Senior Manager, Sales Effectiveness and Account Implementation

Blue Shield of North Carolina•Durham, NC

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Account Implementation and Sales Effectiveness leads the operational strategy and performance of the account implementation function and RFP unit, and contributes to the broader sales effectiveness strategy. The role oversees teams responsible for standard and custom group implementations, partnering with relevant business areas to ensure new and renewing groups are implemented accurately, efficiently, and in alignment with sales commitments, client expectations, regulatory requirements, and enterprise operating standards. It also oversees proposal support for new and renewal sales opportunities, ensuring proposal deliverables are timely, accurate, and operationally sound. The role develops and executes long-term strategies for account implementation, proposal support, and sales effectiveness. It partners with sales leadership and enterprise stakeholders to improve sales productivity, optimize processes, strengthen operational support, and build future-state capabilities that support business growth. The position uses performance data and metrics to guide decisions and continuous improvement, manages operational risks and escalations, plans resources and capacity, and leads, coaches, and develops team members. Blue Cross NC describes its culture as purpose-driven, collaborative, flexible, and focused on improving health care. The role follows the company's Hybrid-Flex or Remote-Flex approach depending on the nature of the work and distance from the Durham headquarters. Hybrid-Flex employees work in the office at least two days a week; Remote-Flex employees work virtually with a few in-office visits each year. Onsite expectations are discussed during the interview process.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree required; in lieu of a degree, ten or more years of relevant professional experience may be considered.
Eight or more years of experience in business operations, sales operations, account implementation, client implementation, proposal management, project management, program management, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience leading teams, managing complex operational processes, and driving cross-functional initiatives.
Proven ability to influence stakeholders, drive organizational change, and execute strategic business initiatives.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting sales enablement, sales effectiveness, implementation operations, proposal management, or operational excellence functions.
Background working for an insurer managing implementation teams with custom national clients.
Awareness of tools in the market, including Salesforce.
Prior experience working with large customer RFPs.
Ability to manage teams and complex work, including teams of 30 or more FTEs.
Standard and custom market implementation experience.

Responsibilities

Lead account implementation operations for new and renewing group business, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, operational readiness, and service excellence.
Oversee standard and custom group implementation teams and establish operating procedures, prioritization frameworks, quality controls, implementation milestones, benefit configuration coordination, and escalation processes.
Oversee proposal support operations, including intake, prioritization, development, quality review, and delivery of proposal responses for new and renewal business.
Partner with Sales, Account Management, Underwriting, Product, Operations, and other stakeholders to prepare accurate, timely, and compelling proposal responses.
Develop and execute strategies that improve implementation outcomes, proposal effectiveness, sales support capabilities, and sales productivity.
Evaluate and optimize sales and implementation workflows, handoffs, proposal intake and response processes, and end-to-end customer and internal partner experiences.
Use operational and sales performance data to identify trends, assess process performance, and provide actionable insights for strategic decisions and continuous improvement.
Define, monitor, and communicate KPIs, service-level metrics, quality measures, workload trends, implementation cycle times, proposal performance, and sales effectiveness outcomes.
Lead cross-functional initiatives with Sales, Client Management, Implementation, Product, Operations, IT, Legal, Compliance, and other enterprise partners to align expectations and resolve barriers.
Ensure implementation and proposal processes comply with regulatory requirements, contractual obligations, internal policies, and operational risk controls.
Manage operational risk, escalations, and issue resolution across implementation and proposal functions.
Manage staffing strategies, workload distribution, budget inputs, technology requirements, and resource planning to meet implementation, proposal, renewal, and business demands.
Develop long-term strategy for account implementation, proposal support, and sales effectiveness capabilities in partnership with sales leadership and business stakeholders.
Lead, coach, and develop team members and leaders; set clear goals, promote accountability, support change adoption, and foster a collaborative, customer-focused culture.
Serve as a strategic advisor and operational partner to sales leadership and key enterprise stakeholders.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Health and wellness programs.
Parental leave and support.
Adoption and surrogacy assistance.
Career development programs.
Tuition reimbursement for continued education.
401(k) match, including an annual company contribution.
Annual Incentive Bonus based on corporate goal achievement and individual performance.
Paid Time Off (PTO).
Work-life balance, flexibility, and autonomy.