Director, Strategic Partner Initiatives – Employee Benefits

The Hartford•Columbus, OH

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re determined to make a difference and are proud to be an insurance company that goes well beyond coverages and policies. Working here means having every opportunity to achieve your goals – and to help others accomplish theirs, too. Join our team as we help shape the future. The Director, Strategic Partner Initiatives plays a critical leadership role in maximizing the value of strategic HR Tech, BenTech, and distribution‑enabling partnerships across the Employee Benefits (EB) organization. This leader drives the strategy assessment, business adoption, integration optimization and continuous improvement of partner integrations to enhance customer experience, operational efficiency, and market competitiveness. Operating at the intersection of Strategic Partner Management, Sales, Operations, Claims Optimization, Technology, and Transformation, the Director provides disciplined execution, value‑based prioritization, and cross‑functional alignment—ensuring that EB’s partner ecosystem accelerates growth, strengthens market position, and supports scalable, end‑to‑end experiences. Success requires strong program management skills, a results-driven mindset, and the ability to balance multiple complex priorities while making sound business decisions and ensuring seamless execution in a dynamic market environment.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in Employee Benefits, HR Tech, partner management, digital integrations, or strategic programs.
Proven ability to lead complex, cross‑functional initiatives in a matrixed environment.
Experience with partner ecosystems, product integrations, value measurement, or transformation programs.
Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills with experience developing KPIs and business cases.
Excellent communication and influence skills, with ability to engage senior leaders, partners, and technical teams.
Bachelor’s degree required

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree or relevant credentials preferred.

Responsibilities

Strategic Value Assessment & Measurement Apply a value‑based, customer‑centric lens to define and implement frameworks to evaluate value delivered by strategic HR Tech and partner integrations.
Partner with Epic Owners, Partner Connections and stakeholders to assess and refine business cases to ensure they are investment‑ready, strategically aligned, and balanced for impact, feasibility, and resource needs.
Develop KPIs, dashboards, and value metrics to measure integration effectiveness, adoption, and business impact.
Support value measurement and tracking for Partner Connections–related IT Invest Epics.
Support investment decisions, operating model alignment, and allocation of resources through data‑driven insights.
Align value metrics with Employee Benefits and Strategic Data objectives in partnership with Transformation leadership.
Partner closely with Epic Owner, Change Lead, and Agile Product Managers (APMs) to ensure clarity of vision, expected outcomes, and execution alignment across Business, IT, and external partners.
Support Epic refinement with APMs to ensure capabilities and business needs are accurately captured and ready for delivery.
Business Adoption & Stakeholder Engagement Drive adoption of partner integrations across EB, including Sales, Quoting, Operations, Claims, and Priority Business segments.
Serve as Program Manager for assigned, complex, partner‑related Epic(s) (e.g., ADP, Workday, EE Navigator) accountable for cross‑functional execution, risk management, and value realization.
Serve as primary liaison between internal teams and Partner Connections organization to quickly assess business process and customer experience improvement opportunities resulting in increased adoption and utilization of data exchange capabilities.
Support strategic partner growth strategies, including stewardship, contracting, and roadmap alignment.
Collaborate with external partners to co-develop integration capabilities and joint value propositions.
Build deep HR Tech partner domain expertise; streamline configuration steps across Customer Connections Operations (only) in partnership with Agile Execution teams and Business Subject Matter Experts.
Integration Optimization Identify and prioritize enhancements that improve data quality, automation, partner usability, operational efficiency, and customer experience.
Act as the operational hub defining, driving and monitoring of partner-related initiatives, partnering closely with Optimization teams in the Transformation Office and business leaders to assess opportunity and define value and impact.
Maintain and manage a prioritized backlog of integration improvements driven through value stream routines.
Ensure all improvement efforts are aligned to Partner Connections IT investment epics only; non‑IT continuous improvement is supported by outside business functions.