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Introduction
A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You’ll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you’ll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You’ll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.
In this role, you'll work in one of our IBM Consulting Client Innovation Centers (Delivery Centers), where we deliver deep technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients around the world. Our delivery centers offer our clients locally based skills and technical expertise to drive innovation and adoption of new technology.
Your role and responsibilities
The Master Black Belt (MBB) is the enterprise authority for Lean Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement across the BPO organization. This role defines the CI strategy, governance, certification standards, and value realization framework, ensuring measurable business impact across multiple accounts, delivery centers, and geographies.
The MBB partners with senior operations leaders, clients, and transformation teams to drive structural performance improvement, margin expansion, SLA achievement, and customer experience excellence. Beyond project execution, this role builds sustainable capability, ensures methodological rigor, and embeds a culture of data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
1. Enterprise CI Strategy & Governance
- Define and own the Lean Six Sigma deployment strategy across the BPO portfolio, aligned to business objectives, contractual commitments, and client outcomes.
- Establish and govern CI standards, DMAIC/Lean tollgates, certification criteria, and project governance frameworks.
- Lead enterprise-wide CI maturity assessments and define multi-year roadmaps for capability and performance uplift.
- Chair or participate in executive-level CI governance forums, ensuring visibility of value delivered and risks.
2. Portfolio-Level Transformation & Value Realization
- Oversee and guide high-complexity, cross-account, cross-geography transformation programs targeting key BPO metrics (AHT, FCR, quality, utilization, cycle time, SLA adherence, CSAT).
- Ensure quantified financial impact, including cost reduction, productivity gains, margin improvement, and revenue protection.
- Own the benefits realization and validation framework, distinguishing hard vs. soft savings and ensuring sustainability of results.
- Support client-driven transformation initiatives and co-create performance improvement plans with client leadership.
3. Certification Authority & Capability Building
- Act as the final approver and certifying authority for Black Belt and Green Belt programs.
- Design and continuously improve CI curriculum, certification rigor, and coaching models.
- Mentor senior Black Belts and operations leaders, developing future CI leaders and embedding CI ownership within the business.
- Ensure consistent application of Lean Six Sigma methodologies across all delivery centers.
4. Advanced Analytics & Insight Generation
- Define analytical standards for CI initiatives, leveraging advanced statistical techniques such as:
- Hypothesis testing and regression analysis
- Control charts and statistical process control
- Design of Experiments (DOE)
- Predictive and trend analysis for operational performance
- Guide teams in translating data insights into actionable, scalable improvement initiatives.
5. Digital Enablement & Automation Integration
- Partner with Automation, Analytics, and Digital teams to identify, prioritize, and govern processes suitable for RPA, AI, and advanced analytics.
- Define process selection criteria and value thresholds for automation initiatives.
- Ensure digital interventions are embedded within CI programs and deliver measurable ROI.
6. Stakeholder & Client Engagement
- Serve as a trusted advisor to senior internal leaders and clients on operational excellence and transformation.
- Present CI outcomes, value realization, and maturity progress to executive and client stakeholders.
- Influence without authority across operations, quality, workforce management, training, and support functions.
Required education
Bachelor's Degree
Preferred education
Bachelor's Degree
Required technical and professional expertise
- Certified Master Black Belt with deep Lean Six Sigma expertise.
- 8–12+ years of progressive experience in Continuous Improvement / Business Transformation, preferably in BPO or Finance environments.
- Proven track record of delivering large-scale, multi-account transformation programs with quantified financial impact.
- Demonstrated experience establishing CI governance, certification frameworks, and enterprise deployment models.
- Strong expertise in BPO operational metrics, SLA structures, and client engagement models.
Preferred technical and professional experience
- Experience integrating CI with automation, RPA, AI, or digital transformation initiatives.
- Exposure to global or multi-geography delivery environments.
- Strong executive communication, facilitation, and change leadership skills.