Principal, Operational Excellence (OpEx) - Enterprise Transformation & AI Enablement

Title: Principal, Operational Excellence (OpEx) - Enterprise Transformation &

• AI Enablement

Location: On-site primary office

• Johnston, RI - flexibility to work from nearby satellite offices as needed

Reporting to: Head of Operational Excellence

Team Size: 10-11 (Principals, Analysts, Senior Analysts)

Employment Type: Contract-to-Permanent (C2P)

Role Overview The organization is undertaking a major multi-year enterprise transformation program with several workstreams designed to modernize operations, drive efficiency, and enhance digital capabilities.

As a Principal within the Operational Excellence (OpEx) team, you will lead complex, cross-functional transformation initiatives spanning diagnostics, discovery, design, and implementation. You will work closely with technology, automation, and data partners to drive measurable improvements and identify AI-enabled opportunities that support strategic goals. This is a hands-on leadership role focused on business outcomes, operational impact, and influencing senior stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Diagnostics &

• Strategic Problem Solving
• Lead current-state assessments across operations and select enterprise functions to identify performance, cost, control, and customer experience gaps.
• Build data-driven business cases and transformation roadmaps.
• Conduct portfolio prioritization, sequencing initiatives based on value, feasibility, and risk.

Transformation Delivery

• Facilitate and manage cross-functional improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma, and structured problem-solving approaches.
• Drive solution implementation in collaboration with internal technology, automation, and analytics partners.
• Ensure sustainable results tied to clearly defined KPIs.

AI, Automation &

• Digital Enablement
• Identify, assess, and scope AI and automation opportunities, including:
• Intelligent document processing (OCR/NLP)
• RPA and workflow automation
• Process mining insights
• Decision-support tools and analytics
• Build pilot use cases, business cases, and evaluation criteria.
• Partner with technology, data, and risk teams on AI governance, scalability, and operational readiness.
• Educate teams on practical and ethical AI adoption; hands-on technical build is not expected.

Stakeholder Engagement &

• Influence
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders (SVP level and transformation leads).
• Facilitate alignment, challenge assumptions, and guide decision-making using clear, data-backed insights.
• Work effectively across matrixed environments, navigating operations, HR, marketing, analytics, and technology groups.

Governance, Reporting &

• Sustainability
• Establish and run lightweight governance that enables timely cross-functional decisions.
• Create executive-ready reporting, KPI dashboards, and benefits-tracking mechanisms.
• Build standards, frameworks, and playbooks to raise continuous-improvement maturity across the organization.

Key Requirements

• Demonstrated success leading business transformation or enterprise operational-excellence programs.
• Strong experience in Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, or structured problem solving (methodology-agnostic).
• Excellent executive presence, communication, and facilitation skills.
• Ability to influence upwards and downwards, managing complex stakeholder landscapes.
• Experience identifying process-improvement, automation, and AI-enabled opportunities.
• Comfort working in a matrixed, enterprise-wide environment.
• Background in financial services, regulated industries, or back-office operations preferred.
• Exposure to digital transformation and online-focused business models is a plus.
• Not a technical build role-focus is on leadership, orchestration, and delivery.

Preferred Qualifications

• Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt preferred.
• Consulting or enterprise transformation office experience.
• Experience developing CI/OpEx toolkits, standards, and maturity models.
• Familiarity with AI, automation, process mining, and governance considerations.

Location &

• Work Model
• Primary work location is the main corporate headquarters.
• Flexibility to work from regional offices as needed.
• Preference for frequent on-site presence due to cross-functional collaboration.
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