Head of Operational Excellence and Enablement, Underwriting

Guardian Life; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 155,000 - 255,000; Full time

Job summary

Guardian Life seeks a Head of Operational Excellence and Enablement to drive strategic initiatives across the Group Benefits Underwriting organization. You will optimize learning and development, QA programs, underwriting tools, data and metrics, and capacity for sustainable change.

The role emphasizes embedding best practices, enabling accurate decision-making, and building a culture of continuous improvement while preparing the organization for operational and technological evolution.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Finance, or a related field.
• 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.

Responsibilities

• Drive operational excellence strategies aligned to underwriting goals and customer outcomes.
• Establish KPIs to measure performance and decision quality.
• Lead change enablement practices for new processes, tools, and operating models.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to implement tech solutions and process changes.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Change leadership

Execution & ownership

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business administration/finance

Master’s degree preferred

Job description

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 consistent decision-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 needs-ensuring 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 training-not 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

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Finance, or a related field; master’s 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.

Salary Range

$155,370.00 - $255,255.00

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 candidate. In addition to salary, this role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

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

Our Promise

At Guardian, you’ll 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 Guardian’s 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 www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits.

Benefits 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 activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's 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 [e-mail]. 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 Guardian’s Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

As part of Guardian’s 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 Guardian’s jobs website (Careers at Guardian at https://www.guardianlife.com/careers). 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 Guardian’s 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 [e-mail], 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 Guardian’s document retention policy, a copy of which you may request via [e-mail].

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