Director, Business Planning & Central Operations

At Lyft, our purpose is to serve and connect. We aim to achieve this by cultivating a work environment where all team members belong and have the opportunity to thrive.

Sitting within the broader Safety & Customer Care team, Lyft's Customer Care Operations organization manages over 1.7 million monthly customer interactions and serves as the company's primary direct touchpoint with riders, drivers, and businesses — spanning frontline support across multiple customer segments, a global BPO workforce, and the central functions that enable them to operate at scale.

The Director of Business Planning & Central Operations is a newly created role at the center of how Customer Care runs and grows. This leader will ensure the org is resourced and positioned for the future, and will own the functions that keep Customer Care financially disciplined and execution-ready. Reporting to the Senior Director of Customer Care Operations, they will lead five functions: Planning & Forecasting, Workforce Management, Readiness & Integration, Vendor Management, and Support Excellence.

What You'll Do

Business Planning & Strategy

• Partner with the Senior Director to drive H1 and H2 planning — translating annual objectives into operational plans, investment decisions, and resource models.

• Lead the investment brief process: sizing opportunities, articulating trade-offs, and building the business cases that secure resourcing for strategic priorities.

• Drive capacity planning, scenario modeling, and long-range forecasting to ensure the internal and external workforce scales efficiently alongside platform growth and AI adoption.

• Define and operationalize OKRs across the portfolio, then build the rhythms and infrastructure — scorecards, business reviews, and performance dashboards — that hold teams accountable and give leadership clear visibility into progress and outcomes.

Growth & Integrations

• Lead operational readiness for major product launches, external partnerships, and platform expansions — ensuring Customer Care is prepared from scoping through hypercare.

• Own the integration framework for new lines of business and strategic partnerships, including Lyft's expansion into autonomous vehicles and external mobility platforms.

• Serve as the connective tissue between Customer Care and Product, Engineering, Legal, and Communications on initiatives with significant customer support implications.

Vendor & Financial Operations

• Own financial operations across the portfolio, partnering with Finance and Workforce Management to maintain cost discipline, model the impact of product changes and AI automation, and invest strategically in quality and transformation.

• Lead end-to-end management of Lyft's BPO vendor relationships — owning governance cadences, enterprise-level performance reviews, SLA enforcement, escalation management, and contract renewals, in close partnership with Procurement for new and renegotiated agreements.

People Leadership

• Hire, develop, and retain high-performing teams.

• Create clarity of ownership across a function that sits at the intersection of finance, operations, and technology, where the decisions made show up directly in customer experience and cost structure.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years in business strategy, operations, consulting, or investment banking, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role owning complex operational or strategic functions.

• Strong financial and analytical foundation — comfortable building capacity models, stress-testing business cases, and translating the output into a crisp leadership narrative.

• Experience leading or supporting large-scale growth initiatives, integrations, or partnerships, ideally in a marketplace or platform business.

• AI fluency — you understand how AI is reshaping operations and can lead through that transformation with confidence.

• Exceptional cross-functional partner — you build trust with Finance, Product, Tech, and Operations and can drive alignment across a matrixed organization.

• Clear, direct, and decisive — you make decisions with the information available, communicate them crisply, and adapt when new data arrives.

• Experience in customer support or contact center operations is a plus, not a requirement.

• MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred; strong quantitative background required.

Benefits:

• Great medical, dental, and vision insurance options with additional programs available when enrolled

• Mental health benefits

• Family building benefits

• Child care and pet benefits

• 401(k) plan to help save for your future

• In addition to 12 observed holidays, salaried team members have discretionary paid time off, hourly team members have 15 days paid time off

• 18 weeks of paid parental leave. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible

• Subsidized commuter benefits

• Lyft Pink - Lyft team members get an exclusive opportunity to test new benefits of our Ridership Program

Lyft is an equal opportunity employer committed to an inclusive workplace that fosters belonging. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, age, genetic information, or any other basis prohibited by law. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

Lyft highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. This role will be in-office on a hybrid schedule — Team Members will be expected to work in the New York office 3 days per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Lyft considers working in the New York office at least 3 days per week to be an essential function of this hybrid role. Your recruiter can share more information about the various in-office perks Lyft offers. Additionally, hybrid roles have the flexibility to work from anywhere for up to 4 weeks per year. #Hybrid

The expected base pay range for this position in the New York metro area is $192,000- $240,000. In addition to the base pay, this role is eligible for competitive equity awards, bonuses, and benefits. You can read more about Lyft’s employee benefits here.

*Total compensation is dependent on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience, and geographic location. Your recruiter can share more information about the salary range specific to your working location and other factors during the hiring process. *