Vice President, Product Development

Blue Shield of California • Oakland, CA

6d

About The Position

The Vice President, Product Development will report to the Vice President, Customer and Product Strategy. The Vice President, Product Development is a senior executive responsible for defining, designing, and delivering the health plan’s next generation of products, capabilities, and services across all markets. This role leads innovation and product modernization to ensure offerings remain competitive, compliant, operationally sound, and financially sustainable. The VP oversees a broad portfolio that includes product and solution design, benefit configuration and intent, program management, solution architecture, user experience, and vendor/partner management. This leader works cross-functionally with Markets, Actuarial, Network/Provider Strategy, Clinical, Finance, Digital/Technology, and Compliance to ensure products meet member needs while supporting enterprise strategy.

Requirements

• 15+ years of prior relevant experience, including 8 years of management experience with a minimum of 5 years in health plan product (or related) experience.
• Deep understanding of health plan operations, regulatory requirements (CMS, DMHC/DOI, DHCS), and core admin platforms (e.g., Facets).
• Demonstrated success in leading product innovation and complex cross-functional delivery.
• Experience managing large, multidisciplinary teams and multimillion-dollar portfolios.
• Strong strategic thinking, system-level problem solving, and executive communication skills.
• MBA required.

Nice To Haves

• Some high tech experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Product Strategy & Innovation Lead enterprise product strategy and development for new health plan offerings, capabilities, and benefits across all lines of business.
• Drive ideation and innovation cycles that support affordability, quality, access, and member experience goals.
• Manage multiple concurrent product feasibility assessments, ensuring alignment with actuarial soundness, regulatory requirements, operational capacity, and market opportunity.
• Manage multi-million dollar budget for assigned initiatives.
• Champion the development of differentiated capabilities and service models that position the health plan as a market leader.
• Institute new revenue and monetization opportunities aligned with enterprise growth strategies.
• Direct and oversee regular competitive intelligence and implications around new product capabilities, opportunities and enhancements.
• Product Design, Solutioning & Development Lead end-to-end product solution design, ensuring benefit design, configuration, and operational workflows comply with federal and state regulations (CMS, DMHC, DOI, DHCS).
• Manage technical teams, consultants and contractors for delivery in partnership with IT.
• Develop and deliver product requirements and multi-year development roadmap in partnership with functional and technical stakeholders.
• Represent yearly strategic funding and prioritization for the Product roadmap to the Board (as needed).
• Partner with VP Cost of Healthcare, VP of Pricing, VP of Partner Services, VP of Line of Business Strategy, and VP of Finance, and all of the Line of Business General Managers on pricing assumptions, value models, benefit cost impacts and market positioning and member/customer experience.
• Collaborate closely with VP Digital and Chief Technology Officer to define technology requirements, system impacts, and integration needs.
• Product Operations, Configuration & Implementation Lead benefit interpretation and policy, including benefit configuration, and downstream operational readiness.
• Ensure timely, accurate and on budget off-cycle benefit updates, annual benefit refreshes, rate filings, and new product launches.
• Establish clear governance and quality assurance mechanisms to reduce configuration errors, improve automation throughput, reduce market cycle times and ensure operational compliance.
• Program Management & Delivery Oversee the Products Program Management Office (PMO) responsible for complex, cross-functional implementation efforts (e.g., new product launches, regulatory-driven benefit changes, system modernization).
• Lead programs to meet timelines, budget, risk mitigation plans, and enterprise standards.
• Drive alignment across Markets, Sales, Operations, IT, Clinical, and Network to ensure successful end-to-end product delivery and superior member experience.
• Solution Architecture & User Experience Lead product solution architecture to ensure products are scalable, technically feasible, cost-effective, and operationally sound.
• Champion user experience (member, employer group, broker, and provider) in product design, partnering with UX teams to embed human-centered design principles.
• Vendor & Partner Management Manage evaluation and oversight of strategic product vendors and digital health
• Conduct ad hoc assessments to determine vendor-value contribution, compliance, cost-effectiveness, and integration feasibility.
• Advance strategic partnerships that strengthen product differentiation and accelerate capability development.
• Collaborate and partner with VP, Partner Services, on shared governance and key success metrics.
• People Leadership Lead an organization of approximately 50 employees across product design, operations, PMO, architecture, UX, and vendor management, including 5Directors.
• Build a culture grounded in accountability, collaboration, innovation, and the health plan’s leadership behaviors (Human, Honest, Courageous).
• Develop talent, strengthen organizational capability, and create clear succession pathways within the Product organization.

What This Job Offers

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