AVP, Product – Life

• Responsible for defining and delivering product strategy, product design and development for designated Life Product Line.

• Provides Industry Thought Leadership. Leads research, development and competitive intelligence of specific product design strategies and requirements. Maintains in-depth knowledge of industry trends, business drivers, market challenges and consumer preferences.  

• Develops, produces and maintains ad hoc and custom sales report analysis.  Independently collects voice of the customer in various ways, including developing and maintaining networks of life insurance product experts and influencers from our distribution partners.

• Identifies, analyzes and recommends new opportunities. Drives incremental and adjacent innovation to differentiate products and solutions in the marketplace.   Identifies new market opportunities for existing life insurance products.   

• Directs the development and maintenance, including features/capabilities of products from beginning to end with direct responsibility for the products managed from both a growth and profitability perspective.  Accountable for all dimensions across the value chain required to successfully launch a new product and be operationally ready to support it (e.g., technology, distribution strategy, pricing and design, marketing, new business and post-issue operations, etc.).

• Facilitates client understanding of various product options and helps to prioritize options. Works with Product Risk Committee to gain approval of design and pricing.

• Participates in the pricing process, monitoring product statistics and system integrations for assigned product(s). Maintains a detailed understanding of pricing, client needs, market needs, and sales positioning.

• Partners to determine product development design requirements in partnership with sales and finance.

• Leads all aspects of product and service delivery. Champions the process to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of execution.

• Performs periodic analysis of in-force blocks of business to ensure performance is within acceptable profitability and customer experience standards.

• Develops, administers and monitors resource plans and budgets for designated product line(s). Responsible for all related expense planning and reconciliation.

• Leads a team of associates to deliver results by crafting team objectives tied to business objectives. Facilitates team culture and engagement. Responsible for the management of associates including, performance management, salary planning and administration, development, workflow and organizational planning, hiring and placement.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.   

Reporting Relationships: Reports to VP. 

Typical Skills and Experiences:   

Education: Undergraduate degree in business or related field. Graduate degree/MBA preferred. 

License/Certification/Designation: Insurance and/or professional designations such as Chartered Financial Consultant, Chartered Life Underwriter, CPCU, Project Management designations, actuarial designations (FSA, MAAA).  

Experience: 7-10 years of life insurance product/business development experience. Demonstrated leadership experience. 

Knowledge, Abilities and Skills: Sophisticated understanding of products, regulatory framework governing such products and organization knowledge. Strong technical/industry knowledge. Ability to build relationships and lead with influence across organizational boundaries, effectively communicate and present complex information and effectively execute and drive projects to completion. Ability to drive for results, deal with ambiguity and to understand strategic objectives. Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Demonstrates sophisticated negotiation skills. Ability to lead a highly technical staff. Ability to devise business solutions to complex problems, implement the most appropriate and monitor effectiveness. Ability to make decisions on highly sophisticated issues and work with minimal direction.  

Other criteria, including leadership skills, competencies and experiences may take precedence.  

Staffing exceptions to the above must be approved by the hiring manager’s leader and Human Resources Business Partner. 

Values: Regularly and consistently demonstrates Nationwide Values. 

Job Conditions:  

Overtime Eligibility: Exempt (not eligible) 

Working Conditions: Normal office environment.  

ADA: The above statements cover what are generally believed to be principal and essential functions of this job. Specific circumstances may allow or require some people assigned to the job to perform a somewhat different combination of duties.