, and data visualization tools to generate insights that drive transformation priorities - Develop journey maps, value stream maps, and data narratives to communicate client challenges and opportunities clearly - Track and report transformation benefits realization against committed KPIs and agreed baselines **Stakeholder Management & Change Management** - Build strong working relationships with client operations teams, engaging regularly at Director and VP level - Drive change management and adoption - stakeholder communication plans, training design, and embedding transformed ways of working - Support the Senior AVP in strategic client interactions and executive-level programme governance **Team Contribution & Knowledge Sharing** - Mentor junior team members, analysts, and associates; actively contribute to team capability development - Contribute to practice-building - methodologies, case studies, and point-of-view documents that strengthen the Digital Ops Transformation brand - Actively share knowledge and best practices across the Digital Ops Transformation team **Qualifications: Essential – Mandatory Criteria** **Education** - Bachelor's degree (any discipline); MBA or postgraduate qualification preferred **Experience** - 10+ years of experience in business transformation, process excellence, and operations management, predominantly in BPO/BPM/ITES environments - Proven track record of independently leading and delivering transformation projects with measurable, validated business impact - Experience managing cross-functional project teams and coordinating delivery across multiple stakeholder groups - Senior client engagement experience - confident operating with client Director and VP-level stakeholders - Domain knowledge across at least three of: Banking & Capital Markets | Utilities (Water & Gas) | Airlines & Travel | Transport, Shipping & Logistics **Six Sigma & Lean** - Six Sigma Black Belt certification - mandatory - Demonstrable portfolio of certified Six Sigma and Lean projects with quantified, validated savings - Hands-on experience deploying Lean/Six Sigma, Kaizen, and DMAIC frameworks in live BPM operational environments **Technical & Digital Skills** - **RPA Platforms:** UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, or equivalent - requirements definition and bot deployment experience - **Process Mining:** Celonis, Signavio, Minit, or similar - independently able to run process discovery and analysis - **Analytics & Visualisation:** Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, or equivalent - able to build and present insightful dashboards and narratives - **AI & GenAI:** Working knowledge of AI/GenAI capabilities and their application in operations management - **Workflow & BPM:** Experience configuring and managing workflow and BPM platforms - **Integration:** Functional understanding of ETL processes and API integrations - **Project Management:** Jira, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, Trello, Asana, or similar - project-level governance **Soft Skills** - Strong project leadership - structured, delivery-oriented, able to maintain momentum across complex workstreams - Clear, confident communicator - translates technical and analytical ou