Director of Operations Resume: Examples and Guide [10+ Tips]

A director of operations is responsible for managing all the operations of a company such as company policies, budgeting, and purchasing. They oversee the day-to-day activities of the company and set strategic goals.

As seen in:

Picture that company you’d love to work for as a director of operations. They’ve got stock packages, full health plans, and they’d take your career into the stratosphere. But—they can’t afford to hire the wrong person. If your director of operations manager resume doesn’t shine, you’re sunk.

Don’t worry.

You can write a Reed Hastings-level resume for director of operations jobs if you do a few things right. In a nutshell? Fit your resume to the job ad with operational accomplishments—not job duties. It doesn’t have to take a full business cycle to write it, either. Just use the easy template and steps below.

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One of our users, Nikos, had this to say:

[I used] a nice template I found on Zety. My resume is now one page long, not three. With the same stuff.

Want more leadership resume examples? You’re in the right place:

Sample Director of Operations Resume Template

Fred Schiller

kenzschiller@gmail.com

410-447-2503

linkedin.com/in/kenzschiller

Resume Summary

Accomplished director of operations with 7+ years of experience improving quality, cost, and delivery times for high-volume manufacturing companies in the sporting goods space. Seeking to improve bottom line results massively for Carpata Outdoors. At Willaway Golf, transformed $5 million annual loss into $3 million in profits in one year through application of Lean principles.

Work Experience

Director of Operations

Willaway Golf, Westhaven, MA

June 2013 – June 2020

Collaborated with a team of 25 managers and supervisors and 500+ employees to save large sporting goods manufacturing facility from being outsourced to China.
Applied the principles of Lean manufacturing to turn a $5 million annual loss into a $3 million annual profit in just one year by harvesting thousands of employee ideas.
Led a drive to train all 500+ employees in Kaizen. Achieved 87% buy-in, even from entrenched union leadership who initially fought the program aggressively.
Implemented facility-wide kanban, poka-yoke, setup reduction, and CEDAC programs to eliminate recurring problems, saving 40% on manufacturing costs.
Slashed warehouse use from 95% to 20% in 6 months through massive inventory reduction program. Cut spoilage by 75%.

Operations Supervisor

Truehauser Sports, Inc.

June 2009–March 2013

Cut yearly budget by 20% while increasing 15 quality scorecard measures by 12% through application of Lean manufacturing best practices.
Created a supplier Kanban system that slashed inventory costs by 22%.

Education

UMass Boston

BS in Accounting

Graduated: June 2007

Recipient, Darrel M. Eisengart Business Leadership Award
Clyde Scholar

Additional Activities

Board Member, Winters County Homeless Shelter. Led a drive that raised donations by 45%
Member, APICS (Association for Operations Management)
White paper on inventory reduction published in Forbes
Attend Northeast Shingo Prize Conference annually

Core Skills

Kaizen, supply chain management, enterprise resource planning, budgeting, financial management, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication

Certifications

Six Sigma Black Belt — ASQ
Lean Manufacturing — Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership

Here’s how to write your own job-getting director of operations resume:

1. Format Your Director of Operations Resume Correctly

A successful director of operations knows—God is in the details. Turning in an unprofessional-looking director of operations resume says nothing for your ability to GSD. To prove resourcefulness and hint at other skills like communication, computer skills, and critical thinking, your resume for director of operations jobs must sparkle.

The perfect resume will impress the CEO and board members at first sight. To look your most business-ready, start with the best resume format:

Decide from among the three resume types. Chronological resumes are best for most applicants.
You’ll save hours of false starts and frustration if you use a clean resume template and adjust it to your career.
Choose a single, professional resume font like Didot, Arial, or Cambria. Steer clear of fancy fonts. Candidates for director positions need traditional resumes.
The margins of a resume should be one inch, and that includes the sides and top and bottom.
How long should a resume be for a director of operations? A two-page resume stuffed with achievements will do the trick.
Name your resume file “Name - Job Title - Resume.pdf”

2. Get Attention With a Director of Operations Resume Summary

You know better than anyone that time is a scarce resource for corporate leadership. If you want them to read your great director of operations resume, start with a wow-getting resume introduction.

You will not write a resume objective statement. Those are for entry-level candidates with no experience, and that’s not you.

You will write a career summary statement. That gives the elevator speech for your resume in a few seconds. What are the most eye-popping moments? Make it quick. Your goal here is just to make the CEO say, “Okay—this deserves my full attention.”

3. Target Your Director of Operations Resume Job Description

Bad news. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a director of operations. You need to be the director of operations. What do I mean? Your director of operations resume has to show you’ve already reached their goals—for other companies. It’s not enough to list job duties from past operations jobs. You’ve got to be Jack Welch.

And what did Jack Welch do? Did he “create budgets, manage finances, set organizational goals, and drive teams?” Nope. He grew GE’s worth from $14 billion to $410 billion. That would have to go in his resume work history. What will go in yours?

Here’s how to add relevant experience to your resume so it knocks their Gucci loafers off:

Write the job title, company, and location of your most recent job first.
Add the months and years you were employed.
Tailor your resume to the job by adding several bullet points (up to six) that show your best organizational accomplishments.
Start each of your bullets with resume power words like grew, raised, cut, led, or improved. (NOT responsible for or handled!)

4. Write a Value-Driven Director of Operations Resume Education Section

Education on a resume for operations directors isn’t vital. But—it does need to be there, so why not use the space to wow employers? Think back... did you do anything noteworthy during college? Maybe you were Phi Kappa Phi or president of a student business club?

You won’t list school projects or relevant coursework in a director of operations resume. But try to think of one or two leadership accomplishments from college.
The goal here is to show you were a business leader way back when.
Should you put your GPA on a resume for director of operations jobs? Not unless you got a 4.0. Even then, it’s better to say “Summa Cum Laude” on your resume at this stage in your career.

Pro Tip: Don’t have a college degree? Don’t sweat it. You didn’t miss anything that will hold you back as a director of operations. In fact, many top business leaders don’t have degrees.

5. Prove You’ve Got the Right Director of Operations Skills

You’ve got so many skills. Which ones do you list? Worse, the CEO and BoD have a very specific skill set in mind. Get this part wrong, and you might as well hang out a shingle as a consultant. What to do? Don’t fret. This part is easy.

Here's how to show your director of operations skills are Microsoft-worthy:

First find out what 10 skills the company cares about the most. If there’s a job posting online, look in it to find the skills you’ll need. If not, do some emailing and calling.
Next, understand that there’s no perfect list of skills for a resume for director of operations jobs. But there is a perfect list for this job.
Be careful to mix soft skills, hard skills, and technical skills. Don’t go too heavy on any one type.
List then top 10 to 12 operations skills you know they want. Then prove you’re the boss of them with your resume accomplishments and bullet points.

Director of Operations Resume Skills

Budgeting
Lean Management
Financial Management
Product Lifecycle Management
Business Strategy
Delegation
Performance Tracking
Supply Chain Management
Time Management Skills
Conceptual Skills
Leadership Skills
Verbal and Written Communication Skills
Decision Making Skills
Teamwork Skills
Organizational Skills
Interpersonal Skills
Problem Solving Skills
Technical Skills
Critical Thinking Skills

Pro Tip: The skills the organization is looking for are your resume keywords. If the company uses an applicant tracking system (ATS), you’ll need to add the right keywords to have an ATS-compliant resume and get through to a human.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Add “Other” Sections to Your Director of Operations Resume

A great leader is more than just a work history and a sheepskin. You’ve got to show there’s more to your skills than what you’re paid for.

Certifications on a resume put one more check mark in your “hirable” column. List them lower down, below your work history, education, and skills.
Add volunteer experience to prove you’ve got brainpower and leadership ability to spare.
You can also list professional associations like APICS, publications, awards, and speaking engagements.

7. Write a Cover Letter for Your Director of Operations Resume

Is a cover letter necessary in today’s job market? Now more than ever. That’s because too many job seekers use the “shotgun approach” where they apply to everything that moves. Avoid that stigma by writing a cover letter that proves you really want this director of operations role.

What is a cover letter for? To show you’ll do whatever it takes to make the company succeed.

Include all the correct parts of a cover letter:

Use a modern cover letter template to guide you as you write your own personalized letter.
Don’t write a "Dear Hiring Manager" cover letter. Those put you in the spam zone. Learn the CEO or board president’s name, and use it.
Write a cover letter introduction that starts with an attention-getting fact to get them on your side from word one.
In paragraph #2, highlight the best parts of your director of operations resume.
Create a cover letter ending that says what draws you to their organization. Then offer to discuss how you can help the business.

How long should a cover letter be? Even if you’ve been in the business for 20 years, one page and 3–4 paragraphs is plenty. This is just an interest-getter, not a memoir.

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

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See more cover letter templates and start writing.

That’s it!

That’s everything you need to write a great director of operations resume!

Thanks for reading! Do you have another question on how to make an Amazon-worthy director of operations resume? Give us a shout in the comments section!

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Director of Operations Resume: Examples and Guide [10+ Tips]

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