Director of Operational Excellence Engineering

About the role

This strategic individual-contributor role drives operational excellence and system reliability across B2C retirement platforms. Reporting to the Head of Retirement Solutions Individual Technology (B2C), the position is central to achieving the Executive Committee’s mandate to make 2026 the year of operational excellence, with a focus on serving top institutions, TRAC users, and participants. The Director of Operational Excellence Engineering will serve as the Technology lead for B2C operational excellence initiatives, partnering closely with Retirement Technology Operations & Managed Services to establish unified standards and practices across service delivery functions. The role ensures parity in the operating model, mirroring a parallel position 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 underlying causes. Synthesize data from incident reports, monitoring systems, and operational metrics to pinpoint areas for structural improvements that enhance system reliability and participant experience. Develop holistic remediation strategies addressing root problems.
• Site Reliability Engineering & System Resilience: Champion Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles to build resilient systems. Identify opportunities for graceful degradation, ensuring systems maintain core functionality during partial failures. Evaluate architecture and operational practices to recommend fail-safe mechanisms, redundancy strategies, and automated recovery procedures that minimize participant impact.
• Zero Tolerance Compliance & Monitoring: Establish and maintain rigorous monitoring frameworks and early warning systems to support a zero-tolerance posture for system outages. Define key performance indicators, escalation protocols, and ensure real-time visibility into system health. Develop proactive intervention strategies to 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. Track service delivery metrics, conduct performance reviews, identify gaps, and drive accountability for remediation. Maintain scorecards and documentation to demonstrate compliance.
• Executive Reporting & Communication: Develop and deliver executive-level reporting on operational excellence initiatives, system reliability metrics, incident trends, and program progress. Create dashboards, presentations, and reports that translate technical details into business outcomes for EC-level stakeholders.
• Cross-Functional Partnership & Synergy Building: Collaborate with Retirement Technology Operations & Managed Services leadership to identify operational synergies, eliminate redundancies, and establish consistent practices across service delivery functions. Align development, operations, and managed services teams toward common operational excellence goals.

Requirements

• University degree preferred.
• 8+ years of relevant work experience required; 10+ years preferred.
• Career Level 10IC (Individual Contributor).

Skills

• Required:
  • 8+ years in Technology Operations, Service Delivery, or IT Service Management.
  • 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, 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 actionable strategies that simplify systems and strengthen operational resilience.
• Preferred:
  • 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.
  • 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, Prioritization, Problem Solving, Systems Design/Analysis.

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. 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).

About the company

For over 100 years, TIAA has delivered secure retirement solutions for millions. Founded to help educators retire with dignity, TIAA is now a market-leading retirement company with world-class asset management. The organization is committed to fighting for a more secure financial future for all Americans while evolving to meet tomorrow’s challenges. TIAA equips associates with future-focused skills and AI tools to advance its mission, guided by values such as Champion Our People, Be Client Obsessed, Lead with Integrity, Own It, and Win As One. The workplace fosters collaboration, innovation, and meaningful impact, offering associates opportunities for growth through learning experiences and development pathways.

Benefits

The organization offers a comprehensive Total Rewards package designed to support the well-being of associates and their loved ones, including:

• A superior retirement program.
• Highly competitive health, wellness, and work-life offerings to promote physical, emotional, and financial well-being.