Business Transformation & Intelligent Automation Sr. Director

The Cigna Group•Normandy, MO

About The Position

The Business Transformation & Intelligent Automation Senior Director is a senior enterprise leader responsible for unifying dispersed automation teams, defining and executing a clear enterprise-wide automation strategy, and delivering measurable business value through AI-enabled and rules-based automation. This role serves as the strategic orchestrator of automation capabilities, ensuring alignment across clinical, operational, and technology stakeholders while driving scalable, sustainable outcomes. This leader is not expected to function as a technical individual contributor, but must possess strong conceptual fluency in automation, AI, and software development to credibly engage with highly technical teams, ask the right questions, and challenge assumptions. Success in this role depends on exceptional people leadership, influence without authority, and the ability to translate strategy into execution in a complex, matrixed enterprise.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience in operations, data analytics, and enterprise collaboration) required; Master's preferred.
Minimum 15 years' professional experience, including 12 years in senior operations or data management roles, with proven operational leadership.
Strong analytical and financial skills, detail-oriented mindset, and ability to execute strategic business initiatives through varied analysis.
Experience investigating performance trends and developing data-driven insights; adept at supporting senior leaders with trend identification and enablement.
Track record of building execution networks inside and outside organizations; highly developed research and analysis skills.
Expertise in data management, quality, governance, and architecture, plus exceptional problem-solving and conceptual abilities.
Outstanding communication and presentation skills for conveying complex data to technical and non-technical audiences.
Independent, strategic thinker with sound judgment, adaptability, and resilience in ambiguous situations.
Senior leadership experience in matrixed, cross-functional enterprise initiatives.
Success in navigating ambiguity, organizational change, and transformation.
Skilled in defining strategy, creating actionable roadmaps, and delivering measurable results.
Ability to influence executives and drive outcomes without direct authority.
Working knowledge of automation, AI solutions, and software development lifecycle.
Executive presence and exceptional written, verbal, and presentation skills.

Nice To Haves

Healthcare operations and prior authorization workflow familiarity strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the consolidation of dispersed automation teams while navigating organizational change, including ambiguity, and evolving ways of working.
Build alignment, trust, and engagement across teams; proactively foster a culture of accountability and adaptability.
Develop and strengthen bench talent through coaching, succession planning, and targeted development to meet future automation and AI capability needs.
Define the enterprise automation vision and strategy, including what capabilities are built, when they are delivered, and why they matter to the business.
Translate strategic objectives into an executable, prioritized automation roadmap in partnership with governance forums and enterprise stakeholders.
Establish success metrics and performance indicators focused on measurable business value, not just capability launch or adoption.
Balance speed, quality, and scalability by actively managing tradeoffs, dependencies, and risk across the automation portfolio.
Partner closely with Clinical, Operations, Technology, Enterprise Architecture, AI Centers of Excellence, governance bodies, and other enterprise groups to drive shared outcomes.
Influence without direct authority by negotiating scope, ownership, and accountability, and driving results through collaboration rather than escalation.
Serve as the primary enterprise point of accountability for automation alignment and value realization.
Maintain sufficient technical fluency across automation platforms, AI, configuration, and engineering to engage credibly with technical teams and partners.
Demonstrate understanding of the software development lifecycle and experience partnering with Technology and Enterprise Architecture functions.
Apply a working understanding of prior authorization workflows, end-to-end processes, and user journeys to guide workflow redesign and automation optimization.
Represent enterprise automation and AI capabilities credibly to internal leadership forums, clients, and external industry audiences.
Serve as an executive-level presenter and storyteller, translating complex automation concepts into clear, compelling narratives.
Partner with internal subject-matter experts to build and amplify thought leadership while strengthening enterprise automation visibility and credibility.