Citi
Director, Services Operations AI Governance & AI-First Ways of Working
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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.
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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 governing AI or automation programmes that produced measurable operational outcomes — reduced average handle time, improved first-contact resolution, or lower cost-per-transaction — and can clearly demonstrate the link between governance decisions and business impact.
- Adoption at Scale: Can point to AI governance frameworks applied across large operations teams (hundreds to thousands of users), with evidence of sustained adoption, change management, and measurable value realisation rather than one-off deployments.
- Cross-Functional Operator in Regulated Environments: Experienced in governing technology initiatives in close partnership with Operations, Risk, Compliance, and Technology — navigating complex governance frameworks without losing delivery momentum.
- Process-First Mindset: Demonstrates a consistent habit of ensuring the underlying process is understood and re-engineered before investment is committed to automation — not simply governing the digitisation of broken workflows.
Beneficial Skills & Qualifications
- Prior experience within a specific line of business in financial services operations, providing relevant context for the scope and complexity of AI governance at this level.
- Familiarity with AI product development lifecycles, use case intake frameworks, or capability governance models within an enterprise or regulated environment.
- Experience working alongside Product and Technology functions to co-define roadmaps and embed operational requirements into technology and AI delivery cycles.
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What We Offer
- This role places you at the centre of one of Citi's most strategically important operational programmes, with genuine authority to govern how AI is adopted, prioritised, and embedded across a global function.
- Senior-level ownership of a high-visibility governance and transformation agenda, with the mandate to shape how Citi's Operations function approaches AI adoption at a global scale.
- Access to Citi's global network and cross-functional leadership community, enabling meaningful collaboration across operations, technology, data, and product disciplines.
- Competitive compensation and financial wellbeing benefits commensurate with a Director-level position at a leading global financial institution.
- Ongoing learning and professional development opportunities to stay current at the intersection of AI governance, operational transformation, and enterprise capability adoption.
- Wellbeing support and work-life balance resources designed to sustain high performance across all dimensions of your career and personal life.
Apply now to lead AI governance and cultural change across Citi's global Operations function, and help shape the way one of the world's leading financial institutions works.
We work hard to have a positive financial and social impact on the communities we serve. In turn, we put our employees first and provide the best-in-class benefits they need to be well, live well and save well.
By joining Citi London, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model (up to 2 days working at home per week), but also receive a competitive base salary (which is annually reviewed), and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as:
- Generous holiday allowance starting at 27 days plus bank holidays; increasing with tenure
- A discretional annual performance related bonus
- Private medical insurance packages to suit your personal circumstances
- Employee Assistance Program
- Pension Plan
- Paid Parental Leave
- Special discounts for employees, family, and friends
- Access to an array of learning and development resources
Alongside these benefits Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay, and empowered to thrive.
Sounds like Citi has everything you need? Then apply to discover the true extent of your capabilities.
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Job Family Group: Business Strategy, Management & Administration
Job Family: Business Process Re-Engineering
Time Type: Full time
Most Relevant Skills Please see the requirements listed above.
Other Relevant Skills For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.
Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.
If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi.
View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster.
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