Operational Readiness Specialist

JDA TSG delivers exceptional outsourced services across tax, technology, and customer experience. Each year, we hire and deploy thousands of tax professionals and support experts to help our clients deliver world-class service during peak season.
As part of JDA’s growth strategy, our Recruiting team is building an in-house sourcing function to scale the hiring of 6,000+ seasonal tax professionals nationwide — credentialed and non-credentialed.
Position Overview
The Operations Readiness Specialist supports the Ramp Up Network (RUN) and provides day-to-day leadership and operational support for teams responsible for onboarding and transitioning seasonal Tax Experts from new hire through production readiness.
Working under the direction of the Sr Operations Manager, this role leads onboarding activities, training support, employee check-ins, and staff engagement to ensure new Tax Experts are prepared to successfully transition into their assigned teams. The Specialist oversees assigned team members, coordinates daily workload and coverage, approves timekeeping and payroll, manages escalations, and ensures consistent execution across assigned shifts.
Position Summary
The Operational Readiness Specialist supports the successful onboarding and transition of seasonal Tax Experts from new hire through production readiness. This role leads onboarding activities, training support, employee check-ins, attendance and engagement monitoring, and early performance coaching to ensure new Tax Experts are prepared to successfully transition into their assigned teams.
Key Responsibilities
Lead and support assigned cohorts of Tax Experts throughout onboarding, training, nesting, and transition to production.
Conduct regular new-hire check-ins, reinforce expectations, monitor engagement and attendance, and provide coaching or escalation when concerns arise.
Track onboarding and training completion, system access, readiness requirements, and other induction and preflight milestones to ensure employees remain on schedule.
Partner with Operations managers to reinforce training expectations, workflows, professional standards, and production readiness.
Identify employees who may need additional support and coordinate coaching, resources, remediation, or other interventions before transition to production.
Serve as a resource for new hires by answering questions, researching issues, and helping resolve system, process, scheduling, and training barriers.
Maintain accurate reporting on attendance, training progress, readiness, risks, and overall cohort status and communicate concerns to leadership.
Demonstrated tax expertise, with strong knowledge of individual tax preparation and the ability to support training across key tax topics, including self-employment, small business, investments/crypto, and other complex individual tax scenarios.
Bring leadership or coaching experience in a high-volume tax, customer experience, contact center, or remote operations environment; experience supporting teams of X+ employees preferred.
Demonstrate strong coaching, facilitation, communication, and relationship-building skills with the ability to engage and motivate new employees.
Comfortable navigating multiple remote systems and using data to identify attendance, engagement, training, or performance concerns.
Able to prioritize effectively and adjust quickly in a fast-paced environment with changing onboarding and operational demands.
Demonstrate a customer-focused leadership style and the ability to hold employees accountable while providing clear, actionable support and feedback.
Maintain a distraction-free remote workspace, reliable hard-wired internet connection, and required technology for administrative responsibilities.
Able to work a flexible schedule within a seven-day, 16-hour operating model, including assigned evening, weekend, and peak-period coverage.
Qualifications
High school diploma or equivalent required
EA - Enrolled Agent preferred.
Relevant experience in tax preparation, training, onboarding, coaching, or people development.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Onboarding & Training Completion: Successful and timely completion of required onboarding, training, and assessments.
Production Readiness: Percentage of Tax Experts successfully transitioning from induction to production as scheduled.
Engagement & Retention: Attendance, participation, responsiveness, and retention throughout the induction period.
Quality & Coaching: Completion of check-ins and coaching, knowledge proficiency, and timely resolution of performance or onboarding barriers.
Shift coverage and staffing adherence

Work arrangement
Yes