Senior Group Director, Innovation Business Operations

Senior Group Director, Innovation Business Operations

Location: New York, NY           

Reports to: Head of Open Innovation, Digital Ventures & Startup Programs

Contract: Full-time, permanent

CHANEL

At Chanel, we are focused on creating an inclusive culture that nurtures personal growth, contributing to collective progress. We believe the uniqueness of each individual increases the diversity, complementarity and effectiveness of our teams.  We strongly encourage your application, as we value the perspective, experience and potential you could bring to CHANEL.

ABOUT THE ROLE

CHANEL is looking for a Sr. Group Director, Innovation Business Operations to join our global Open Innovation Team in New York City. This is a rare opportunity to shape the operational future of innovation across the House. Working across more than five legal entities, three markets and a dynamic network of internal and external partners, you will be at the center of the operational engine that turns bold ideas into real-world ventures, experiences and new ways of working. You will partner closely with innovators across the House, as well as Finance, Legal, People, regional and international teams, to build the smart, scalable and compliant operating model that brings CHANEL’s innovation ambitions to life.

Our ideal candidate brings 12+ years of experience in finance, operations or a related field, combined with the curiosity and drive to make complex work feel simple, elegant and future-ready. You are energized by turning ambiguity into momentum, using emerging technology and new ways of working to solve operational challenges, and creating the conditions for innovators to move faster, smarter and with confidence. This role is designed for a strategic operator who enjoys building what does not yet exist and influencing how innovation takes shape across a global organization. There are several critical pillars to lead within the Open Innovation team.

WHAT IMPACT YOU CAN CREATE AT CHANEL

Provide strategic operational oversight for all OI entities and programs, guiding innovation teams and internal and external stakeholders to manage logistics efficiently, compliantly and with future-focused simplicity and impact, while creating the conditions for breakthrough ideas to scale responsibly.

Business Operations Management and Administration for Open Innovation (OI) Entities

• Lead the financial operating rhythm for all OI entities and programs, helping teams make smart investment choices through clear visibility into current and planned spend
• Partner with OI leaders and Finance teams across the US, UK and Luxembourg to shape annual budgets that support today’s priorities and anticipate future growth across OI entities
• Act as point person for finance for all OI entities (budget and forecast planning, tax reporting, cash forecasting, etc.) with staff costs managed in partnership with P&O
• Translate retail entity P&L insights into actionable opportunities to optimize spend, strengthen performance and improve profitability
• Periodic reviews of retail entity bank accounts and credit card management, and reporting and sales in retail Shopify to ensure proper tax categorization, reporting capture by revenue streams, proper COGS categorization, etc.

Legal, Regulatory, and Code Requirements

• Build trusted partnerships with Global and local Legal teams to navigate innovation topics for OI, continuously improving how teams collaborate and move work forward with clarity and confidence
• Serve as the central business partner for legal agreements, engaging the right internal or external counsel and helping teams understand key considerations, requirements and negotiation dynamics
• Bring structure and visibility to contract planning, budgeting and tracking across all OI entities, ensuring agreements are managed with discipline and anticipation
• Design efficient vendor onboarding and invoice management processes for OI US and UK, ensuring spend is tracked against budget, goods and services are properly confirmed, and contract requirements are met
• Partner with Regulatory teams as needed to anticipate and address considerations such as claims, client waivers and other requirements across OI ventures and activities, serving as the business point of contact
• Provide oversight for retail entity compliance, working with the local Ops Director to ensure activities align with building lease terms, landmarks regulations, business licensing, food safety certifications, fire safety requirements and related obligations

Business Operations Effectiveness

• Support program and project management and portfolio coordination in partnership with OI team and leaders
• Offer insightful and proactive guidance to business operational partners, translating unique needs of OI within the constraints of existing processes and compliance requirements
• Manage design and implementation of operations related to establishing new businesses and partnerships, including setting up financial and legal aspects of new locations and entities within Chanel, or financial aspects of employment models and operational models. This could include setting up either internal structures for accounting, reporting, compliance and tax support or externalized solutions with partners
• Enable smart, agile procurement by supporting vendor and partner negotiations, securing strong financial and legal conditions for new ventures, partnerships and investments while leveraging simple tools, templates and light-touch CHANEL support
• Build meaningful visibility into business performance by tracking relevant KPIs, developing thoughtful benchmarks for new concepts and investments, and translating insights into recommendations that help teams maximize success
• Champion adoption of new operational tools, training and supporting teams to use local systems accurately and confidently for tracking, program management and stronger day-to-day execution
• Create repeatable operating playbooks that allow promising concepts to move from pilot to scale with greater speed, consistency and confidence

Tech and Emerging Tech

• Orchestrate relationships with technical support partners and Chanel Tech, ensuring contracts, escalations and evolving tech needs are managed with clarity and responsiveness
• Guide security and privacy reviews for new or evolving technologies, helping teams introduce tools responsibly while enabling innovation to move forward with confidence
• Bring discipline and visibility to software license management, ensuring tools are current, thoughtfully budgeted and used effectively to support OI teams
• Stay close to emerging technologies and translate their operational implications into practical opportunities for OI teams

Store Operations

Note: Over time, these responsibilities will transition to retail Ops Directors with ongoing oversight

• Ensure retail entities operate with excellence by overseeing building and food safety protocols and reinforcing a culture of care, compliance and readiness
• Cultivate productive relationships with building owners and property support teams to ensure the space is well supported and operational needs are addressed proactively
• Serve as a trusted escalation point for technical or physical building maintenance matters, helping resolve issues quickly and thoughtfully when needed
• Guide retail entity Operations team and serve as the connective point to CHANEL Security, Finance and other partners to support a seamless, safe and well-run environment

YOU ARE ENERGIZED BY

• Working collaboratively across markets, functions and teams to find new and better ways of working
• Navigating complex local and global processes while building strong relationships with internal and external partners
• Solving operational issues quickly and effectively with stakeholders at all levels
• Communicating clearly with senior leaders, external partners and internal stakeholders while staying close to operational details
• Connecting ideas, solving problems and bringing strong attention to detail
• Leading through influence, expertise and strong partnership
• Turning an ambitious vision into a practical path forward and bringing others with you

WHAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE TEAM

• Bachelor’s degree and/or experience working in finance or a related analytical field (FP&A, accounting, finance operations)
• Ease with tech, fluency with new systems, AI and integrated technologies
• Critical thinking to identify challenges and opportunities to improve processes or approach, to step back and ask the right questions and probe effectively to ensure full understanding of complex or ambiguous situations
• Intellectual curiosity to constantly seek new, creative and better ways to do repeatable tasks simply and effectively and minimize administration for the team
• Creative problem-solving approach, marrying both divergent and convergent thinking to find novel solutions to challenges while being pragmatic and efficient
• A builder’s mindset: comfort creating structure from ambiguity, testing new approaches and evolving them as the work grows
• Executive presence and sound judgment, with the ability to simplify complexity and inspire confidence across a broad stakeholder network

POSITION LOGISTICS

• Partially Remote: Role requires a minimum of three days in-person office presence at the 9 West office, one of those days each week in-person at the innovation space in Soho
• Global Corporate role, requiring occasional early morning meetings or evening events as well as periodic travel 3-4 times a year
• Opportunities for visibility to region Presidents, Senior-Level Legal, P&O and Finance partners as well as innovators across the House and externally
• A distinctive opportunity to shape the operating model behind some of CHANEL’s most forward-looking work

COMPENSATION

• The anticipated base salary range for this position is $ 175,000 through $ 212,200. Base salary is one component of the total compensation for this position. Other forms of variable pay will be offered for this position. Other components will include bonus potential, benefits, and/or perks.

Benefits and Perks:

• Wellbeing resources include dedicated paid time off for wellbeing and a Wellbeing fund
• Family and care giving benefits (including parental leave, fertility support, Milk Stork, and Care.com Membership)
• Generous paid time off policies to include vacation, holiday, sick and volunteer days
• 401K and other incentives
• Robust healthcare offerings; medical, dental, vision, MDLIVE (virtual care), One Medical, Flexible Spending Accounts (Health Care & Dependent Care), Health Savings Account and Employee Assistance Program
• Life insurance, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability, Health Advocate, International Business Travel Accident & Medical, and Commuter Transit & Parking

Additional Information:

CHANEL is a private company whose values are grounded in creating the conditions for people to perform at their best and feel fulfilled and confident in their work.  We offer a unique work environment where individuals are encouraged to better understand the brand, the business, and motivations, so that together we can unlock the possibilities of growth. This is reflected in:

Diversity and Inclusion:

• At CHANEL, we are intentional in promoting Diversity & Inclusion.  We foster respect, empathy and dignity for all.  We believe strongly that the diversity of our people across the full spectrum of human differences is essential to our organization and the connections we have with each other and our clients
• We offer Employee Resource Groups in the US that are voluntary, open to all, employee-led groups formed around a shared identity or lived experience, whose aim is to foster a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community aligned with the values and missions of the communities they support

CHANEL Community:

• CHANEL Community empowers our employees to channel their passions, talents, and sense of purpose to contribute to and learn from our communities
• Employees are encouraged to take time off annually to volunteer through CHANEL Community.  CHANEL also matches employee donations to select charitable organizations

Sustainability:

• CHANEL Mission 1.5° is our climate action plan. It is focused on transforming the business in line with the ambitions of the Paris Agreement on climate change to limit the average global mean temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels
• Employees are encouraged to contribute to our US Sustainability efforts at the corporate level and within the divisions, through organized taskforces and initiatives

Arts and Culture:

• We are committed to extending our legacy of cultural engagement. Global support includes the CHANEL Culture Fund, which supports a select group of leading art culture institutions across the globe, and the CHANEL Next Prize for the next generation of creative talent.
• US support currently includes Annual sponsorship of the MoMA film program, Tribeca Film Festival programs and Through Her Lens, Support of the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women and Sponsorship of the BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center

Fondation CHANEL:

Note: For more information, please navigate to the Fondation CHANEL website here.

• Since 2011, Fondation CHANEL’s mission is for women and girls to be free to shape their own destiny.  Through multi-year partnerships with financial and technical support, Fondation CHANEL is committed to improving the safety and autonomy of women and adolescent girls around the world, impacting over a million women and girls in its first 10 years.

Career and Leadership Development:

We have dedicated in-house teams focused on supporting the onboarding of employees, developing leadership skills via custom programs like Imagine CHANEL People, Heart of Leadership and group and individual coaching, and blended online and live classes offered on our Bloom platform and by skilled trainers, such as Shape Your Career, to develop career building skills

*CHANEL, Inc. benefits and perks are dependent on eligibility and subject to modification by CHANEL at any time.