Experience

Complexity is
the starting
point.

20+ years across insurance, financial services, SaaS, and sports technology. Every engagement follows the same pattern — find the complexity, design the operating model, and deliver measurable results.

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The Fight Don
Director, Digital Transformation & AI Operations
2025 — Present
Combat SportsAI OperationsSigned Fighter

Tony Lombardi serves as the embedded transformation executive for The Fight Don, a growth-stage combat sports organization, architecting its complete digital operating model, AI-enabled workflow systems, and fighter performance analytics infrastructure from zero. The engagement spans tools selection, data pipelines, sponsorship pipeline design, and phased consumer platform strategy — built without legacy infrastructure, budget overhead, or a pre-existing IT team. He is simultaneously signed as a fighter under the organization's banner, pursuing a first-of-its-kind dual milestone: a sanctioned MMA fight and a full-distance Ironman in the same calendar year.

30d
Full collaboration and productivity stack — Slack, Google Workspace, Dropbox, Monday.com — operational within the first 30 days, built from zero with no prior infrastructure.
2-Phase
Designed a phased consumer digital platform roadmap in which Phase 1 sponsorship and ticket revenue self-funds the Phase 2 full platform buildout — a capital efficiency strategy, not just a technology plan.
120d
Full digital operating model designed, standing, and actively generating revenue operations within the first 120 days of engagement.
AI-Enabled Workflow AutomationDigital Operating Model DesignFighter Performance AnalyticsSponsorship Pipeline SystemsMonday.com / Google WorkspacePhased Platform Roadmap
Verisk Analytics
Director, Enterprise Transformation & Strategy
Oct 2023 — Jul 2025
Insurance SaaS$8.6M Portfolio

Served as Director of Enterprise Transformation and Strategy for Verisk's Life Solutions Platform, a client-facing SaaS product supporting life insurance carriers across $5B+ in managed assets. Reporting directly to executive stakeholders, owned strategy, operating model design, delivery execution, and portfolio governance for an $8.6M multi-year transformation portfolio spanning a matrixed organization of 35 resources across five concurrent client programs.

$8.6M
Governed an $8.6M annual transformation portfolio supporting $5B+ in managed client assets — accountable to executive stakeholders for delivery, financial, and client-impact performance.
30–40%
Cut release and upgrade cycle times by 30–40% by redesigning the enterprise delivery operating model around SAFe and Kanban, eliminating chronic delays that had eroded client and stakeholder confidence.
15%+ YoY
Drove 15% year-over-year revenue growth through operating model redesign, portfolio governance improvements, and strategic reallocation of investment toward highest-ROI client-impact initiatives.
SAFe + Kanban Delivery ModelPortfolio GovernanceOKR / KPI FrameworksSaaS Platform OperationsExecutive Stakeholder ManagementClient Onboarding Process Design
Jahnel Group
Principal Consultant — Business & Technology Transformation
Jul 2021 — Jul 2023
ConsultingFinancial Services

Served as Principal Consultant at Jahnel Group, advising insurance and financial services clients on operational, cloud, and regulatory transformation across concurrent engagements. Operated as the senior delivery lead and transformation architect on each engagement — building Agile operating frameworks from zero, redesigning loan processing workflows through AWS cloud integration, and delivering SOC certifications under compressed timelines.

6mos early
Delivered SOC 1 and SOC 2 certifications up to six months ahead of the client-estimated schedule by pre-mapping audit evidence requirements before internal collection began.
Same-day
Reduced loan funding cycle time at Libertas Funding from 2–3 days to same-day capability by redesigning end-to-end workflows and integrating AWS EC2, S3, and OCR into the loan processing stack.
18mos
Built and delivered a complete health revenue cycle management system from greenfield to six-FTE steady-state operations over 18 months — standing up the Agile delivery framework and running active product delivery simultaneously from day one.
SOC 1 / SOC 2 CertificationAWS EC2 / S3 / OCR IntegrationGreenfield Agile Program BuildWorkflow RedesignC-Suite AdvisoryMulti-Client Portfolio Delivery
First Citizens Bank
Enterprise Transformation Lead
May 2019 — Jul 2021
Banking300+ Branches3,000+ Employees

Handpicked by executive leadership to lead the bank's highest-priority operational transformation: a full teller-system modernization across the retail branch network. The engagement required building a SAFe-aligned delivery operating model from zero on a live program, managing a 326-branch overnight hardware rollout with zero tolerance for failed branch opens, and delivering dual SOC certifications — all while converting IT management resistance into adoption without positional authority.

326 / 0
Executed overnight hardware and software rollouts across 326 branches with zero failed 9 AM opens — personally running the implementation command center bridge from branch close through morning open on every rollout night.
3mos early
Delivered SOC 1 and SOC 2 certifications three months ahead of the organizational estimate, freeing budget and removing a compliance risk from the executive radar ahead of regulatory review windows.
30%
Improved delivery velocity by 30% over baseline — measured across three data points in JIRA and adopted into monthly CIO program reporting — through a full Agile transformation on the bank's highest-visibility program.
SAFe Delivery TransformationSOC 1 / SOC 2 Audit DeliveryBranch Operations ModernizationOvernight Implementation ManagementVendor Escalation / Incident CommandJIRA Capacity Planning
Earlier career
Apex Systems
Senior Project Manager — Wolters Kluwer, Travelers · 2013–2015
ESPN
Project Manager / Scrum Master, Technology PMO · 2012
Travelers
Developer → BA → Project Lead → Project Manager · 2005–2012 · IT Leadership Development Program
If you're leading through uncertainty.
Open to transformation leadership, consulting, and strategic advisory roles.
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