Director, Product Initiative Lead, Life & Annuity Solutions (Annuity Products)

Director, Product Initiative Lead, L&A Solutions

Please note that we do not offer visa sponsorship for this position.

Company Summary

Come join one of America’s fastest growing insurance companies with a stable history of 175 years.  At National Life Group (“NLG”), we offer a flexible work environment with opportunity for growth.  As a mission-driven business, our promises are as important as the products we sell.  We encourage our associates to live our values: Do Good. Be Good. Make Good.

Our mission extends beyond the insurance and annuities policies that we sell.  Our cause is also to make the world a better place through grants from our charitable foundation, paid time for our employees to volunteer, environmentally sustainable and healthy work sites, and events that promote the work of nonprofits in our own backyard.

We invite you to explore what we have to offer and to join our cause.

Role Summary

This position sits in L&A Delivery Solutions and reports to the VP and Actuary, Product Portfolio Lead (PPL). This position is responsible for the end-to-end execution of the product development process once a product project moves out of initial viability and into deeper feasibility and execution. There may be several product initiatives in the Product Initiative Lead’s portfolio. This role will mainly focus on Annuity products, both bringing new products to market and enhancing existing capabilities as needed.

This position will work closely with the broader L&A Solutions product development team, Operations, Distribution/Field Leaders, IT, and others serving as a key connector between strategic vision and cross-functional delivery teams.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a diverse set of stakeholders in L&A Solutions, operations, IT, project management office, legal, marketing, finance, and distribution. The Product Initiative Lead (PIL) pulls in the right representatives to drive decision-making and resolve questions and issues as they arise.
• Accountable for the end-to-end execution of assigned product initiatives by ensuring clarity of scope, stakeholder alignment, and timely progression through all product development stages.
• The PIL is accountable for ensuring that the deliverable packages for each step in the product development process are prepared for the Decision Gates in a timely fashion and with the quality, completeness, and stakeholder alignment necessary to make the decision. This includes driving the creation and maintenance of the Document of Assumptions (similar to a Business Case) in partnership with L&A Product Development leads and other members of the Product committees.
• Presents content of deliverable packages to the committees to move product initiatives through the various stages of product development.
• Lead the planning and execution of workshops that bring together stakeholders to accelerate the design and definition of products in development. This includes defining workshop objectives, required inputs, key decisions, and expected outputs.
• Prioritize post-launch features and enhancements for initiatives and communicate rationale to key stakeholders.
• Continuously assess and share feedback on what is working well and what can be improved across the product development process; provide insights to the Product Portfolio Lead and Project Management team to support continuous improvement efforts.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience with Life Products development
• Strong understanding of Annuity product design, development, and implementation
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams, influence stakeholders, and drive decisions in a matrixed environment.
• Has clear communication skills to be able to explain complex product topics to nontechnical audiences, ability to communicate to senior leaders and individuals at various levels in the organization. Ability to work with multiple stakeholders to understand and describe annuity products and features.
• Self-motivated and results focused.

• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives and workstreams against tight deadlines.
• Able to solve unique and complex problems that have an impact on the business. Strategic thinker with a customer focused and business mindset and the ability to balance short-term execution with long-term goals.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite
• All other duties as assigned.
• This position currently offers an onsite hybrid work schedule, with