VP Engagement Strategy - Group Benefits

Title : VP Engagement Strategy - Group Benefits

Location : New York, NY

Alternate Location(s) : Bridgwater, NJ, Cary, NC, or Aurora, IL

Setting : Hybrid

Reports to title : SVP Workforce Engagement and Benefits Connectivity

Travel : 25% or less

The Opportunity

The Vice President of Engagement Strategy will partner with the Senior Vice President, Workforce Engagement & Benefits Connectivity, to develop the Employee Engagement Strategy. This individual is responsible for developing short- and long-term holistic engagement strategies and implementing plans to achieve the organization’s Employee and Employer Engagement objectives, including drive towards participation growth key results - growing enrollment and improving member persistency. By understanding the priorities across MetLife (products, capabilities, and services) as well as our customers and the workforce, this individual will help tie together our offerings to develop a more comprehensive and thoughtful engagement market story to accelerate MetLife’s leadership position in this space. The Vice President of Engagement will work closely with Workforce Engagement, Marketing, Upwise, Product, Financial Wellness, DnA, and Technology Leadership to develop market leading solutions with the employee at the center of everything we do. MetLife’s Group Benefits Engagement Strategy is a multi-year, high impact, cross-functional, strategic effort to differentiate our offerings for a better employee and employer experience.

As the agile product management leader, this role is accountable for guiding the overall vision, roadmap, ongoing work delivery and outcomes that encompass multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs) dedicated to this Strategy, including DnA, Marketing and Technology. As single point of contact, this role will have leadership responsibility and accountability for the execution and implementation of the engagement strategy, which includes workings closely with DnA, IT and Marketing to successfully build a data environment to enable data flow from systems of records (SORs) into marketing platforms to enable execution strategy. To execute on this program, this leader must guide, support and align with marketing teams and key stakeholders to deliver, measure and refine campaigns to enable key results. The incumbent will be accountable for realizing the value of ongoing solutions to deliver the end-to-end platforms, processes, and interactions across the employee journey.

How You’ll Help Us Build a Confident Future (Key Responsibilities)

This is an expertise-driven leader practitioner role responsible for high-performance consumer acquisition and loyalty activation across the customer journey and throughout the lifecycle.

Establish a strategic approach to designing high performing consumer journeys that drive desired behavior to increase take, utilization and ongoing retention

Multi-channel performance marketing via campaign activation across channels

Insights-led, data-driven, rapid iteration for ongoing optimization and build scalable capabilities integrating marketing technology platforms / tools with admin systems and the data ecosystem

This is an Agile leadership role responsible for effective product management across solution design through delivery :

Understand the needs of the group benefits employee and the customer to align business outcomes and inform decisions

Partner with Business Owners and key partners (including Marketing and Products) to identify and address priority employee needs and pain points throughout the employee journey - and create high-impact solutions that drive customer value and business outcomes

Ensure each Program Increment focuses on work delivery with a maximum value, aligned with product strategy, roadmap, and key milestones

Help drive ongoing refinement, prioritization, and acceptance of work delivered across agile teams and partners across the delivery ecosystem against defined OKRs

Work with Business Owners and other key stakeholders to ensure alignment of solution intent and backlog

Consult with system architect and solution architects to understand what is possible and maintain the solution roadmap

Lead a team of direct and non-direct reports

Lead the Engagement Strategy effort, and work collaboratively with cross-functional teams within the Agile Delivery Model (i.e. DnA, Marketing, Technology) to deliver on needed capabilities

Provide leadership to teams and cross-functional teams on the execution of an implementation, work plan, or other strategic initiatives

Stay up to date with the latest trends and developments in the engagement space, and communicate market and business needs to Senior Leadership

Leverage market / customer research, trends, and competitor analysis to drive additional opportunities and enhance employee and employer loyalty

Provide, communicate, and implement strategy to address competition, changes in employee and employer preference, and improvements in technology and marketing tools

Organize and implement pilots and programs

Work with finance partners to perform financial analysis and modeling

Develop and implement data-driven strategies to drive business growth and improve operational efficiency for Participant Engagement

Lead the team to gather, analyze, and interpret data to provide actionable insights

Summarize insights from analysis and clearly communicate analytical findings in a cohesive story; and articulate an argument to be presented to executives

Build and coordinate training for appropriate external and internal client-facing materials and / or changes

What You Need to Succeed (Required Qualifications)

10 years of experience in Group Insurance; must have a deep understanding of the Group Insurance business

Experience with and understanding of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) approach and practices required

Strong understanding of the business to interpret data needs and proven experience with technology as well as deep understanding of how marketing operates to enable success

Must demonstrate specific experience developing the strategic vision for an organization and prioritizing its most critical needs; ability to develop a strong business case, drive interest and agreement to secure funding to deliver against the vision and manage large transformational programs

Ability to develop strategic trusted partnerships with their internal partners, customers and brokers

Ability to direct multiple teams' activities; ability to direct, motivate and develop project staff in an evolving environment.

Strong interpersonal, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills

Excellent written and oral communication skills

Undergraduate degree required, MBA or other advanced degree preferred

What Can Give You an Edge (Key Behaviors)

Think critically and challenge assumptions, identifying areas of improvement and continuously driving the best solutions - Seize Opportunity

Be consultative around the problems being solved, sourcing ideas and feedback from multiple people and areas - Seek Diverse Perspectives

Practice keen negotiation skills, driving and prioritizing the best customer experience even if that doesn’t directly tie to the original requirements - Deliver what Matters

Build partnerships and bring the right people to the table to resolve issues and reduce risk - Create Alignment

Ensure capabilities and solutions are delivered quickly and completely, understanding that every release is a chance to improve the customer experience - Act with Urgency

Be accountable for the subject matter and accurate delivery of business documentation, knowing that details matter - Take Responsibility

Equal Employment Opportunity / Disability / Veterans

If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at accommodations@metlife.com. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.

MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.