Director of Operations Interview Questions

Post a Job

Are you a job seeker? Find jobs

What is your strategy for keeping the services provided by your team up to date and consistent? See answer
Can you provide an example of how you increased operational efficiency? See answer
Describe a time when something went wrong and how you took steps to resolve the issue. See answer
How important is it for you that operations interacts with other departments and why? See answer
What is your strategy for dealing with difficult clients, and how has it been successful? See answer
What would you do if we experienced a sudden increase in demand that put extreme stress on our operational capacity? See answer
What steps would you take to sustain business operations if one of your major suppliers went out of business on short-notice?
Are you comfortable negotiating the terms of a contract with a potential business partner?
What strategies do you use to evaluate the efficiency of current operations and identify areas for improvement?
How do you make decisions about which vendors or service providers to work with when you have multiple bids for your business?
What are the main places that waste and inefficiency can happen in business operations?
How do you maintain strong relationships with all department heads to facilitate communication throughout the organization?
What would you do if two department heads both had an urgent operational need at the same time?
Tell me about a time you where your team was trending over budget and describe what you did to rectify the situation.
How would you handle a disagreement with the CEO about how company operations should change in the upcoming fiscal year?

Show more questions Show fewer questions

6 Director of Operations Interview Questions and Answers

Q:

What is your strategy for keeping the services provided by your team up to date and consistent?

A:

Having a director of operations who keeps his or her team trained and more or less uniform in the services provided is crucial for a company’s success. This question will allow you to see if the candidate has a strategy for the team and what that would look like if he or she took this position. How the candidate approaches this will also show how well he or she collaborates.

What to look for in an answer:

Clear and well thought out strategy
Commitment to team training and success
Recognition of the department’s responsibility to quality

Example:

“I initiated quarterly training sessions to ensure that everyone was kept abreast of new products. We also have a process in place for questions and answers.”

Q:

Can you provide an example of how you increased operational efficiency?

A:

Saving money while still providing good service is an important role for the operations team. A candidate who can speak to how he or she cuts costs without cutting a service is sure to stand out as a leading applicant. The answer to this question will show you how the candidate approaches problems and how well he or she can identify areas of improvement.

What to look for in an answer:

Various examples of cost- and time-saving measures
Dedication to problem solving
Demonstrates ability to decrease costs without compromising quality

Example:

“A lot of time was spent on support related to training. I put together emails to address new client FAQs that decreased support tickets by 80 percent.”

Q:

Describe a time when something went wrong and how you took steps to resolve the issue.

A:

Things are bound to go wrong despite all efforts to prevent anything bad from happening. This question will help you identify two strengths in potential candidates that are important to have when things go wrong: the ability to accept responsibility when something went wrong and the ability to problem solve after the fact.

What to look for in an answer:

Ability to own responsibility when something went wrong
Demonstrates problem-solving skills
Examples of how they learned from their mistakes

Example:

“One of the products came out with a defect. I alerted the appropriate teams and implemented an alternative plan to get back on schedule.”

Q:

How important is it for you that operations interacts with other departments and why?

A:

Operations is crucial for the company, and it impacts both the sales teams and account management teams among others. You will need to have a candidate who acknowledges this overall company impact and works to promote interdepartmental collaboration. The answer to this question will help you identify which candidates have the strongest sense of collaboration and their reasons for why this is important.

What to look for in an answer:

Dedication to overall company growth and success
Examples of how operations interacts with other departments
Accepts feedback from other departments

Example:

“Operations’ success depends on everyone who helped get the client to us. I always encourage my team to share/receive feedback from other departments.”

Q:

What is your strategy for dealing with difficult clients, and how has it been successful?

A:

Every company will have a difficult client or two, and the director of operations needs to be able to work with many personalities in order to maintain efficiency. This question allows you to learn how the candidate approaches these types of clients and how well it has worked in the past. Additionally, you can see which candidates are eager to identify problems before they happen.

What to look for in an answer:

Desire to learn the root cause of problems
Examples of previous difficult clients
Clear strategy for dealing with difficult clients

Example:

“I identified the top three complaints from our most challenging clients and put together a training workshop for my team to address the issues.”

Q:

What would you do if we experienced a sudden increase in demand that put extreme stress on our operational capacity?

A:

Directors of Operations must be highly adaptable and able to solve problems as they arise, from small issues with delivery times to large structural problems. Strong candidates will have experience dealing with issues of scalability and growth in a company. They should be knowledgeable about how to expand company operations to capture as many new customers as possible. This question allows interviewers to assess each candidate's strategic approach to expansion and how it impacts their decision-making in the workplace.

An ideal response should feature:

A growth mindset
Realistic expectations of their team
A holistic understanding of how to scale operations

Example:

"As an operations professional, I understand that plenty of factors can cause a sudden spike in demand. My goal is to avoid turning away any sales simply because we don't have a high enough production capacity. I would first meet with my team and department heads to see if we could redirect workflows from non-essential projects to manage the short-term increase. I would also start looking into outsourcing options to temporarily meet demand while we worked to retool current operations and expand our infrastructure."

Ready to get started? Post a Job