OPEX Operations Lead

Summary

At Lenovo, we believe in smarter technology for all, and that same mindset applies to how we run the business. This role offers the opportunity to help shape a more disciplined, data-driven, and scalable operating model by strengthening OPEX governance, improving expense visibility, and simplifying how work gets done. The OPEX Operations Lead translates complexity into clarity, enables better resource allocation decisions, and applies AI-enabled ways of working to improve the speed, accuracy, and consistency of OPEX processes.

For a leader who enjoys building structure, influencing across functions, and driving meaningful operational change, this is a high-impact opportunity to help modernize how the business operates.

Lenovo is seeking an experienced OPEX Operations Lead to drive operational expense governance, spend visibility, and process excellence across CSW. This role will lead the operating rhythms, reporting, and execution discipline required to manage OPEX activities effectively across vendor spend, labor allocations, purchase orders, invoicing, accrual readiness, and recurring alignment with Finance partners.

The ideal candidate brings strong business, analytical, and operational acumen, a systems mindset, and the ability to turn complex data into clear business insights. This individual will also help advance AI-enabled ways of working by identifying practical opportunities to use AI tools and task-specific AI agents to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and automate repeatable OPEX administration, reporting, and governance activities within appropriate control and governance boundaries.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead end-to-end OPEX governance across vendor spend, non-recurring engineering (NRE), and labor allocations to support accuracy, compliance, transparency, and alignment with business priorities.
• Own and continuously improve OPEX governance and business operating cadences, including Budget Board preparation, approval workflows, weekly OPEX reviews, and recurring reviews with Finance partners.
• Partner closely with Finance, business leaders, and operational stakeholders to support budget outlooks, spend projections, variance explanations, accrual readiness, and leadership decision support.
• Drive operational discipline across purchase-order intake, validation, approval routing, invoice coordination, and audit-ready documentation.
• Develop and standardize reporting, dashboards, executive updates, and business narratives that improve expense transparency, identify risks and opportunities, and support leadership decision-making.
• Establish clear ownership, decision rights, documentation standards, and service expectations across recurring OPEX processes.
• Identify and implement opportunities to simplify workflows, automate manual tasks, improve cycle time, strengthen operational controls, and reduce process errors and rework.
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, and other control functions to ensure OPEX processes operate within applicable policies, approval requirements, and governance standards.
• Lead, coach, and develop team members responsible for core OPEX execution activities, establishing clear priorities, accountability, development expectations, and service standards.
• Build trusted cross-functional relationships and influence decisions in a matrixed environment through clear communication, structured problem-solving, business insight, and a customer-focused mindset.
• Identify practical opportunities to apply AI tools and task-specific AI agents to OPEX administration, reporting, documentation, data validation, and other repeatable business processes.
• Ensure AI-enabled process improvements are implemented within appropriate business, data, security, and governance boundaries.

Basic Qualifications:

• Must have 3+ years of experience in business operations, OPEX management, budget governance, business planning, spend management, or related operational leadership roles.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Operations, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience managing OPEX activities, budgets, spend governance, and recurring business review cadences.
• Experience partnering effectively with Finance on budget outlooks, expense reporting, variance explanations, accrual readiness, and recurring review processes.
• Experience leading or coordinating operational processes involving vendor spend, labor allocations, purchase orders, invoicing, approvals, and supporting documentation.
• Strong working knowledge of Jira and Confluence for intake workflows, requirements management, decision logging, process documentation, and operational runbooks.
• Working capability in Power BI, including dashboard development, core data-modeling concepts, measures, and effective data visualization for decision-ready business reporting.
• Experience with Microsoft SharePoint for document governance, content organization, permissions, and publishing standardized operational artifacts.
• Advanced Excel skills, including PivotTables, Power Query, and data-model concepts, with the ability to investigate data-integrity issues and explain spend variances, accrual inputs, vendor costs, and labor-allocation drivers.
• Demonstrated adoption of AI tools to improve productivity and decision quality, with practical experience using AI to optimize workflows, accelerate analysis and documentation, and support repeatable business processes.
• Experience implementing or leveraging task-specific AI workflows or AI agents to automate portions of operational, reporting, documentation, or governance processes. This role does not require building technical AI solutions but does require effectively applying AI capabilities to business execution.
• Proven people leadership experience, including coaching, prioritization, workload management, and driving accountability across a small team.
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, and decision-oriented business communication skills.
• Experience partnering closely with Finance Controllers, Finance leadership, Procurement, and business executives in a matrixed environment.
• Experience with purchase-order systems, vendor management, invoice operations, spend-management processes, and operational controls.
• Experience supporting structured OPEX planning, reporting, accrual preparation, and variance-explanation processes in partnership with Finance.
• Track record of simplifying business processes, improving operating rhythms, strengthening governance, and reducing manual work through automation or AI-enabled workflow improvements.
• Experience developing dashboards, standardized reporting, business narratives, and executive-level decision-support materials.
• Experience operating within a large, global, or highly matrixed organization.
• Advanced degree, such as an MBA, or a relevant professional certification, such as a CPA or CMA.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any federal, state, or local protected class.