Director, Hr Operational Excellence

Job DescriptionReporting to the Sr. Director, HR Technology & Employee Experience, the Director, HR Operational Excellence owns the design, re-engineering, and continuous improvement of HR business processes across the employee lifecycle. Accountable for the integrity of the processes supported by HR Systems, including Workday and ServiceNow, ensuring that HR workflows are purposefully designed, consistently documented, and continuously improved to deliver efficiency, scalability, and a high-quality employee experience.
Reporting to the Sr. Director, HR Technology & Employee Experience, the Director, HR Operational Excellence owns the design, re-engineering, and continuous improvement of HR business processes across the employee lifecycle. Accountable for the integrity of the processes supported by HR Systems, including Workday and ServiceNow, ensuring that HR workflows are purposefully designed, consistently documented, and continuously improved to deliver efficiency, scalability, and a high-quality employee experience.
This role will be located at our Head Office in Markham Ontario. Extendicare offers a hybrid working environment.
Key Accountabilities
Own the end-to-end design of HR business processes across the employee lifecycle — ensuring processes are standardized, scalable, and aligned with organizational needs.
Lead the re-engineering of HR processes that are inefficient, fragmented, or poorly documented, applying structured improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma) to achieve measurable gains in efficiency and quality.
Own the functional direction of the ServiceNow HRSD platform, defining what the platform needs to do to support ESC operations, HR process workflows, and employee self-service.
Maintain a current library of HR process maps and standard operating procedures, ensuring documentation reflects actual practice and is accessible to the teams who need it.
Establish and promote process design standards across the HR function, building a shared language and approach to process improvement that spans the ESC, HRIS, and HR business partner communities.
Lead a portfolio of continuous improvement initiatives across HR operations, prioritizing based on business impact, strategic alignment, and resource availability.
Apply analytical tools and diagnostic techniques to identify root causes of inefficiency, error, or service quality gaps, and translate findings into evidence-based improvement plans.
Develop business cases for significant improvement initiatives, including baseline measurement, projected benefits, implementation costs, and risk assessment
Ensure that redesigned processes are fully operationalized — trained, embedded, and measured — before improvement initiatives are formally closed.
Promote and embed a continuous improvement culture across the HR function, building capability in process thinking at all levels.
Maintain a knowledge development roadmap that reflects identified gaps, inquiry patterns from the ESC, and changes to HR policies or processes. Oversee the development, review, and maintenance of HR knowledge articles — ensuring content is accurate, current, consistently structured, and aligned with HR policy and process standards.
Build trusted partnerships with HR functional leaders, and operational stakeholders to ensure process improvement priorities are well-understood, jointly owned, and effectively executed.
Facilitate cross-functional workshops and discovery sessions to gather process requirements, validate future-state designs, and build alignment on new ways of working.
Support change management and communication planning for process improvement initiatives, ensuring transitions are well-prepared and adoption is sustained.
Foster a team culture defined by intellectual rigor, accountability, continuous learning, and a genuine commitment to making HR work better for employees and managers.
Qualifications & Experience
Post-secondary degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, or a related field;
master's degree preferred.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification required;
Black Belt preferred.
Professional HR designation (CHRP/CHRL) is considered a strong asset.
Minimum 7–10 years of progressive HR operations or organizational transformation experience, including at least 3 years in a director or senior leadership role.
Demonstrated success leading end-to-end HR process re-engineering initiatives, from diagnosis through to sustainable implementation.
Working knowledge of Workday HCM business processes, with the ability to assess how process changes interact with system configurations.
Experience in a complex, multi-site organization;
unionized environment experience is an asset.
Skills & Competencies
Deep process improvement practitioner with expertise in applying Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to complex, cross-functional HR environments.
Systems thinker who understands the relationship between business processes, technology configurations, and the employee experience — and can work effectively at the boundary between all three.
Strong analytical and diagnostic skills, with the ability to build compelling, evidence-based cases for change.
Skilled facilitator and communicator who can engage diverse stakeholder groups, build shared ownership, and drive alignment on complex change.
Collaborative leader who works effectively as a peer to other Directors and builds trust across functions without relying on direct authority.
People-focused leader who develops team capability, holds others to high standards, and creates an environment where analysts do their best work.
Clear strategic thinker who can connect individual improvement initiatives to the broader HR transformation agenda and articulate the value of operational excellence to senior leaders.
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