CVP; Continuous Improvement Sr. Sustainability Leader

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per week

Role Overview:

Sr. Sustainability Leaders (SSLs) help to evolve and mature the Continuous Improvement (CI) system in partnership with the business across New York Life to drive improvements in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, productivity, quality, sustained change and innovation. To achieve this, the SSL will lead a matrixed team of Sustainability Leaders, who will work with the business to identify opportunities to assess the health of the CI system, improve how we work, evolve the tools and capabilities, and coach teams to use them.

SSLs will support one or two business lines, depending on the size, to gain deep understanding of the business and how CI drives improvements within the business.

You will have the opportunity to build leadership skills, shape the organization and its processes, and advance your career at New York Life. You will also benefit from exposure to senior leaders within the organization, including at the C‑level, build deep relationships in the business units you support, and have the opportunity to hone written and oral communication skills. Most importantly, you will play a critical role in shaping the future of New York Life and improving our performance.

CI Management System support

• Deepen the adoption of CI principles, systems, and tools through coaching
• Ensure teams in the business area have the necessary training and skills, as well as reinforcing behaviors with business leaders.
• Lead a team of Sustainability Leaders on their day-to-day support of business teams as well as execution of improvement plans.
• Support Business Sustainability Leaders in developing systems to connect strategy, objectives, goals and metrics to problem solving across the business.
• Work closely with deployment teams to transition support of CI coaching in the business as they complete their deployment and move into sustainability.

Assessment

• Create output and facilitate improvement plan in conjunction with business leaders and Sustainability leaders.
• Measure the CI maturity of the business units you support.

Skill Building

• Coach department leaders, managers, team leads, and Sustainability Leaders on the CI management system.
• Support leader walk activities with HR and finance SR leaders.

Impact achievement and reporting

• Influence aspiration setting to continually raise the ambition, targets, and vision of CI at NYL.
• Drive incremental value.

Continuous improvement

• Change behaviors at all levels by influencing key stakeholders and raising awareness around current ways of working, opportunities to improve, and how CI enables these improvements.
• Help develop and deploy the next evolution of CI capabilities to achieve the next level of good.
• Support advanced and cross-team problem‑solving sessions.
• Facilitate a Community of Practice with other Sr. Sustainability Leaders and Business Sustainability Leaders to evolve CI tools, share best practices and maintain standards across all of New York Life.

• Travel:
  Although the role is remote, you will need to travel to affiliated offices roughly once monthly for 2‑3 days at a time for trainings and side‑by‑side observations.

• BS/BA degree or equivalent.
• Track record of leading and developing others, with a passion for coaching.
• 5+ years experience with Continuous Improvement, Lean Management, or Operational Excellence.
• 6+ years of relevant experience in coaching and team management.
• Experience leading in a matrix environment.
• Passion for, and ability to drive change, in how we work at New York Life.
• Curiosity and openness to learn about new ways of working.
• An ability to thrive when faced with ambiguity; to lean into uncomfortable situations to see the opportunity for growth (in yourself and others).
• Ability to influence stakeholders, such as direct reports, front-line employees, and leaders in the organization.
• Low self‑orientation, we need to help our leaders win and achieve results via CI.
• Impact‑oriented, e.g., operates with bias to action, entrepreneurial spirit, and drive to pursue opportunities that lead to improvements.
• Strong problem‑solving skills, including analytical thinking and…