VP, AI Transformation

MetLife; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 217,500 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health plan

401(k) with employer matching

Tuition assistance

Parental leave

Paid time off

Job summary

MetLife is seeking a VP of AI Transformation to shape AI strategy and technical vision, reporting to the SVP of Emerging Tech Platforms & Architecture. This role involves guiding AI market intelligence and collaborating across various functions.

The position requires 10+ years in applied AI and proven experience in translating AI research into business value. The expected salary range is $217,500 - $290,000, with eligibility for additional incentives and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in applied AI, machine learning, or data science, 5 years in leadership roles.
• Proven track record in translating AI research into production systems.
• Deep technical expertise in large language models and generative AI.

Responsibilities

• Scan the AI landscape and monitor tech giants and startups.
• Lead AI market intelligence team, advise on investment strategy.
• Shape how AI can create value across high-impact domains.

Skills

Applied AI

Machine Learning

Data Science

Natural Language Processing

Anomaly Detection

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field

Master’s or PhD

Tools

Azure OpenAI

AWS Bedrock

MLOps tooling

Job description

The Team You Will Join

When you join MetLife’s Global Technology team, you’ll be part of a forward-thinking group dedicated to shaping the future of digital solutions for customers worldwide. You’ll develop, maintain and support technology applications and delivery, leveraging AI, automation, and contemporary ways of working to enhance experiences and drive business outcomes. Your work will simplify complex processes, improve tech resiliency, and ensure high-performing, seamless solutions that power life’s most important moments. In this dynamic environment, you’ll collaborate with talented peers across teams and functions, expanding your skills in impactful ways. Ready to push boundaries and set new industry standards? Join us and help drive the future of technology forward.

The Opportunity

MetLife is seeking a VP, AI Transformation to serve as our enterprise AI strategist and technical visionary, reporting directly to the SVP of Emerging Tech Platforms & Architecture. This is a rare opportunity to shape how one of the world’s most trusted insurance and financial services companies harnesses artificial intelligence to better serve 90+ million customers across 40+ markets. You’ll be the bridge between cutting‑edge AI innovation and enterprise‑scale impact. On one side, you’ll scan the frontier, tracking breakthroughs in generative AI, agentic systems, multimodal models, and automation. On the other, you’ll translate that intelligence into clear, prioritized strategies that drive measurable business outcomes: faster claims processing, more personalized customer experiences, smarter underwriting, and operational excellence at scale.

This role combines strategic influence with deep technical credibility. You’ll advise senior leadership, guide our AI market intelligence team, and collaborate across product, engineering, data science, and architecture functions to ensure MetLife doesn’t just adopt AI, we lead with it responsibly and at scale. If you’re energized by the idea of applying world‑class AI to protect families, secure retirements, and build financial resilience for millions, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities

AI Strategy & Market Intelligence

• Continuously scan the external AI landscape monitoring tech giants, startups, academia, competitors, and vendors for emerging trends (e.g., GenAI, agentic AI, foundation models, automation platforms)
• Synthesize complex AI developments into clear, actionable business guidance tailored to insurance and financial services use cases
• Lead and grow the AI market intelligence team, setting the agenda for what we track, evaluate, and act upon
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the SVP and executive leadership on AI opportunity, risk, and investment strategy

Applied AI Strategy & Experimentation

• Shape, in partnership with engineering, architecture and data science teams, a forward-looking point of view on where applied AI can create value across high-impact domains, identifying opportunities and emerging techniques:
  • Customer Experience: Conversational AI, intelligent routing, sentiment analysis, personalization
  • Claims & Underwriting: Document understanding, fraud detection, risk modeling, automation
  • Operations: Process mining, forecasting, anomaly detection, code generation
  • Knowledge Systems: Search, summarization, question answering, information extraction
• Recommend and pilot promising state-of-the-art techniques (e.g., retrieval-augmented generation, multimodal learning, model adaptation) through structured experiments in partnership with Data Science and Engineering teams.
• Balance research rigor with business pragmatism—prioritizing ideas that are realistic to operationalize, scalable, and tied to business value

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Enablement

• Partner horizontally across the Emerging Tech organization:
  • Tools & Experimentation: Identify and pilot emerging AI capabilities
  • Product Management: Translate AI trends into product roadmaps and feature prioritization
  • Delivery & Engineering: Ensure AI solutions are production ready, monitored, and continuously improved
• Act as a bridge between external innovation and internal adoption, contextualizing what’s possible and enabling execution at enterprise scale
• Elevate the technical bar across the organization through mentorship, knowledge sharing, and thought leadership

Governance, Quality & Trust

• Serve as a partner to MetLife's existing AI governance and risk functions to deploy model evaluation and controls into new and existing technologies, bringing an external, frontier-aware perspective across the AI control plane, AI security, and governance domains:
  • AI control plane - policy enforcement, model routing guardrails, prompt/response inspection, and runtime intervention capabilities.
  • AI security and governance – Responsible AI controls and regulatory alignment

Thought Leadership & Influence

• Represent MetLife externally with credibility at AI conferences, industry forums, and research communities
• Build MetLife’s reputation as a destination for top AI talent and a leader in responsible AI innovation
• Foster a culture that values scientific depth, engineering excellence, and customer first impact

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in applied AI, machine learning, or data science, with at least 5 years in leadership roles
• Proven track record translating frontier AI research (e.g., LLMs, multimodal models, representation learning) into production systems that drive business value
• Deep technical expertise in one or more of the following:
  • Large language models and generative AI
  • Natural language processing (NLP) and information extraction
  • Multimodal learning and representation learning
  • Forecasting, anomaly detection, and predictive analytics
  • Responsible AI, model evaluation, and governance
• Strategic acumen: Ability to synthesize complex technical trends into clear business implications and executive ready recommendations
• Consulting or advisory background strongly preferred - experience translating external innovation into internal strategy
• Excellent communication skills: Comfortable presenting to C suite executives, technical teams, and cross functional stakeholders
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field; Master’s or PhD strongly preferred

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at a hyperscaler AI company (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, OpenAI) or leading AI consultancy
• Background in insurance, financial services, or insurtech - understanding of regulatory constraints, risk management, and customer trust
• Familiarity with enterprise AI platforms (e.g., Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Vertex AI) and MLOps tooling
• Published research or patents in AI/ML domains
• Experience building and scaling high performing technical teams

Location & Compensation

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 $217,500 - $290,000. This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation and stock-based long-term incentives. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

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!

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

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.