FilmL.A., Inc. Career Opportunities
Within the last 5 years, what role did the following play in your job:
championing change through the implementation of new processes and procedures.
Do you have direct experience as a Director/Manager managing customer service, customer support or customer experience teams?
Within the last 5 years, what role did the following play in your job:
promoting discipline, using data /analysis for decisions, and applying Lean/Six Sigma methodologies to implement change.
Within the last 5 years, what role did the following play in your job:
acting as a transformational leader who sets the strategy, has active dialogue with divisional and process leaders to employ best practice.
Please note that this position is no longer available.
If you would like to be considered for similar opportunities now or in the future, feel free to apply and/or set up a notifier for yourself.
Director of Continuous Improvement
CA - Hollywood
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Take point on overhaul of service systems for positive change, putting yourself in a strong position to grow with the organization.

Bring your entrepreneurial energy to a change agent role where you’ll have the autonomy to make a large and lasting positive impact on the organization.

This newly created, dynamic, senior role offers you the opportunity to make a significant impact by influencing the way we run our contact (call) center operations for an interesting business. Quick question for you - click here Consider the advantages: The official film office of the greater Los Angeles Region. FilmL.A. is a 501(c)4 not-for-profit public benefit organization providing streamlined permit processing and production planning services to filmmakers, and comprehensive community relations, marketing services, film policy analysis and more to local governments. In today’s highly competitive, global entertainment production market, we aim to keep Greater Los Angeles the entertainment production capital of the world.

Video: Get an overview of the services and support we provide, including a glimpse into the complexity involved. The video describes our Online Permit System (OPS), and you’ll take point on rebuilding it from the ground up.

The Requirements

To meet the basic qualification for this position you will be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without requiring a visa transfer or visa sponsorship. To be a good fit for this opportunity you should have:
  • A bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, operations, or a related field; we will consider a non-degreed candidate who has earned a LEAN Six Sigma black belt
  • 5+ years of management experience in a customer-facing environment; ideal candidates will have experience in customer service management and/or contact (call) center operations in a high production environment Quick question for you - click here
  • Experience employing formal process improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma or Lean; a Black Belt, PMP or other relevant certification is strongly preferred, but we also will consider candidates with equivalent experience Quick question for you - click here
  • Ability to provide strong, dynamic leadership that mentors, develops and guides team members
  • A proven strong understanding of the drivers of customer satisfaction, process and quality, and contact (call) center operations
  • Experience as a change agent, including implementing best practices and driving performance through key performance indicators, service level agreements, etc. Quick question for you - click here
  • Strong skill with time management, organization, problem-solving, and deadline planning to juggle various responsibilities, prioritize, and thrive in a dynamic fast paced environment
  • The ability to learn new things quickly while implementing them efficiently within tight timeframes
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and strong presentation skills
Just as important as your experience and skills will be the following characteristics and competencies:
  • An action orientation, motivation to manage both processes and people, and willingness to "roll up your sleeves" to achieve goals
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability and willingness to work with a diverse group of people from many cultures and backgrounds
  • The ability to influence and manage through dotted line relationships, and to balance managing by the numbers with developing people and building strong positive relationships with the team
  • The ability to engage and influence key stakeholders across the business
  • A critical eye with the ability to see both the big picture as well as the detail and nuance, and to balance short-term and tactical decisions with long-term strategic thinking
  • Innovative, creative and fresh thinking with the ability to bring different solutions to address customer insight and improvement
  • An understanding of how to establish and cultivate a ‘test and learn’ environment
  • A great attitude, an open mind, an eagerness to learn and a willingness to take initiative, no matter the task
  • Skill as a collaborator and facilitator
Preferred but not required:
  • LEAN Six Sigma black belt
  • Ideal candidates will have experience facilitating new IT implementations in a contact (call) center environment, but at a minimum you’ll need strong experience using an ERP, such as Salesforce.  Experience with Salesforce implementations a plus, but not required.

The Role

In this new role, you’ll have a major impact across all aspects of our contact (call) center operations. You will be instrumental in the implementation of new tools and resources, specifically Salesforce among others, helping to create the strategy as well as to impart the importance of process adoption and help the team learn to use these new tools to improve customer service. If you’re hungry to make an impact, become a key member of our team, and prove the value of this function in a way that will positively affect the direction of our company, then this could be the opportunity that you’ve been waiting for.

Role Overview
Reporting to the COO, you will lead efforts to standardize processes for approximately 40 employees (out of 100 total in the company) that make up the operations department, including the Permit Ops, Permit Admin, Production Planning, and Field Service teams. Directors from these departments will also have a dotted line reporting relationship to you.  Our company is growing and changing, and we’re looking for a go-getter who already has enough knowledge and experience to be a partner in developing strategy and implementation plans, act as “boots on the ground” driving the vision for operations, implementing the planned improvements, and helping to influence the teams to understand why these changes are necessary.

Exciting Changes in a Dynamic Environment
This is a period of transition in our company, so you’ll need to be flexible and roll with changes as they happen. Our current project is a full Salesforce implementation, and you’ll be a big part of driving this forward. You’ll help evaluate what we do now, and recommend other improvements (such as a phone system built for a contact center) before we adopt the new system to help set us up for success.

Though our operations are similar to a contact (call) center, the work we do is a lot like case management, so we’ll call on your expertise to find the best way to move forward in a way that works for our business model. If you’re the right person for the job you’re excited to be a collaborator, a facilitator, and to make a positive difference as we push our function to the next level.

Development Process
You’ll begin by developing trust, confidence, and the credibility that you know how to move these changes forward to help the team. Then you’ll work on training, developing, leading, and assessing performance to help us become more efficient. Though you’ll manage by analytics and data, helping us determine the appropriate KPIs and how to measure these, you’ll balance this approach with an understanding of the needs of our employees to buy in and learn the new system over time.

Some of your specific tasks will be to:
  • Build, manage, grow, train, and mentor Internal customer service employees, and promote a customer satisfaction-focused culture.
  • Understand and be responsible for productivity, customer satisfaction, and retention related KPIs.
  • Research and implement software solutions for improved efficiency, cost-reduction, customer service quality, and scale.
  • Resolve customer inquiries and complaints quickly and effectively.
  • Promote high-quality customer service processes and communication.
  • Work cross-functionally with other departments to develop and execute strategic plans.
  • Collaborate with other departments and external vendors to identify and resolve system or process issues.
  • Conduct needs assessments, performance reviews, capacity planning, and cost/benefit analyses.
  • Prepare performance reports by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing data and trends.
  • Maintain professional and technical knowledge by tracking emerging trends in contact (call) center operations management, attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing personal networks, benchmarking state-of-the-art practices, and participating in professional societies.
​Note: this description is intended to give you a general overview of the position and is not an exhaustive listing of duties and responsibilities.

What's in It for You?

Wide-reaching strategic impact
This initiative is going to be transformational for our organization. We are a relatively young company, and we’re at a pivotal point in our development. Successful implementation and execution of the changes you’ll be leading will give us a very different organization at the end of the next two years, and will be a strong foundation for us to expand and grow.

Professional development
This role will put you in a great position to grow with the company. The change initiative is planned to take about two years, and when you prove yourself during that process we expect there will be an opportunity for you to move into another position such as a senior level operations role.

Great environment
We are a non-profit, but our focus on promoting economic benefits means our culture has unique energy. Our staff of about 100 is passionate about our mission and enjoy working here -- average tenure is 12 years, and many employees have been with FilmL.A. since the beginning. Our management team is very supportive, and we enjoy a collegial atmosphere where we work well, but have fun together.

Bringing entertainment production home
For more than 20 years, our expertise in film permit coordination, community outreach and marketing to filmmakers have helped our government clients get their “big break” in the industry. Our work promotes communities and brings tax credits to the state, among other benefits. Lots of people talk about entertainment production leaving Hollywood, but the LA area continues to host more production than any other location -- and we’re committed to keeping it that way.

Strong core values
At FilmL.A. we believe in living by a strong set of core values, and we're always looking for team members who fit well within our culture of:
  • Accountability
  • Commitment
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Integrity
Excellent compensation
We offer compensation and benefits that is not only competitive in the non-profit space, but also stands up to private sector offerings. In addition to a generous salary, we offer medical, dental and vision insurance; a 401(k) plan with vesting of the employer match once you meet eligibility requirements; generous paid time off benefits plus paid holidays and bereavement leave; employer-paid life, long term disability, long term care, and AD&D insurance; an employee assistance program; a dog-friendly office; and more.

Keys to Success

We’ll look to you to bring a more forward-thinking approach to our operations, with a focus on improving the technology and infrastructure, and leveraging all the capabilities available to us to support the organization’s strategy and mission.

That means your technological expertise will be essential, but just as important will be strong leadership skills, strategic thinking and business acumen. Rather than driving a disruptive change, you will use your leadership skills to help different stakeholders see the benefits and embrace the change. You also should promote enthusiasm for continual improvement, driven by a commitment to being more efficient and effective for our customers.

To excel here, you’ll need to be willing to take a hands-on approach and wear multiple hats, pitching in where needed, and finding ways your division interacts with the rest of the organization. You'll need the expertise, executive presence and gravitas to interact effectively with other leaders, as well as the mentoring skills to work directly with the team, influencing them through dotted-line relationships. We're looking for a professional who can influence key stakeholders in order to gain buy-in to facilitate process change. You'll help others step back and recognize the fact that many processes and rules are in place due to limitations in our old systems. Your ability to smoothly drive these types of changes will be essential to your success here.

In addition, if you’re our ideal candidate you’ll bring the following principles to work with you every day:
  • Focus on great customer service.
  • Maintain strong lines of communication to keep others informed.
  • Constantly look for ways to improve processes.
  • Approach problem solving with an open mind.
  • Work well with people, as part of a team and on your own.
  • Manage processes to build a framework for success.
  • Emphasize excellence in everything you do.

About Us

FilmL.A.'s core service is to provide expert, centralized coordination of multi-jurisdictional on-location filming permits in the world's highest-volume film production region. Our services include:

Production Planning: Advance planning helps filmmakers understand neighborhood concerns and/or filming restrictions and pre-empts conflict, ultimately reducing production cost and complexity.

Neighborhood Notification: FilmL.A. performs uniform, consistent notification to communities to ensure that residents and businesses are well-informed in advance of filming activity.

Community Relations: FilmL.A.'s job is to facilitate on-location filming in a way that minimizes inconvenience to communities. We proactively establish an open rapport with local neighborhoods and coordinate permits with their concerns in mind.

On-Location Monitoring: FilmL.A. Monitors are our eyes and ears on the street and are assigned to sensitive filming locations to provide community members and production companies with aid throughout the filming day.

Economic Research: FilmL.A. is expert in matters related to filming and its economic, civic and cultural benefits for the region. Our data and reports are regularly cited by government representatives, economists, and members of the media.

Video: as part of our efforts to support the communities we serve and promote unique locations in the LA region, we are a sponsor of the Night On Broadway Festival. This festival celebrates the historic Broadway theater district in downtown Los Angeles, site of hundreds of film and television shoots each year. IN 2017 NOB drew more than 75,000 guests.

Take point on overhaul of service systems for positive change, putting yourself in a strong position to grow with the organization.

Bring your entrepreneurial energy to a change agent role where you’ll have the autonomy to make a large and lasting positive impact on the organization.

This newly created, dynamic, senior role offers you the opportunity to make a significant impact by influencing the way we run our contact (call) center operations for an interesting business. Quick question for you - click here Consider the advantages: The official film office of the greater Los Angeles Region. FilmL.A. is a 501(c)4 not-for-profit public benefit organization providing streamlined permit processing and production planning services to filmmakers, and comprehensive community relations, marketing services, film policy analysis and more to local governments. In today’s highly competitive, global entertainment production market, we aim to keep Greater Los Angeles the entertainment production capital of the world.

Video: Get an overview of the services and support we provide, including a glimpse into the complexity involved. The video describes our Online Permit System (OPS), and you’ll take point on rebuilding it from the ground up.

The Requirements

To meet the basic qualification for this position you will be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without requiring a visa transfer or visa sponsorship. To be a good fit for this opportunity you should have:
  • A bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, operations, or a related field; we will consider a non-degreed candidate who has earned a LEAN Six Sigma black belt
  • 5+ years of management experience in a customer-facing environment; ideal candidates will have experience in customer service management and/or contact (call) center operations in a high production environment Quick question for you - click here
  • Experience employing formal process improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma or Lean; a Black Belt, PMP or other relevant certification is strongly preferred, but we also will consider candidates with equivalent experience Quick question for you - click here
  • Ability to provide strong, dynamic leadership that mentors, develops and guides team members
  • A proven strong understanding of the drivers of customer satisfaction, process and quality, and contact (call) center operations
  • Experience as a change agent, including implementing best practices and driving performance through key performance indicators, service level agreements, etc. Quick question for you - click here
  • Strong skill with time management, organization, problem-solving, and deadline planning to juggle various responsibilities, prioritize, and thrive in a dynamic fast paced environment
  • The ability to learn new things quickly while implementing them efficiently within tight timeframes
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and strong presentation skills
Just as important as your experience and skills will be the following characteristics and competencies:
  • An action orientation, motivation to manage both processes and people, and willingness to "roll up your sleeves" to achieve goals
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability and willingness to work with a diverse group of people from many cultures and backgrounds
  • The ability to influence and manage through dotted line relationships, and to balance managing by the numbers with developing people and building strong positive relationships with the team
  • The ability to engage and influence key stakeholders across the business
  • A critical eye with the ability to see both the big picture as well as the detail and nuance, and to balance short-term and tactical decisions with long-term strategic thinking
  • Innovative, creative and fresh thinking with the ability to bring different solutions to address customer insight and improvement
  • An understanding of how to establish and cultivate a ‘test and learn’ environment
  • A great attitude, an open mind, an eagerness to learn and a willingness to take initiative, no matter the task
  • Skill as a collaborator and facilitator
Preferred but not required:
  • LEAN Six Sigma black belt
  • Ideal candidates will have experience facilitating new IT implementations in a contact (call) center environment, but at a minimum you’ll need strong experience using an ERP, such as Salesforce.  Experience with Salesforce implementations a plus, but not required.

The Role

In this new role, you’ll have a major impact across all aspects of our contact (call) center operations. You will be instrumental in the implementation of new tools and resources, specifically Salesforce among others, helping to create the strategy as well as to impart the importance of process adoption and help the team learn to use these new tools to improve customer service. If you’re hungry to make an impact, become a key member of our team, and prove the value of this function in a way that will positively affect the direction of our company, then this could be the opportunity that you’ve been waiting for.

Role Overview
Reporting to the COO, you will lead efforts to standardize processes for approximately 40 employees (out of 100 total in the company) that make up the operations department, including the Permit Ops, Permit Admin, Production Planning, and Field Service teams. Directors from these departments will also have a dotted line reporting relationship to you.  Our company is growing and changing, and we’re looking for a go-getter who already has enough knowledge and experience to be a partner in developing strategy and implementation plans, act as “boots on the ground” driving the vision for operations, implementing the planned improvements, and helping to influence the teams to understand why these changes are necessary.

Exciting Changes in a Dynamic Environment
This is a period of transition in our company, so you’ll need to be flexible and roll with changes as they happen. Our current project is a full Salesforce implementation, and you’ll be a big part of driving this forward. You’ll help evaluate what we do now, and recommend other improvements (such as a phone system built for a contact center) before we adopt the new system to help set us up for success.

Though our operations are similar to a contact (call) center, the work we do is a lot like case management, so we’ll call on your expertise to find the best way to move forward in a way that works for our business model. If you’re the right person for the job you’re excited to be a collaborator, a facilitator, and to make a positive difference as we push our function to the next level.

Development Process
You’ll begin by developing trust, confidence, and the credibility that you know how to move these changes forward to help the team. Then you’ll work on training, developing, leading, and assessing performance to help us become more efficient. Though you’ll manage by analytics and data, helping us determine the appropriate KPIs and how to measure these, you’ll balance this approach with an understanding of the needs of our employees to buy in and learn the new system over time.

Some of your specific tasks will be to:
  • Build, manage, grow, train, and mentor Internal customer service employees, and promote a customer satisfaction-focused culture.
  • Understand and be responsible for productivity, customer satisfaction, and retention related KPIs.
  • Research and implement software solutions for improved efficiency, cost-reduction, customer service quality, and scale.
  • Resolve customer inquiries and complaints quickly and effectively.
  • Promote high-quality customer service processes and communication.
  • Work cross-functionally with other departments to develop and execute strategic plans.
  • Collaborate with other departments and external vendors to identify and resolve system or process issues.
  • Conduct needs assessments, performance reviews, capacity planning, and cost/benefit analyses.
  • Prepare performance reports by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing data and trends.
  • Maintain professional and technical knowledge by tracking emerging trends in contact (call) center operations management, attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing personal networks, benchmarking state-of-the-art practices, and participating in professional societies.
​Note: this description is intended to give you a general overview of the position and is not an exhaustive listing of duties and responsibilities.

What's in It for You?

Wide-reaching strategic impact
This initiative is going to be transformational for our organization. We are a relatively young company, and we’re at a pivotal point in our development. Successful implementation and execution of the changes you’ll be leading will give us a very different organization at the end of the next two years, and will be a strong foundation for us to expand and grow.

Professional development
This role will put you in a great position to grow with the company. The change initiative is planned to take about two years, and when you prove yourself during that process we expect there will be an opportunity for you to move into another position such as a senior level operations role.

Great environment
We are a non-profit, but our focus on promoting economic benefits means our culture has unique energy. Our staff of about 100 is passionate about our mission and enjoy working here -- average tenure is 12 years, and many employees have been with FilmL.A. since the beginning. Our management team is very supportive, and we enjoy a collegial atmosphere where we work well, but have fun together.

Bringing entertainment production home
For more than 20 years, our expertise in film permit coordination, community outreach and marketing to filmmakers have helped our government clients get their “big break” in the industry. Our work promotes communities and brings tax credits to the state, among other benefits. Lots of people talk about entertainment production leaving Hollywood, but the LA area continues to host more production than any other location -- and we’re committed to keeping it that way.

Strong core values
At FilmL.A. we believe in living by a strong set of core values, and we're always looking for team members who fit well within our culture of:
  • Accountability
  • Commitment
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Integrity
Excellent compensation
We offer compensation and benefits that is not only competitive in the non-profit space, but also stands up to private sector offerings. In addition to a generous salary, we offer medical, dental and vision insurance; a 401(k) plan with vesting of the employer match once you meet eligibility requirements; generous paid time off benefits plus paid holidays and bereavement leave; employer-paid life, long term disability, long term care, and AD&D insurance; an employee assistance program; a dog-friendly office; and more.

Keys to Success

We’ll look to you to bring a more forward-thinking approach to our operations, with a focus on improving the technology and infrastructure, and leveraging all the capabilities available to us to support the organization’s strategy and mission.

That means your technological expertise will be essential, but just as important will be strong leadership skills, strategic thinking and business acumen. Rather than driving a disruptive change, you will use your leadership skills to help different stakeholders see the benefits and embrace the change. You also should promote enthusiasm for continual improvement, driven by a commitment to being more efficient and effective for our customers.

To excel here, you’ll need to be willing to take a hands-on approach and wear multiple hats, pitching in where needed, and finding ways your division interacts with the rest of the organization. You'll need the expertise, executive presence and gravitas to interact effectively with other leaders, as well as the mentoring skills to work directly with the team, influencing them through dotted-line relationships. We're looking for a professional who can influence key stakeholders in order to gain buy-in to facilitate process change. You'll help others step back and recognize the fact that many processes and rules are in place due to limitations in our old systems. Your ability to smoothly drive these types of changes will be essential to your success here.

In addition, if you’re our ideal candidate you’ll bring the following principles to work with you every day:
  • Focus on great customer service.
  • Maintain strong lines of communication to keep others informed.
  • Constantly look for ways to improve processes.
  • Approach problem solving with an open mind.
  • Work well with people, as part of a team and on your own.
  • Manage processes to build a framework for success.
  • Emphasize excellence in everything you do.

About Us

FilmL.A.'s core service is to provide expert, centralized coordination of multi-jurisdictional on-location filming permits in the world's highest-volume film production region. Our services include:

Production Planning: Advance planning helps filmmakers understand neighborhood concerns and/or filming restrictions and pre-empts conflict, ultimately reducing production cost and complexity.

Neighborhood Notification: FilmL.A. performs uniform, consistent notification to communities to ensure that residents and businesses are well-informed in advance of filming activity.

Community Relations: FilmL.A.'s job is to facilitate on-location filming in a way that minimizes inconvenience to communities. We proactively establish an open rapport with local neighborhoods and coordinate permits with their concerns in mind.

On-Location Monitoring: FilmL.A. Monitors are our eyes and ears on the street and are assigned to sensitive filming locations to provide community members and production companies with aid throughout the filming day.

Economic Research: FilmL.A. is expert in matters related to filming and its economic, civic and cultural benefits for the region. Our data and reports are regularly cited by government representatives, economists, and members of the media.

Video: as part of our efforts to support the communities we serve and promote unique locations in the LA region, we are a sponsor of the Night On Broadway Festival. This festival celebrates the historic Broadway theater district in downtown Los Angeles, site of hundreds of film and television shoots each year. IN 2017 NOB drew more than 75,000 guests.
FilmL.A., Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status.
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