Head of Operational Excellence and Enablement, Underwriting

The Head of Operational Excellence and Enablement will drive strategic initiatives to enhance operational efficiency effectiveness and organizational readiness within the Group Benefits Underwriting organization. This role is accountable for optimizing learning and development quality assurance programs underwriting tools data and operational metrics and capacity while ensuring leaders and teams are fully prepared to adopt new ways of working.

This leader will embed best practices enable accurate and consistentdecision-making and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement while proactively preparing the organization for operational technological and capability change. A central responsibility of this role is to ensure underwriting excellence is achieved and sustained through strong execution readiness and adoption.

You Will

Operational Excellence & Enablement

• Drive innovation and continuous improvement as a core mindset across the underwriting organization.
• Develop and execute operational excellence strategies aligned to underwriting goals enterprise priorities and customer outcomes.
• Establish performance metrics benchmarks and KPIs to measure operational success decision quality and underwriting productivity.
• Utilize data analytics and underwriting tools to generate insights inform decisions and proactively optimize execution.
• Manage quality assurance programs that surface risk consistency and training needsensuring issues are addressed systematically and sustainably.
• Partner closely with cross-functional teams to help implement technology solutions and process changes that enhance underwriting workflows and decision-making.

Organizational Readiness & Change Leadership

• Act as a primary owner of organizational readiness for underwriting process technology and capability changes.
• Assess change impact and readiness across underwriting teams translating operational initiatives into clear people role skill and behavior implications.
• Lead and embed change enablement practices that ensure smooth adoption of new processes tools and operating models.
• Partner with underwriting leaders to strengthen change leadership capability ensuring leaders actively sponsor reinforce and role-model new ways of working.
• Identify adoption risks and cultural barriers early implementing mitigation strategies that support sustained behavioral change.
• Ensure operational improvements are reinforced through updated operating rhythms performance expectations governance and trainingnot just documented outcomes.

Capability & Culture Building

• Design and implement best-in-class training programs that elevate underwriting capability consistency and decision quality.
• Provide ongoing support tools and resources that enable colleagues to work more efficiently and confidently.
• Engage stakeholders at all levels to foster a culture of innovation accountability and urgent execution.
• Instill a strong linkage between operational excellence consumer-centricity and underwriting excellence.

You Are

• A strategic outcome oriented thinker with a strong focus on operational excellence and enablement.
• A people-oriented change-capable leader who balances execution rigor with adoption and sustainability.
• Results-driven with a deep sense of accountability and ownership.
• Adaptable pragmatic and effective in evolving and complex environments.

You Have

• Bachelors degree in business administration Finance or a related field; masters degree preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in underwriting operations management or a related field.
• Proven experience leading operational transformation large-scale process improvement and organizational enablement.
• Strong background in Lean Six Sigma or similar continuous improvement methodologies.

Critical Skills

• People-oriented leader with exceptional ability to inspire teams and build high-performance cultures.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate insight into action.
• Excellent leadership and stakeholder engagement skills including influencing at senior levels.
• Proficiency in data analysis reporting tools and operational performance management.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong organizational and time management skills; ability to operate effectively under pressure.

The work arrangement for this role will be hybrid (3 days per week in a Guardian office). Preferred locations include Boston MA; Bethlehem PA; and New York NY. We will consider remote candidates if experience is aligned.

Salary Range:

The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for the primary location of the position. The salary for this position ultimately will be determined based on the education experience knowledge and abilities of the successful addition to salary this role may also be eligible for annual sales or other incentive compensation.

Our Promise

At Guardian youll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals. Through skill-building leadership development and philanthropic opportunities we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.

Inspire Well-Being

As part of Guardians Purpose to inspire well-being we are committed to offering contemporary supportive flexible and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues. Explore our company benefits at apply to full-time eligible employees. Interns are not eligible for most Company benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age race color creed religion sex affectional or sexual orientation national origin ancestry marital status disability military or veteran status or any other classification protected by applicable law.

Accommodations

Guardian is committed to providing access equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment its services programs and also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individuals known limitations related to pregnancy childbirth or related medical conditions unless doing so would create an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process to perform essential job functions and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment please contact . Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian refer to the Guardian Careers site.

Visa Sponsorship

Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment-based visas (e.g. such as an H-1B). In order to be a successful applicant you must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.

Notice Regarding Guardians Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

As part of Guardians job application process Guardian may use artificial intelligence tools (AI Tools) to automate the sorting and filtering of information provided by applicants as part of its preliminary screening. This preliminary screening may be used to help identify applicant materials and resumes relative to their indication that the applicant meets the requirements for the specific job for which they are applying as specified in the listing posted on Guardians jobs website (Careers at Guardian at At Guardian we do not use AI Tools to substantially assist or replace human judgment or discretionary decision making in our hiring process. All hiring decisions will be made by Guardian colleagues.

Please be aware that if you apply for a specific position with Guardian you will have the choice of opting out of Guardians use of AI Tools during the job application process. If you would like to request an alternative process that does not utilize AI Tools or would like to request a reasonable accommodation within ten business days of your position application you must email your request to making sure to provide your name and job requisition identification number. Guardian will retain your applicant materials and resume and all information therefrom in accordance with Guardians document retention policy a copy of which you may request via .

Additionally at applicable times Guardian will make public the most recent bias audit results for such AI tools which may be found here.

Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday.