Director, Operations Performance Optimization - 21287

Description and Requirements
The Team You Will Join
On MetLife's Global Customer Service and Operations (GCSO) team, customer care is built on trust, empathy, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Whether guiding customers through life's important moments, solving challenges, or simplifying processes with innovative technology, you'll help deliver a differentiated experience grounded in operational excellence. Backed by a collaborative team, you'll play a vital role in strengthening the way we care and advocate for millions worldwide. Here, making a real difference isn't just a goal - it's what we do, one conversation at a time.
The Opportunity
The Director, Operations Performance Optimization is accountable for stabilizing, optimizing, and modernizing Leave Solutions operations. The role turns data into actionable insight, drives measurable progress through agentic AI and automation, and sets the standard for quality and for inventory and workforce management across STD and Absence journeys, from intake through decision.
This leader aligns Operations, Product, Technology, Data, Risk, Legal, and Enablement partners around a multi-year roadmap, clear investment priorities, and measurable value realization. Success is defined by sustained KPI lift (quality, productivity, utilization, timeliness, and customer effort), right-sized inventory and capacity, disciplined change adoption, and governed AI and automation with clear human-in-the-loop controls and auditable decisioning.
Key Responsibilities
1) Data Analytics & Actionable Insights
• Own the performance analytics strategy for Leave Solutions, integrating quality, productivity, utilization, inventory, customer effort, and tool-adoption data into a single trusted view of operational health.
• Convert data into timely, prioritized actions: executive dashboards, root-cause analysis, predictive indicators, and recommendations that leaders can act on, with clear owners and measured outcomes.
• Establish data governance, KPI definitions, and metric integrity so insights are consistent, auditable, and trusted across Operations, Finance, and Risk.
• Build an insights-to-action cadence in which findings trigger coaching, process, knowledge, or automation interventions and results are tracked to sustained KPI improvement.
2) Agentic AI & Automation Delivery
• Provide executive oversight for agentic AI and automation capabilities across STD and Absence journeys from intake through initial decision, including operating model, controls, and scale strategy.
• Own the enablement strategy for enterprise AI and process-intelligence platforms (adoption plan and value realization), including:
• Prioritizing use cases based on value, feasibility, and risk
• Sequencing releases to support stable adoption and measurable KPI lift
• Embedding insights into workflows and accelerating SOP updates
• Identify and drive automation opportunities (e.g., intake, triage, document handling, routing, and quality review) that reduce manual effort, cycle time, and rework.
• Establish benefits tracking for every AI and automation release, tying results to productivity, quality, capacity, and cost outcomes.
3) Quality Expertise & Control Excellence
• Serve as the Leave Solutions quality authority, defining quality standards, scoring methodology, calibration practices, and defect taxonomy across human and AI-assisted work.
• Design quality feedback loops, including AI-enabled quality monitoring and expanded sampling, that surface defects early and drive targeted coaching, knowledge, and SOP updates.
• Ensure audit readiness and compliance with regulatory, client, and internal control requirements; partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Audit on remediation and prevention.
• Define quality assurance for agent-generated decisions, including validation, exception handling, and human-in-the-loop review thresholds.
4) Inventory Management
• Support strategy for inventory management, capacity planning, forecasting, scheduling, and real-time management across STD and Absence operations, balancing timeliness, quality, cost, and employee experience.
• Drive utilization, productivity, and backlog reduction through disciplined inventory controls, prioritization rules, and intraday decision-making.
• Model the impact of automation and agentic AI (capacity released, role redesign, reskilling needs) and partner with Workforce Operations and HR to support planning.
5) Transformation Strategy, Change Leadership & Workforce Readiness
• Develop the strategy and roadmap for stabilization and optimization of end-to-end operations, ensuring knowledge, control, and operating environments can support the multi-year plan.
• Own the adoption and operating model for AI-enabled work, including change approach, training strategy, reinforcement, and measurement.
• Operationalize AI through clear decision rights, defined AI-to-human handoffs, updated SOPs, and frontline leadership readiness.
• Sponsor a workforce enablement modernization roadmap (simulation-based practice, adaptive skill pathing, in-workflow microlearning) in partnership with Operations Enablement to accelerate time-to-proficiency and sustain behavior change.
6) Executive Leadership, Governance & Cross-Functional Alignment
• Provide direction and governance oversight to analytics, quality, workforce management, program, and operational leaders.
• Establish clear accountability across performance strategy (this role), program delivery, and day-to-day operational execution.
• Represent the Leave Solutions business in enterprise governance forums and partner with Product, Technology, Data, Risk, Legal, HR, and Architecture to align priorities and remove barriers.
• Sponsor talent upskilling and an AI-first operating model to build durable capability within Leave Solutions.
Supervisory Responsibilities
• Direct leadership of managers and teams across analytics, quality, workforce/inventory management, and AI program delivery supporting STD Operations.
• Indirect oversight of cross-functional delivery teams, vendors, and partners executing AI and automation initiatives under the approved roadmap.
• Up to 50% US and international travel, as needed.
Required Qualifications
• 8+ years of progressive leadership experience in operations, analytics, transformation, technology, or large-scale change.
• Demonstrated experience turning operational data into insights and actions that delivered measurable performance improvement.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise AI, automation, or digital transformation initiatives.
• Deep expertise in quality management and in inventory, capacity, and workforce management within a high-volume service or claims environment.
• Strong understanding of operations, risk, compliance, and regulatory considerations in highly controlled environments.
• Proven ability to translate strategy into executable roadmaps and realized business value.
• Strong executive communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in group insurance, leave/disability, and employee benefit operations.
• Direct experience with agentic AI, process-intelligence platforms, intelligent automation, or advanced decisioning systems.
• Hands-on fluency with analytics and visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, SQL, Python) and forecasting or workforce management platforms.
• Experience owning business cases and benefit realization for large transformation investments.
• Change management, quality, or transformation certification (e.g., Prosci, Agile, Lean/Six Sigma).
• Advanced degree preferred.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
Preferred Experience (Examples)
The ideal candidate will bring leadership experience across operational analytics, quality assurance, workforce and inventory management, automation, and customer experience improvement in complex service environments. Examples include:
• Building performance-management systems that connect customer effort/sentiment, quality, and productivity to targeted coaching and operational interventions.
• Deploying AI and automation at scale to reduce manual work, cycle time, and defects, with benefits verified through disciplined measurement.
• Redesigning inventory and capacity models (forecasting, skilling, work allocation) that improved timeliness and utilization while protecting quality.
• Leading AI-enabled quality monitoring and knowledge strategies that improve accuracy and time-to-proficiency.
• Driving a "High Tech + High Touch" service model that elevates human performance while AI absorbs routine complexity.
• Leading large, multi-site service organizations and budgets; influencing senior stakeholders through governance and disciplined execution.
The expected salary range for this position is $102,000 - $150,000 . This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.
Benefits We Offer
Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more! For more information regarding MetLife's U.S. benefits, please click here .
About MetLife
Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces™, as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
As part of our New Frontier strategy, MetLife is building an AI-enabled, people-centered future. We're looking for people who bring curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset as we use AI to enhance how we serve customers, support communities, and evolve the way work gets done. At MetLife, AI is a responsible partner that supports human judgment, creativity, and continuous improvement while helping us build trust, inclusion, and long-term value.
Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our core values - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, and Think Ahead - we're inspired to transform the next century in financial services. At MetLife, it's #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!
MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law ("protected characteristics").
If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [email protected]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.
MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liabilities.
This posting is for a current vacancy and is anticipated to remain open for at least 3 days from the listed posting date.