Head of Distribution Strategy

Guardian Life Insurance

2d • $162,440 - $266,870

About The Position

The Head of Distribution Strategy partners with the Head of Distribution to turn enterprise distribution strategy into an actionable growth plan. The role determines where and how the organization will compete, evaluates expansion opportunities, develops data-supported business cases, and coordinates execution across business lines and enabling functions. It connects Distribution, Product, Technology, CRM, Marketing, Operations, Finance, Risk, and Compliance to align investments, capabilities, governance, and implementation priorities in support of sustainable, profitable growth.

The position owns the translation of strategic direction into integrated enterprise plans, sequenced priorities, business cases, and execution roadmaps. Its focus is enterprise strategy, market choices, cross-business alignment, and investment decisions—not the day-to-day creation of seller-facing dashboards, targeting tools, and CRM insights led by Sales Enablement. The role partners with Risk and Compliance to understand regulatory and suitability boundaries, while those functions retain independent interpretation, oversight, and approval responsibilities.

The role develops market and business-line insights, defines strategic CRM and data requirements, drives technology and platform integration priorities, and partners with Sales Enablement, Marketing, and other teams to connect insights with sales execution. It also identifies relevant risk and compliance considerations, incorporates required controls into plans, communicates recommendations and tradeoffs to senior stakeholders, and leads cross-functional change through implementation.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive experience in distribution strategy, sales strategy, enterprise strategy, or a related discipline within broker-dealer, RIA, insurance, wealth management, or financial services environments.
• Demonstrated experience translating senior-leader strategy into enterprise plans, market choices, investment priorities, business cases, and implementation roadmaps.
• Proven success working across sales, PO Growth & Development, Wealth Management, Product, Technology, CRM, Marketing, Operations, Finance, Risk, and Compliance functions.
• Experience using integrated market and business data to evaluate growth opportunities and support strategic recommendations.
• Working knowledge of CRM platforms, data integration, analytics, and digital transformation initiatives.
• Exceptional executive communication, PowerPoint development, strategic storytelling, and stakeholder-influence skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience evaluating new markets, distribution models, partnerships, or platform capabilities in a regulated environment.
• Knowledge of suitability considerations and experience partnering with Risk and Compliance to establish strategic and operating boundaries.
• Experience supporting executive committees or boards with decision-ready strategy materials.

Responsibilities

• Translate the Head of Distribution’s strategy into a practical plan defining where to play, how to compete, and the capabilities and investments required.
• Turn business objectives into strategic initiatives, implementation plans, governance structures, KPIs, and execution roadmaps.
• Coordinate priorities across business lines and establish shared accountability for enterprise growth objectives.
• Assess market, customer, advisor, competitor, and business-line data to identify markets and growth opportunities.
• Evaluate how data from available tools and systems is integrated, assess its quality and relevance, and use it to inform strategic choices.
• Develop data-supported business cases that address opportunity size, strategic rationale, investment requirements, risks, dependencies, and expected business value.
• Build an understanding of each business line to identify where enterprise distribution capabilities can connect, create value, and unlock growth.
• Partner with PO Growth & Development, Wealth Management, Product, Finance, Risk, Compliance, Operations, Technology, CRM, Marketing, and other business leaders to align strategy, investments, and execution priorities.
• Connect business lines and enabling functions, resolve gaps, and evaluate opportunities from an enterprise perspective.
• Drive technology and platform integration priorities that improve distribution effectiveness and advisor and customer experiences.
• Define strategic capabilities, data connections, and business requirements for CRM and related platforms.
• Partner with Sales Enablement to translate strategic priorities and integrated data into seller-facing actions, CRM enhancements, segmentation, dashboards, pipeline visibility, and cross-sell insights.
• Partner with Marketing and other teams to strengthen connections among market insights, campaigns, advisor engagement, and sales execution.
• Promote consistent data definitions, integration, quality, and governance across distribution and operational systems.
• Identify regulatory, risk, compliance, and suitability considerations that may affect strategic options or implementation plans.
• Engage Risk and Compliance early to define boundaries, assess third-party companies or capabilities related to suitability, and incorporate required controls into business cases and roadmaps.
• Maintain clear decision rights so Risk and Compliance retain responsibility for independent interpretation, oversight, and approvals.
• Create executive presentations, white papers, strategic recommendations, and board-ready materials that frame choices and recommended actions.
• Communicate strategic narratives, decisions, tradeoffs, milestones, and expected outcomes to senior stakeholders.
• Lead cross-functional change by building alignment, resolving dependencies, and maintaining momentum from strategy through implementation.

Benefits

• The company describes supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources; details are available on its careers benefits page. Benefits apply to full-time eligible employees.
• Skill-building and leadership development opportunities.
• Philanthropic opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed