Senior Director of Operations and Performance
Coast2Coast First Aid & Aquatics Inc.
Location: North York/Thornhill
Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: Starting $85,800 + bonuses, based on experience
Reports to: Ownership / Executive Leadership
Works closely with: General Manager and departmental managers
About Coast2Coast
Coast2Coast First Aid & Aquatics Inc. is the largest national training organization delivering First Aid, CPR/AED, BLS, instructor-development, private training, and public certification programs across Canada and expanding into US.
Our operations include multiple training locations, a large instructor network, scheduling and customer-service teams, facilities and equipment management, recruitment, quality-assurance processes, and several interconnected technology platforms.
As the company continues to grow, we are seeking an experienced and highly organized operational leader who can strengthen execution, accountability, quality control, and management oversight across the organization.
The Opportunity
The Senior Director of Operations and Performance will provide hands-on leadership across Coast2Coast’s operational functions.
This is not a passive advisory role. The successful candidate will actively inspect systems, monitor performance, verify that procedures are being followed, coach managers, identify risks, close operational gaps, and ensure that commitments result in measurable outcomes.
The position will work alongside the General Manager, with primary responsibility for day-to-day operational execution, management accountability, quality assurance, and continuous improvement.
The ideal candidate is comfortable moving between high-level planning and detailed operational review. They can design a process, assign ownership, inspect whether it is working, and intervene quickly when standards are not being met.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Leadership
- Provide direct leadership and oversight across instructor operations, scheduling operations, facilities, equipment, supplies, recruitment, human-resources operations, and operational projects.
- Establish clear daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly priorities for operational managers.
- Ensure assigned work has a defined owner, deadline, expected result, verification method, and escalation path.
- Identify bottlenecks, recurring failures, and unclear responsibilities before they affect students, instructors, clients, or company performance.
- Take direct control of urgent operational matters when necessary while ensuring long-term ownership remains with the appropriate manager.
Management Accountability
- Supervise and support operations managers and assistant operations managers.
- Conduct structured one-on-one meetings, performance reviews, coaching sessions, and accountability check-ins.
- Review whether managers are actively supervising their own teams rather than simply forwarding information upward.
- Ensure coaching, corrective action, and performance expectations are documented and followed through.
- Recognize strong performance while addressing recurring gaps quickly and consistently.
- Escalate serious or repeated performance issues to Ownership with clear evidence and recommendations.
Auditing and Quality Assurance
- Independently verify operational reports rather than relying solely on summaries or verbal updates.
- Conduct regular spot checks across company systems, schedules, facility records, instructor records, audit sheets, task-management platforms, and performance dashboards.
- Confirm that reported issues have been fully resolved and not merely acknowledged or reassigned.
- Ensure daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly audits are completed accurately and on time.
- Develop a consistent method for reviewing facilities, instructor readiness, equipment, supplies, private bookings, public courses, and operational compliance.
- Track recurring issues by location, department, manager, and root cause.
Scheduling and Course Operations
- Oversee the systems used to schedule instructors, facilities, public courses, private training, and operational support.
- Ensure course dates, times, locations, instructor assignments, and client-facing information match across all systems.
- Confirm that instructor assignments are accepted and fully locked before course delivery.
- Ensure weekend and upcoming-course lockdown procedures are completed consistently.
- Prevent scheduling conflicts, unconfirmed instructors, incorrect course times, and facility conflicts through proactive verification.
- Ensure urgent coverage issues are escalated and resolved quickly.
Facilities, Equipment, and Supplies
- Oversee the national facilities, equipment, and supplies function through the responsible operational managers.
- Ensure each location is inspected, maintained, stocked, cleaned, and presented according to company standards.
- Establish and monitor deployment, restocking, repair, replacement, and relocation timelines.
- Verify that submitted facility and equipment photos are complete, accurate, and reviewed.
- Ensure identified facility or supply issues are assigned and closed within an appropriate timeframe.
- Monitor compliance by province, city, location, and assigned manager.
Instructor Operations and Quality
- Oversee instructor recruitment, onboarding, scheduling, performance management, and retention systems.
- Ensure instructor feedback and quality-assurance reports lead to documented coaching and verified improvement.
- Monitor instructor availability, course coverage, communication, compliance, and operational readiness.
- Ensure underperforming instructors receive timely coaching and follow-up.
- Support initiatives intended to strengthen instructor engagement, accountability, and leadership.
Systems and Technology
- Use platforms such as ClickUp, Connecteam, Bookeo, GoHighLevel, spreadsheets, dashboards, and internal applications to manage and verify operations.
- Ensure systems reflect operational reality and are maintained as accurate sources of truth.
- Identify when teams are working outside approved systems or failing to update records.
- Improve reporting, automation, dashboards, task tracking, and management visibility.
- Work with internal technical resources to design practical tools that improve accountability and execution.
Process Improvement
- Convert recurring operational issues into documented and repeatable processes.
- Determine whether a failure was caused by unclear ownership, weak training, insufficient auditing, poor system design, or lack of accountability.
- Redesign ineffective processes and establish measurable standards.
- Ensure new procedures are implemented, tested, audited, and sustained after launch.
- Reduce dependence on Ownership for routine operational problem identification and follow-up.
Executive Reporting
- Provide Ownership with concise weekly and monthly operational reports.
- Report on risks, missed deadlines, unresolved issues, management performance, compliance, and corrective actions.
- Present recommendations supported by evidence and system data.
- Distinguish between isolated errors and recurring operational patterns.
- Maintain a clear view of the highest-risk operational issues across the company.
Initial Priorities
During the first three to six months, the Senior Director will be expected to:
- Assess the current operations structure and management responsibilities.
- Establish a consistent management accountability rhythm.
- Audit current scheduling, facility, instructor, equipment, and task-management processes.
- Introduce clear operational scorecards for managers.
- Strengthen course-lockdown and cross-platform verification procedures.
- Resolve overdue facility, equipment, and compliance issues.
- Improve the quality and consistency of operational reporting.
- Recommend any required changes to roles, responsibilities, systems, or reporting lines.
Qualifications
- Seven or more years of progressive experience in operations, business operations, multi-site management, service delivery, logistics, workforce management, or a related field.
- Three or more years of experience directly managing managers or department leaders.
- Demonstrated ability to improve accountability, process compliance, and operational performance.
- Strong experience with task-management, scheduling, CRM, reporting, and operational technology systems.
- Proven ability to identify gaps through independent auditing and data review.
- Experience managing distributed teams, field staff, contractors, facilities, or multiple locations is strongly preferred.
- Experience in education, training, healthcare, franchising, logistics, hospitality, or another service-based environment is an asset.
- Strong written communication and documentation skills.
- Comfortable having direct performance and accountability conversations.
- Able to balance urgency, professionalism, fairness, and sound judgment.
- Highly organized and able to manage a broad operational portfolio.
The Ideal Candidate
You may be a strong fit for this role if you:
- Inspect what you expect.
- Do not assume a task is complete because someone says it is complete.
- Notice when data, reports, and operational reality do not match.
- Follow a problem through until the result is verified.
- Are comfortable coaching managers while holding them accountable.
- Can introduce structure without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Remain calm and decisive when problems arise.
- Communicate clearly and escalate early.
- Know how to separate a one-time mistake from a recurring performance pattern.
- Can eventually assume broader executive responsibility as the company grows.
Compensation and Growth
The starting salary for this position is $85,800 per year + bonuses, based on experience, leadership background, technical ability, and operational scope.
This role has the potential to expand into broader executive leadership based on performance, organizational growth, and the successful development of the company’s management structure.
Application Requirements
Applicants should submit:
- A current résumé.
- A brief cover letter describing their experience leading managers and improving operational accountability.
- An example of a process, department, or operational system they improved, including the problem, actions taken, and measurable outcome.
Coast2Coast First Aid & Aquatics Inc. is committed to building a professional, accountable, and high-performing workplace. We may use Artificial intelligence in the process of filling the position. We thank all applicants for their interest; only selected candidates will be contacted.
Pay: From $85,800.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Extended health care
- On-site parking
- Paid time off
- Store discount
- Vision care
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Thornhill, ON L4J 2L1: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Application question(s):
- Please briefly describe your experience directly managing managers or department leaders. How many managers reported to you, and what functions did they oversee?
Education:
- Bachelor's Degree (required)
Experience:
- operations management: 7 years (required)
- directly managing managers or department leaders: 3 years (required)
Willingness to travel:
Work Location: In person
