Director, Product Initiative Lead, Life & Annuity Solutions (Annuity Products)

National Life Group • Montpelier, VT

258d • Hybrid

About The Position

This position sits in L&A Delivery Solutions and reports to the VP and Actuary, Product Portfolio Lead (PPL). This position is responsible for the end-to-end execution of the product development process once a product project moves out of initial viability and into deeper feasibility and execution. There may be several product initiatives in the Product Initiative Lead's portfolio. This role will mainly focus on Annuity products, both bringing new products to market and enhancing existing capabilities as needed. This position will work closely with the broader L&A Solutions product development team, Operations, Distribution/Field Leaders, IT, and others serving as a key connector between strategic vision and cross-functional delivery teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience with Life Products development
• Strong understanding of Annuity product design, development, and implementation
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams, influence stakeholders, and drive decisions in a matrixed environment.
• Clear communication skills to explain complex product topics to nontechnical audiences and communicate to senior leaders.
• Self-motivated and results focused.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives and workstreams against tight deadlines.
• Able to solve unique and complex problems that have an impact on the business.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Annuity operations, product pricing, or product systems requirements and development.
• Experience working within a structured product development lifecycle or stage-gate process.
• Experience with collaborative tools like Confluence, Jira, and/or Teams.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a diverse set of stakeholders in L&A Solutions, operations, IT, project management office, legal, marketing, finance, and distribution.
• Accountable for the end-to-end execution of assigned product initiatives by ensuring clarity of scope, stakeholder alignment, and timely progression through all product development stages.
• Ensure that the deliverable packages for each step in the product development process are prepared for the Decision Gates in a timely fashion and with the quality, completeness, and stakeholder alignment necessary to make the decision.
• Present content of deliverable packages to the committees to move product initiatives through the various stages of product development.
• Lead the planning and execution of workshops that bring together stakeholders to accelerate the design and definition of products in development.
• Prioritize post-launch features and enhancements for initiatives and communicate rationale to key stakeholders.
• Continuously assess and share feedback on what is working well and what can be improved across the product development process.

Benefits

• 401(k) retirement plan match
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Company funded wellness account for director and below employees
• 10 paid holidays
• Generous paid time off plan (22 days of combined time-off for non-exempt employees)
• 6 weeks of paid parental leave
• 6 weeks of paid family leave after a year of full-time employment

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Insurance Carriers and Related Activities
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees