AI Principal, Strategy & Transformation

MetLif; Cary (NC); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid role

Health and welfare benefits

401(k) with employer matching

Parental leave

Job summary

MetLife’s Delivery Strategy & Transformation (DST) team seeks a Principal to set the direction for how Global Technology delivers products as it moves to an AI-First Operating Model. This is DST’s most senior individual-contributor role with enterprise breadth and end-to-end accountability.

You will partner with CIO organizations and Enterprise DevSecOps, define roadmaps, governance, and adoption measures, and drive AI-enabled delivery across the portfolio while ensuring traceability and

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with agentic AI frameworks in enterprise delivery.
• 10+ years in enterprise technology delivery, transformation, or enterprise architecture.
• A track record shaping how large organizations deliver products and software, including adoption and stakeholder work.
• Deep knowledge of SAFe, Lean, Kanban and end-to-end PDLC/SDLC as a single flow.
• Experience designing governance and controls for AI-enabled delivery in regulated environments.

Responsibilities

• Set the direction for AI-first delivery across CIO organizations; act as reference for others.
• Own end-to-end agenda for assigned enterprise initiatives, with adoption measures.
• Turn undefined problems into defined paths with named owners and sequencing.
• Present options with cost, risk, capacity, and sequencing tradeoffs to GT senior leaders.
• Partner across DevSecOps, Platform Engineering, and Enterprise Architecture to make the SDLC platform productive.

Skills

Agentic AI frameworks

Enterprise delivery

Organizational change

Flow-based delivery

AI governance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a related field

Job description

As a Principal on MetLife’s Delivery Strategy & Transformation (DST) team, you will set the direction for how Global Technology delivers products and software as it moves to an AI-First Operating Model. This is DST’s most senior individual-contributor role: enterprise breadth, accountability that runs end to end, and the latitude to define the approach with the standing to drive it through GT senior leadership. Assignments are agreed with the AVP and owned through to adopted practice.

About the team: DST is an individual-contributor team inside MetLife Global Technology, working directly with CIO organizations, Enterprise DevSecOps, Platform Engineering, and Enterprise Architecture. GitHub Enterprise and the agentic SDLC toolchain are being made productive now, and the AI-First Operating Model is being designed and proven in live delivery — this role shapes it rather than inherits it.

• What is changing: Global Technology is moving to an AI-first delivery model — agents performing delivery work alongside people, specifications and curated context replacing tribal knowledge, and review, traceability, and control points rebuilt around output that people and agents produce together.
• Why this role matters: the work of this team will redefine how teams plan, build, review, govern, and deliver technology in an AI-first environment — the roles people hold, the artifacts they produce, the evidence they leave behind, and the measures that show delivery actually improved. As DST’s most senior individual contributor, you set the direction of that change and carry it through to adopted practice across CIO organizations.

Key Responsibilities

• Work AI-first in your own practice — accelerating research, analysis, artifact production, and prototyping so one person covers ground that would otherwise require a team. As DST’s most senior individual contributor, your practice is the reference others are pointed to.
• Own the end-to-end agenda for assigned enterprise initiatives — target-state design, roadmap, success measures, governance, readiness, and adoption support — and carry them through with CIO organizations and delivery leaders. Accountability ends at measurable adoption, not at a recommendation.
• Take on the problems no single CIO organization can solve — undefined scope, contested ownership, several organizations that must change together — and convert them into a defined path with named owners, sequencing, and decision points.
• Put recommendations in front of GT senior leaders that move decisions — target-state options with cost, risk, capacity, and sequencing tradeoffs made explicit — and represent DST where delivery, architecture, risk, and platform priorities get reconciled.
• Partner with Enterprise DevSecOps, Platform Engineering, and Enterprise Architecture to make the GitHub Enterprise and agentic SDLC platform productive in practice — defining the workflow, role, and governance changes teams must make, and clearing the operating-model blockers platform capability alone cannot fix.
• Partner with CIO organizations, enterprise delivery leaders, portfolio organizations, and advisory teams to validate and improve enterprise operating models through real-world application — establishing feedback mechanisms that evaluate effectiveness, surface adoption insight, and determine where standards, governance, and guidance need adjustment.
• Shape the controls, guardrails, and evidence model for AI-assisted and agent-executed delivery with Risk, Audit, Legal, and Enterprise DevSecOps, so AI-generated work is traceable, reviewable, and defensible in a regulated environment.
• Lead stakeholder engagement, readiness, enablement, communications, and transition activities for DST-owned products, services, standards, and operating model changes, including the repeatable guidance and messaging leaders and teams work from. Partner with S&P and other stakeholders on broader enterprise change efforts.
• Advance enterprise delivery measurement — flow, engineering-effectiveness, and AI-specific indicators — and connect it to demonstrable business value rather than activity reporting.

Required Qualifications

• Hands‑on experience with agentic AI frameworks in enterprise delivery — enough direct experience building, deploying, or governing agent-based workflows to judge where agents belong, what they can be trusted to do unsupervised, and how their use is governed at portfolio scale. Familiarity with AI assistants alone is not sufficient.
• 10+ years in enterprise technology delivery, transformation, operating-model design, or enterprise architecture.
• A track record of shaping how large organizations deliver products and software — not coaching individual teams — including the adoption, readiness, and stakeholder work that makes a change stick. Proven ability to define the path under ambiguity and advise senior leaders. Executive-grade written and verbal communication.
• Deep working knowledge of flow-based delivery systems and modern Agile ways of working — Scaled Agile (SAFe) or comparable frameworks, the product operating model, Lean and Kanban — with command of the end‑to‑end PDLC and SDLC as a single flow, and the judgment to determine what carries forward into an AI‑first model.
• Experience designing governance and controls for AI‑assisted delivery in a regulated environment — provenance and auditability, validation and human‑accountability checkpoints, IP and licensing exposure, and the evidence risk and audit partners require.

Preferred Qualifications

• Fluency in delivery measurement — flow metrics and engineering-effectiveness frameworks such as DORA, SPACE, or DX Core 4 — tied to value realization rather than activity reporting.
• Experience sponsoring enterprise AI adoption programs — setting the adoption strategy, securing funding and executive sponsorship, and holding the measurement case for continued investment.
• Lean portfolio management and investment governance, strategic platform and vendor partnerships, and financial services or insurance experience.
• Experience working in a large enterprise organization of 1,000+ technologists and in regulated environments.
• Relevant certifications — SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, PMI-ACP, Prosci or equivalent, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Azure AI, or comparable — and a bachelor’s degree in a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

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.

About MetLife

Recognizedon Fortune magazine's list of the 'World's Most Admired Companies',Fortune World’s 25 Best Workplaces™, as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companiesto Work For®, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of theworld’s leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities,employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutionalcustomers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positionsin 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 purposeis simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world atlarge create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our corevalues - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, andThink Ahead - we’re inspired to transform the next century in financialservices. 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 [e-mail]. 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.

This posting is for a current vacancy and is anticipated to remain open for at least 90 days from the listed posting date.

Location Expectation: This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in office.

The expected salary range for this position is $150,000 - $190,000. This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.