Director of Operational Excellence Engineering

About the role

This strategic individual-contributor role drives operational excellence and system reliability across B2C retirement platforms. Reporting directly to the Head of Retirement Solutions Individual Technology (B2C), the Director of Operational Excellence Engineering is pivotal to achieving the Executive Committee’s mandate to make 2026 the year of operational excellence, with a sharp focus on serving top institutions, TRAC users, and participants. The position serves as the Technology lead for B2C operational-excellence initiatives, partnering closely with the Retirement Technology Operations & Managed Services organization to establish unified standards and practices across service-delivery functions. It also brings critical parity to the operating model, mirroring a parallel position being established for B2B operations.

Responsibilities

• Operational Excellence & Root Cause Analysis – Conduct comprehensive analysis of system performance, service incidents, and outage patterns to identify systemic issues and their underlying causes. Synthesize data from incident reports, monitoring systems, and operational metrics to pinpoint areas where structural improvements will yield the greatest impact on system reliability and participant experience. Develop holistic remediation strategies that address root problems rather than symptoms.
• Site Reliability Engineering & System Resilience – Champion Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles and practices to build more resilient systems. Identify opportunities to implement graceful degradation patterns, ensuring systems maintain core functionality even during partial failures. Evaluate current architecture and operational practices to recommend and drive implementation of fail-safe mechanisms, redundancy strategies, and automated recovery procedures that minimize participant impact during system stress or component failures.
• Zero Tolerance Compliance & Monitoring – Establish and maintain rigorous monitoring frameworks and early warning systems in support of a zero-tolerance posture for system outages. Define key performance indicators, establish escalation protocols, and ensure real-time visibility into system health across all B2C platforms. Develop proactive intervention strategies that prevent incidents before they impact participants.
• Managed Services Oversight & SLA Management – Serve as the primary oversight lead for the Accenture managed-services partnership, ensuring contractual service-level agreements are consistently met for all B2C operations. Track service-delivery metrics, conduct regular performance reviews, identify gaps in service delivery, and drive accountability for remediation. Maintain detailed scorecards and documentation that demonstrate compliance and highlight areas requiring attention.
• Executive Reporting & Communication – Develop and deliver regular executive-level reporting on operational-excellence initiatives, system-reliability metrics, incident trends, and program progress. Create dashboards, presentations, and written reports that clearly communicate both technical and business impacts of operational improvements. Translate complex technical information into business outcomes that resonate with EC-level stakeholders.
• Cross-Functional Partnership & Synergy Building – Work collaboratively with Retirement Technology Operations & Managed Services leadership to identify opportunities to create operational synergies, eliminate redundancies, and establish consistent practices across service-delivery functions. Ensure alignment between development, operations, and managed-services teams in pursuit of common operational-excellence goals.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in Technology Operations, Service Delivery, or IT Service Management (10+ years preferred).
• Demonstrated experience leading operational-excellence initiatives at enterprise scale, including root-cause analysis, incident management, and systemic remediation.
• Experience with Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, practices, and implementation, including graceful degradation, redundancy strategies, and automated recovery.
• Experience establishing and managing monitoring frameworks, KPIs, and escalation protocols for production systems.
• Experience managing third-party managed-services partnerships, including SLA tracking, performance management, and vendor accountability.
• Ability to develop and deliver executive-level reporting, dashboards, and presentations that translate technical complexity into business outcomes.
• Ability to assess complex enterprise architectures and translate findings into clear, actionable strategies that simplify systems, reduce fragility, and strengthen operational resilience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with B2C retirement, financial services, or similarly regulated technology platforms.
• Experience operating as a strategic individual contributor in a matrixed organization, driving outcomes through influence rather than direct authority.
• Familiarity with AI-powered monitoring, observability, and automated remediation tools.
• Experience with chaos engineering, digital-twin simulation, or advanced resilience-testing methodologies.
• Experience governing increasingly autonomous or AI-augmented operational systems.
• Familiarity with ITIL, Agile, or SAFe frameworks as they apply to operational service delivery.
• Experience managing large-scale vendor relationships, specifically with Accenture or similar global managed-services providers.
• Retirement-technology or financial-services industry experience.
• Experience building and maturing operational-excellence programs from the ground up in an enterprise environment.
• Experience working across cross-functional technology and operations teams to drive alignment and shared outcomes.

Related Skills: Debugging, Prioritizes Effectively, Problem Solving, Systems Design/Analysis

About the company

Every worker deserves a secure retirement. For more than 100 years, TIAA has delivered it for millions of people. Founded to help educators retire with dignity, today TIAA is a market-leading retirement company fueled by world-class asset management. TIAA is fighting harder than ever before for its clients and the many Americans who need it, equipping associates with future-focused skills and AI tools to advance its mission. Guided by values—Champion Our People, Be Client Obsessed, Lead with Integrity, Own It, and Win As One—TIAA thrives in a collaborative in-office environment where teams work across organizational boundaries with shared purpose, accelerating innovation and delivering meaningful results.

Benefits

The organization is committed to making financial well-being possible for its clients and is equally committed to the well-being of its associates. TIAA offers a comprehensive Total Rewards package designed to make a positive difference in the lives of associates and their loved ones, including:

• A superior retirement program.
• Highly competitive health, wellness, and work-life offerings that can help associates achieve and maintain their best possible physical, emotional, and financial well-being.

Pay

Base Pay Range: $178,000/yr – $271,000/yr. Actual base salary may vary based on relevant experience, time in role, base salary of internal peers, prior performance, business sector, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, the competitive compensation package may include participation in an incentive program linked to performance (e.g., annual discretionary incentive programs, non-annual sales incentive plans, or other non-annual incentive plans).