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

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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Sample Director of Operations Resume Template

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”

Read more: Parts of a Resume

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.”

Read more: How To Make Your Resume Stand Out

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!)

Read more: How Many Years Should You Go Back on a Resume

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 your resume here.

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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.

Read more: What Sections Go in a Resume?

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.

Read more: What is the Difference Between a Cover Letter and a Resume

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:

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!