Vice President, Head of Operations - Employee Benefits

The work we do has an impact on millions of lives, and you can be a part of it.

We help protect our customers against life’s uncertainties. Regardless of where you work within the company, you’ll be helping provide protection and peace of mind when our customers need it most.

The Vice President, Head of Employee Benefits Division (EBD) Operations, is a senior leadership role responsible for driving the strategic and financial performance of Operations organization. The VP Head of EBD, administers, and coordinates the internal operational activities of the organization in accordance with Enterprise and Divisional policies, goals, and objectives. This position will oversee the following functional areas: Administration (including billing, commissions, document management, facilities), Solutions Center, Risk Underwriting, Policy Issue, Policy Service and Claims. A part of the EBD Executive Leadership team, this role will assist in the development of corporate strategies and objectives aligned with the strategic goals of the Division to achieve desired results. The ideal candidate for this role will have extensive experience in senior-level operations management, with a proven track record of driving operational excellence and delivering measurable results in a high growth environment. 

Responsibilities:

1.  Strategic Leadership

- Develop and execute a market-aligned strategic vision; ensure the strategic vision for Employee Benefits Operations organization aligns with the broader Divisional and Enterprise strategies.

- Drive innovation and competitive advantage: Leverage advanced digital tools, process reengineering, and insightful analytics to enhance operational agility and drive continuous improvement in service delivery.

- Optimize resource allocation: Influence resource allocation across multiple functions to maximize financial performance, operational efficiency, and competitive fitness.

2. Operational Excellence

- Tailored service delivery: Oversee the management and execution of critical operational functions, ensuring services are tailored to meet the specific needs of customers and distribution partners.

- Design and implement an organizational structure to support a potential increase of 50% in work volume as a result of proposed increased disability benefit increase in the state of New York.

3. Financial Accountability

- Strategic financial management: Manage a significant budget, ensuring financial discipline and accountability across all operational activities while driving cost efficiencies and supporting long-term growth.

- Market-driven financial insights: Monitor financial performance while identifying opportunities for cost optimization and earnings growth that align with customer and distribution partner needs while ensuring competitive advantage of the organization.

4. Leadership and Team Development

- Empower a high-performance culture: Provide senior leadership and direction to 130+ employees in alignment with Protective's talent management philosophy, fostering a culture of inclusivity, collaboration, innovation, and accountability responsive to market demands.

- Develop future leaders: Mentor and develop senior managers, preparing them for future leadership roles and ensuring a robust succession pipeline that supports the organization's strategic goals.

- Promote continuous learning: Promote a continuous learning and professional development culture, aligning team goals with organizational objectives and market needs.

5. Stakeholder Engagement

- Market-responsive stakeholder management: Serve as the primary point of contact for key internal and external stakeholders, ensuring alignment of operational goals with the specific needs of customers and distribution partners.

- Strengthen relationships: Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, advocating for the interests of the Operations organization while aligning with the broader enterprise strategy.

- Represent the organization strategically: Represent the organization in external meetings with distribution partners, ensuring the Operations organization contributes to the company's overall competitive positioning.

6. Performance Management

- Market-aligned KPIs: Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements (SLAs) that measure operational success in alignment with market demands, identify improvement areas, and drive accountability across all functions.

- Ensure compliance and industry leadership: Ensure that all operations comply with applicable laws, regulations, and corporate policies while leading efforts to remain contemporary with industry best practices and competitive benchmarks.

- Drive operational excellence: Position the organization as an industry leader by continually refining processes and integrating market insights into operational strategies.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent applied experience.
• 15+ years of experience leading operational teams.
• Demonstrates a continuous improvement mindset.
• Experience with optimization and identification of process change to streamline and create efficiencies
• Proven leader who has led teams through significant change
• Experience managing large development teams on complex projects.
• Experience managing multiple teams of direct, indirect reports & shared services.
• Background in financial services industries preferred.

Employee Benefits:  

We aim to protect our employees' wellbeing through a broad benefits offering. For example, we protect physical wellbeing through health, dental and vision insurance. We protect mental wellbeing through mental health benefits and an employee assistance program. We protect time away from work with a variety of paid time away benefits (e.g., paid time off, paid parental leave, short-term disability, and a cultural observance day). We protect financial wellbeing through contributions to healthcare accounts, a pension plan, and a 401(k) plan with Company matching. All employees are encouraged to protect their overall wellbeing by engaging in ProHealth Rewards, Protective’s platform to improve wellbeing while earning cash rewards.  

Eligibility for certain benefits may vary by position in accordance with the terms of the Company’s benefit plans.

Diversity and Inclusion:

At Protective, we are committed to providing an inclusive culture where all employees are able to fully contribute and thrive. Our goal is to grow and develop our people, attract diverse talent and support strong, diverse communities.

We support diversity, equity, and inclusion by working to develop a culture of inclusion and belonging led by leaders who develop potential and embrace all skills and abilities. Our aim is to create an equitable environment for all leaders and employees that will drive performance and impact business strategy. In this way, we can increase overall diversity for leadership roles and pipelines of talent by maturing our hiring practices, robust development opportunities and focus on retention of key talent.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to being inclusive and attracting, retaining, and growing the talents of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Accommodations for Applicants with a Disability:

If you require an accommodation to complete the application and recruitment process due to a disability, please email martina.winston@protective.com.This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application and recruitment process.

Please note that the above email is solely for individuals with disabilities requesting an accommodation.  General employment questions should not be sent through this process.