Director, Services Operations AI Governance & AI-First Ways of Working

About this role

At Citi, you won't be running a typical IT implementation. You'll be at the center of redefining how one of the world's largest financial institutions actually operates — from the inside out. Services Operations touches millions of client interactions, thousands of associates, and some of the most complex workflows. You'll have the mandate, the access, and the executive backing to deploy AI where it matters most: at the point where our people serve our clients. The problems are real, the scale is unmatched, and the impact is immediate and measurable.

Citi is looking for a Director, Operations AI Governance & AI-First Ways of Working to lead the governance, prioritisation, and adoption of AI across Citi's global Operations function. This is a senior leadership role with end-to-end accountability for managing the Operations AI use case pipeline — ensuring that investment is aligned to strategic priorities, that AI capabilities are adopted consistently, and that the function builds the organisational behaviours needed to operate in an AI-first way. This role is for a senior operations leader who understands that the hardest part of AI transformation is not the technology — it is the governance, the culture, and the discipline to ensure that the right things get built, adopted, and sustained. If you combine strategic thinking with practical delivery experience and a passion for embedding technology-driven change across large, complex organisations, this role offers the mandate and platform to make a lasting impact.

Responsibilities • Own the Operations AI intake process from end to end — evaluating, prioritising, and governing AI use cases to ensure investment decisions are grounded in strategic objectives and measurable business value.

• Drive AI-first ways of working across Operations, accelerating capability adoption, embedding new tooling into day-to-day practice, and leading the organisational change needed to shift how teams operate.

• Chair cross-functional Operations forums, bringing together leaders from Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, and Operations to reach well-informed prioritisation and governance decisions.

• Partner with Product leads to align use case prioritisation across functions, ensuring Operations requirements are reflected in platform and capability planning.

• Define and track adoption metrics, engagement indicators, and business outcomes across AI capabilities, using data-driven insights to continuously improve utilisation and value realisation.

• Support the transition of Operations towards AI-first product development practices, guiding teams through tooling adoption and embedment as ways of working evolve.

• Lead multiple senior operations managers across large or distributed teams, setting clear performance expectations and making decisions on hiring, development, and organisational structure.

Required Qualifications & Skills • 15 or more years of experience in operations or a related function, including at least 8 to 10 years leading large, matrixed teams through other managers.

• Demonstrated ability to govern complex, cross-functional programmes — with full accountability for outcomes, planning, budgets, and strategic direction across multiple teams.

• Clear track record of leading organisational change and capability adoption at scale, translating strategic priorities into operational practice across large teams.

• Strong commercial awareness and analytical capability, including the ability to evaluate AI use cases against risk, reward, and business value criteria to inform investment decisions.

• Ability to assess and manage risk in business decisions, maintaining consistent standards for compliance, controls, and sound ethical judgement that protect the firm and its clients.

• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with experience influencing senior stakeholders across functions and building alignment around shared priorities.

Profile We are looking for candidates who fit one or more of the following profiles: • Operations or Operations Technology Leaders: Professionals who have led technology-enabled transformation within operations functions at large regulated institutions — with a deep understanding of what it takes to govern AI adoption responsibly across high-volume, compliance-sensitive environments.

• AI/Automation Program Leaders: Senior leaders who have owned governance, prioritisation, and intake frameworks for AI and intelligent automation programmes within operations contexts — ensuring the right use cases get resourced and the right outcomes are tracked.

• Transformation Leaders: Individuals who have driven AI-first culture change across large operations organisations — embedding new ways of working, accelerating tooling adoption, and sustaining behavioural change beyond the initial launch phase.

Key Attributes • Operational Empathy: Has walked in the shoes of an operations team. Understands the day-to-day realities of SLAs, case management, escalation paths, and the human impact of getting automation wrong — and uses that empathy to make better governance decisions.

• Pragmatic Technologist: Possesses strong working knowledge of AI — including LLMs and agentic frameworks — but filters every technical decision through the lens of operational feasibility, auditability, and risk. Can credibly partner with both product/engineering teams and operations leaders.

• Builds for Operators: Obsessed with ensuring that AI tools are intuitive, reliable, and trusted by the people who depend on them daily. Understands that governance exists to protect and accelerate adoption — not to block it.

• Change Agent with Discipline: Comfortable navigating the ambiguity of emerging AI capabilities, while remaining grounded in the governance and control requirements of a regulated financial institution. Brings structure to transformation without stifling momentum.

• Governance with Measurable Impact: Has a track record of governi

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