Manager, Payment Center

National Life Insurance • Addison, TX

3d • Onsite

About The Position

The Manager, Payment Center provides inspirational leadership to teammates and works collaboratively with other leaders across After Issue Services and the Customer Innovation Group to achieve seamless service excellence. This leader is committed to sustaining a strong, focused team engaged in serving internal and external customers, with a focus on developing the team’s talent and ensuring an efficient strategy for completing multiple goals, including ensuring daily work is processed timely, accurately, and in accordance with acceptable standards and regulations. The Manager also oversees teams responsible for posting payments and performing accurate and timely accounting on customer policies, ensuring customer requests are processed in good order and that both customer and company financial resources are properly handled. Because this department provides front-line customer service, this leader must be conversant in best practices to prevent fraud, audit standards, and other financial and regulatory aspects of transacting customer payments. This role partners closely with Treasury, Product, Hedging, Commissions, and other teams beyond CIG to drive positive upstream and downstream impacts. The ideal candidate uses data to solve problems and effectively execute process improvements in a fast-paced environment. This role requires public speaking when presenting to agencies and demonstrated skill in decision-making and communication during tense escalation resolutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 8 or more years of related work experience, OR an advanced degree and 5 or more years of related experience, OR 12 or more years of total equivalent work experience
• Leadership skills in setting and communicating vision, purpose, and goals, and leading a high-performing team
• Demonstrated strength in building effective teams and developing direct reports
• Unwavering customer focus with a keen appreciation for the needs and interests of our distribution partners and buying customers
• Excellent problem-solving skills and critical thinking; ability to anticipate challenges, break down barriers, and identify and execute solutions that achieve organizational goals
• Demonstrated ability to empower, influence, and make connections between diverse sets of individuals
• Top-notch communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts and influence stakeholders at all levels of the organization
• Exercises tact, discretion, and good judgment while working under pressure to get things done quickly and effectively through others
• Organized with excellent time-management skills, including consistent follow-up and follow-through
• Demonstrated effectiveness in a collaborative work environment
• Ability to successfully pass a background check

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field
• Experience in the life and annuity industry
• Banking or accounting experience
• Prior experience leading a payment processing, cash application, or financial operations team
• Leverage approved AI tools, where appropriate, to improve the efficiency, quality, and impact of their work.
• Stay curious and open to new AI-enabled ways of working.
• Exercise sound judgment by reviewing and validating AI-generated content.
• Maintain accountability for the accuracy, quality, fairness, and integrity of work products by adhering to National Life’s AI guiding principles.
• Use AI responsibly and in accordance with company policies related to confidentiality, data privacy, security, compliance, retention, and intellectual property.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for staffing, training, employee development, goal setting, and performance management of the department; foster a culture of excellence and high performance by providing advanced coaching and development opportunities to team members.
• Develop and maintain productivity and quality metrics to inspire superior team performance and service standards, identify and implement continuous improvement initiatives, and provide regular feedback and coaching to team members.
• Collaborate with a wide variety of internal and external customers to effectively deliver exemplary service, drive operational excellence, and address the root cause of service issues.
• Ensure that payment transactions and customer requests are processed in good order, and that both customer and company financial resources are properly handled in accordance with audit, fraud prevention, and regulatory standards.
• Ensure the business area follows established processes and controls; monitor and maintain compliance-based requirements.
• Maintain a deep and comprehensive knowledge of our products, services, systems, business processes, and key partners (internal and external) to ensure top-tier operational efficiency.
• Address high-priority customer and agent inquiries with urgency and efficiency, ensuring their needs are met and exceeded.
• All other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Your benefits start day one and are flexible and customizable to your and your family’s specific needs.
• Check out the BENEFITS of a Career at National Life !
• 401(k) eligibility
• various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave
• discretionary annual incentive programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager