Sr. Director Resource Planning and Operations Analytics

Cigna Healthcare•St. Louis, MO

3d•$147,300 - $245,500•Remote

About The Position

The Senior Director, Resource Planning & Operations Analytics provides enterprise leadership for the integrated resource management function, encompassing Workforce Management and Operations Analytics. This leader directs the long- and short-range forecasting, capacity planning, staffing, scheduling, intraday management, operational analytics, business intelligence, performance reporting, and resource optimization capabilities that enable the organization to meet service, quality, turnaround-time, productivity, client, and financial commitments. Working through Directors and other people leaders, the Senior Director aligns workforce strategy and analytical insight across business units, operating models, and work types, translating complex demand, workforce, and operational data into clear decisions and sustained business results. Provides strategic direction and accountability for the Workforce Management and Operations Analytics teams, including the Directors who lead those functions. Owns an enterprise resource management operating model that connects demand, capacity, workforce supply, skills, schedules, productivity, cost, quality, and customer or client commitments. Exercises significant autonomy in decisions that shape functional strategy, policy, investment priorities, and operating effectiveness over a multi-year horizon. Partners with executive leadership, Operations, Finance, Technology, Human Resources, Implementation, and Client Management to reconcile competing priorities and enable coordinated execution.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred in Business, Operations, Analytics, Statistics, Economics, Industrial Engineering, Healthcare Administration, or a related quantitative or operational field.
12+ years of progressive leadership experience in workforce management, resource planning, operations analytics, business intelligence, or a related operational discipline.
8+ years of people leadership experience, including leading managers and multiple teams or disciplines.
Expert knowledge of workforce management principles, including demand forecasting, capacity planning, staffing models, scheduling, intraday management, queue and backlog management, and resource optimization.
Advanced understanding of operations analytics, business intelligence, performance measurement, predictive modeling, scenario analysis, and data storytelling.
Strong command of both short-term operational forecasting and long-range planning, with the ability to link forecast accuracy, capacity risk, staffing actions, and financial outcomes.
Ability to create governance frameworks that improve data quality, metric consistency, analytical rigor, and confidence in executive reporting.
Demonstrated financial acumen, including labor cost management, budget planning, business-case development, investment prioritization, and productivity analysis.
Experience with workforce management, analytics, visualization, and data tools, such as IEX or comparable WFM platforms, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, SAS, Python, R, or similar technologies.
Exceptional executive communication and presentation skills, with the ability to turn complex findings into clear recommendations, decisions, and action plans.
Proven ability to lead through ambiguity, solve complex and abstract business problems, and balance short-term service needs with long-term strategic priorities.
Ability to build collaborative relationships, negotiate tradeoffs, and drive alignment across diverse functions, business units, and leadership levels.
Commitment to developing high-performing teams, advancing analytical and operational capability, and fostering an inclusive, accountable, service-oriented culture.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred in Business, Operations, Analytics, Statistics, Economics, Industrial Engineering, Healthcare Administration, or a related quantitative or operational field.

Responsibilities

Establish and execute a multi-year strategy and annual operating plan for resource planning and operations analytics, aligned to enterprise objectives, growth plans, and changing business needs.
Lead, coach, and develop the Directors and managers responsible for Workforce Management and Operations Analytics; build succession strength, functional depth, and a culture of accountability, curiosity, and continuous improvement.
Set the integrated forecasting strategy for short-term, medium-term, and long-range demand, workload, staffing, and capacity plans; ensure assumptions, methodologies, and outputs are transparent, actionable, and routinely recalibrated.
Direct workforce planning, hiring models, staffing strategies, skills planning, scheduling standards, and capacity management so resource supply is aligned with anticipated work demand and budget expectations.
Oversee intraday and near-term resource optimization across inbound, outbound, digital, case, fax, and other offline work, including the timely movement of resources as demand, backlog, system conditions, and performance risks change.
Ensure Workforce Management practices support contractual and operational requirements, including service level, average speed of answer, turnaround time, quality, utilization, productivity, and client performance commitments.
Guide the design and use of scheduling, workload routing, queue management, and contingency practices that optimize employee availability, cross-functional resource sharing, and business continuity.
Direct enterprise operational analytics, business intelligence, reporting, and performance measurement programs that give leaders an accurate, common view of operational health, risk, opportunity, and results.
Sponsor executive dashboards, scorecards, and performance narratives that translate complex data into concise, decision-ready recommendations and quantify the expected operational and financial impact.
Establish governance for data definitions, metric ownership, reporting standards, forecasting inputs, analytical methodologies, documentation, and quality controls to strengthen trust in enterprise reporting.
Advance the use of predictive analytics, scenario modeling, simulation, optimization, automation, and self-service reporting to improve planning precision, speed of decision-making, and scalability.
Identify and lead cross-functional initiatives that improve productivity, resource utilization, process flow, customer and provider experience, service delivery, and cost management.
Partner with Finance on labor budgets, headcount plans, workforce investment decisions, productivity targets, business cases, and variance analysis; communicate tradeoffs and recommendations to executive stakeholders.
Provide resource planning support for new business, implementations, growth initiatives, operating-model changes, and technology deployments, including demand assumptions, capacity implications, and readiness requirements.
Ensure effective escalation, communication, and analytical support during significant system, demand, staffing, or operational events; help leaders understand service and financial exposure and coordinate mitigation actions.
Cultivate strong partnerships with Technology and data teams to prioritize platforms, data assets, integrations, and tools that improve the efficiency and reliability of WFM and analytics capabilities.
Benchmark performance, practices, and technology against industry standards; anticipate emerging risks, regulatory considerations, and operating trends and translate them into proactive functional improvements.
Own functional budget, resource allocation, vendor and technology priorities, and portfolio delivery; ensure investments produce measurable value and align to strategic commitments.