Corporate Vice President - Head of Insurance Business Unit Risk Management

New York Life•New York, NY

12h•$200,000 - $240,000•Hybrid

About The Position

New York Life is seeking a highly motivated risk leader to join the Risk Management department as the Head of Insurance Business Unit Risk Management, leading the team of Risk Officers who support all of New York Life’s insurance businesses across the Foundational Business and Strategic Insurance Businesses. The role supports a diverse portfolio of insurance businesses spanning advisor-sold, direct-to-consumer, institutional, and group markets. This individual will have an exciting opportunity to deepen our risk management engagement with the insurance businesses in a manner that actively supports their strategies and accelerates their success. This role is for a practical, business-minded risk leader—someone with strong risk expertise who applies it with flexibility and pragmatism rather than rigidity. The ideal candidate moves quickly, drives initiatives forward, and brings a test-and-learn mindset, continually exploring new approaches to advance the value Risk Management provides to the businesses. Success in this role depends heavily on relationship management, as the individual will partner with very senior business leaders while helping advance the risk organization toward more technology-, data-, and AI-driven support—including self-service tools and dashboards. This position requires excellent communication skills and a strong understanding of the operations, products, and strategies across these businesses. The individual will also play a central role in bringing key risk-related programs and initiatives to the business units—helping the businesses understand, prioritize, and meet the requirements of risk policies, standards, and board-level commitments. The ideal candidate will apply risk management best practices in a manner consistent with New York Life’s culture and risk appetite, while motivating and developing a high-performing team and helping drive the broader risk organization forward.

Requirements

Minimum 15+ years of relevant experience in insurance, banking, asset management, or a related industry, including experience leading teams and partnering with executives.
Strong risk management background combined with a flexible, practical, and business-oriented approach to applying it—comfortable adapting to support business strategies rather than imposing rigid processes.
Excellent executive- and senior-management-level communicator with the ability to convey risk information to non-technical business leaders.
Critical thinker with broad and deep operational and financial risk technical knowledge.
Strong people management, internal consulting, and partnering skills, with a demonstrated ability to develop and motivate talent.
Demonstrated bias for action—able to move fast, drive initiatives forward, and balance competing priorities successfully.
Experience leading or facilitating enterprise risk programs or initiatives across business units, and helping businesses meet policy, standard, or board-level requirements.
Desire to test and learn, with a track record of trying new approaches—including data, technology, and AI-enabled tools—to increase impact.
Ability to influence with or without authority to achieve desired outcomes.
Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or relevant professional certification preferred.

Nice To Haves

Practical and flexible risk leader who tailors risk management to support business strategy.
Fast-moving driver who advances initiatives and delivers results.
Curious, pragmatic innovator who embraces a test-and-learn mindset to create value.
Exceptional relationship manager with strong interpersonal skills and executive presence.
Effective talent developer who manages, develops, and motivates high-performing teams.
Change leader who helps drive the broader risk organization forward, including its shift toward tech-, data-, and AI-driven support.
Operates with sound judgment, integrity, and a collaborative, business-partnering mindset.

Responsibilities

Lead, manage, develop, and motivate the team of Risk Officers.
Provide functional leadership and oversight of Risk Officers who sit directly within business areas, ensuring alignment and consistency of practice.
Build a high-performing, engaged team and help drive the broader risk organization forward.
Manage and support the Risk Officers in bringing key risk-related programs and initiatives to the business units—liaising with, and in some cases leading, the businesses toward meeting the requirements of risk policies, standards, and board-level commitments.
Facilitate discussions that help the businesses understand, prioritize, and operationalize risk program requirements, and help them determine practical approaches to address identified gaps.
Develop and manage relationships with senior executives across these businesses, serving as a trusted, practical risk advisor.
Serve as the primary service broker and coordinator between business executives and Risk Management’s operational experts and practice leaders.
Partner with business leadership, compliance, legal, and other risk management teams to identify, assess, and help mitigate risks specific to the business.
Advise business leaders on how to best balance risk management activities against business priorities, applying judgment flexibly rather than rigidly.
Provide independent oversight of the risks present and emerging across the businesses’ operations, products, and strategies.
Perform targeted, evidence-based risk assessments when warranted, and provide control enhancement recommendations to stakeholders where appropriate.
Assist in the development and refinement of controls to manage risks aligned to the organization’s risk appetite.
Provide action-oriented risk reporting to the businesses, including identifying and surfacing cross-business insights.
Track, report, and escalate business risk issues and events as appropriate, and help the businesses adhere to corporate risk management policies and standards.
Provide thought leadership to further develop the framework, methodologies, and practices that enable Risk Officers to effectively support the businesses, including effective reporting and dashboarding, risk and control analysis, and risk assessments.
Champion a test-and-learn approach, piloting new tools and methods to advance the value Risk Management delivers to the businesses.
Advance the shift toward more technology-, data-, and AI-driven risk support, including self-service tools and dashboards that scale insight across the businesses.
Import selected best practices from the field of operational risk management and manage external strategic partners and suppliers where services are contracted.