The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced in April that it faced a $10 million deficit and would begin to scale back costs. That process began on Friday as three high-level employees, including the museum’s first chief digital officer, Sree Sreenivasan, stepped down from their posts.

Cynthia Round, the museum’s senior vice president for marketing and external relations, and Susan Sellers, head of design, also resigned. The pair had worked on the museum’s recent rebranding campaign.

Daniel H. Weiss, the Met’s president, said the museum’s goal was to bring the budget into balance within 24 months. “We’re looking at ways of streamlining our operation,” Mr. Weiss said. “Everything we are doing, we will continue to do. But we’ll do it probably a little bit slower.”

The museum’s retail revenue has decreased and debts are still being paid off from infrastructure work. The three departures precede what is expected to be a series of voluntary buyouts, which the museum has said it hopes will allow it to avoid layoffs. The Met has also set a hiring freeze and halted some renovation projects. “To the degree we have to turn to involuntary staff reductions, we will do that after we have a better sense of how we’re doing,” Mr. Weiss said.