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Head of Business Process Excellence

Location: Zurich

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Product Operations

In short

The global Operational Excellence team is looking for a Head of Business Process Excellence to lead our Idea-to-Product domain and Business Architecture team. We are seeking a visionary, data-driven leader to revolutionize our Creation processes. In this role, you will define next-generation digital capabilities- including advanced AI integration- while continuously optimizing our current workflows. You will lead a newly formed team of 5-7, acting as the primary business owner and strategic sparring partner for the Senior Leadership Team to drive operational excellence and chart our digital future. The Head of Business Process Excellence will report to the Senior Director for Operational Excellence, supporting Product Strategy, Innovation, Design, Development and Sourcing teams across Apparel & Accessories (A&A), and Footwear (FTW).

Your Mission

Vision & Roadmap Development: Shape the future of our Idea-to-Product organization by defining and executing a long-term vision for our business processes, workflows, and digital capabilities. Act as the resident expert and visionary for integrating AI opportunities throughout the value chain.
Process Optimization & Digital Twin: Document current workflows and processes to identify optimization potential, while developing the "Northstar" setup for the future way of working across Apparel & Accessories (A&A) and Footwear (FTW).
Tech Partnership & Capability Delivery: Partner closely with the Technology team as the primary business owner and thought partner to design, gather requirements and align advanced business capabilities with strategic goals.
Operational Leadership & Decision Making: Act as the primary spokesperson for operational teams, taking critical trade-off decisions, managing the user base, and heading up a dedicated team covering the Idea-to-Product domain.
Business Architecture: Lead the business architecture team, taking end-to-end responsibility for mapping, scaling, and structuring organizational capabilities.
Stakeholder Engagement & Sparring: Manage high-level senior interactions and act as a trusted strategic sparring partner for the Senior Leadership Team across Product Strategy, Innovation, Design, Development, and Sourcing teams.
Enablement & Tool Adoption: Coordinate comprehensive training programs for new tools and capabilities, actively driving user adoption and operational excellence across teams.

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Your story

Proven Leadership Experience: 10+ years of experience in business process management, digital transformation, or operational excellence, with a proven track record of managing and developing high-performing teams, with experience managing 5+ direct reports preferred.
Team Architecture & Talent Leadership: Demonstrated success in the strategic recruitment and development of top-tier talent to build high-performing organisational units from scratch.
Domain Expertise: Deep understanding of the product development value chain (Idea-to-Product) and Creation processes, preferably within the Apparel, Accessories, or Footwear industries.
Tech & AI savviness: Technical affinity and a data-informed, problem-solving mindset, backed by deep business acumen and process expertise to help shape technology roadmaps and evaluate AI opportunities.
Strategic Stakeholder Management: Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated experience influencing, collaborating with, and acting as a peer to C-suite and Senior Leadership Teams.
Change Management & Execution: Demonstrated capability in documenting complex workflows, executing gap analyses, driving tool adoption, and managing large-scale user training across cross-functional teams.
Academic Background: Degree or deep knowledge in Business Administration, Engineering, Operations Management, or a related field with a strong focus on process mapping and capability maturity frameworks.

Attributes of a successful candidate:

Strategic Visionary: Ability to look past current constraints to design a digital "Northstar," for our future way of doing business, balanced with a pragmatic approach
Resilient Decision Maker: Comfortable navigating ambiguity, prioritizing conflicting demands, and making high-stakes trade-off decisions in a fast-paced environment.
Collaborative Influencer: A natural bridge-builder who can seamlessly speak the language of both deep-tech engineers and creative product operations teams.

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About the Team

As the Business Process Excellence team for the Idea-to-Product value stream, we define, manage, and optimize the workflows and technical capabilities that bring our innovative products to life. We are visionaries who are data-driven, action-oriented, and obsessed with challenging the status quo.

Heading up a team of 5-7 domain experts, we work hand-in-hand with Product Strategy, Innovation, Design, Development, Sourcing, and Technology teams to champion future ways of working - ensuring our global growth is supported by cutting-edge AI, digital twins, and operational excellence.

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Dennis

Specialist, Apparel Product Manager

We’re at the heart of the action, helping out different people and teams across R&D and the wider business every day. There’s a learning curve, sure, but the variety of projects and topics we cover is unmatched.

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What we offer

On is a place that is centered around growth and progress. We offer an environment designed to give people the tools to develop holistically – to stay active, to learn, explore and innovate. Our distinctive approach combines a supportive, team-oriented atmosphere, with access to personal self-care for both physical and mental well-being, so each person is led by purpose.

On is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a work environment that is fair and inclusive, where all decisions related to recruitment, advancement, and retention are free of discrimination.

Build the better you

What to expect

We want to set everyone up for success, so here’s the lowdown on how we hire. Our process is a two-way street – bringing you into our culture, while helping us learn how you think.

Our full process can last about eight weeks from application to offer, because we care about getting it right. These steps explain how we usually do things.

Before you get started, feel free to consider if you want to work with us. Strange question? Well, we give people a lot of space to navigate their day-to-day and that style isn't for everyone. We want you to be passionate about what you do and be sure this is the right fit. Because when skills and passion combine – it creates that 'Wow' moment.