Corporate Vice President, Director, AI Search

 

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per week 

 

 

CVP - Director, AI Search

Department: Experience and Digital Marketing

Location: Home office – New York, NY (Hybrid – Mon, Tues, Wed)

For over 180 years, New York Life Insurance Company has helped people achieve financial security and peace of mind. As a Fortune 100 company and the largest mutual life insurer in the United States, we are now transforming how we deliver on that mission, building AI-enabled, next-generation digital experiences that redefine how we connect with the people and institutions we serve. This is a rare opportunity to shape that future from the inside.

 

Position Overview

The Director of AI Search and Marketing Experience Strategy is a strategic leadership role within the AI/Agentic Experience Strategy function, accountable for three interconnected areas: leading New York Life’s AI Search strategy (Answer Engine Optimization, Generative Answer Optimization, and AI-mediated discoverability), defining AI-driven acquisition strategies and journeys, and shaping AI/agentic strategies for marketing experiences. This role combines strategic facilitation with hands-on concept development, experimentation, and practice innovation.

This role sits alongside two peer Directors focused on consumer/client journeys and field journeys, respectively. Where those roles are oriented around end-to-end audience experience strategy, this role is oriented around AI-mediated channels and marketing capabilities that operate across audience contexts. A critical dimension of this role is serving as the connective tissue between the AI/Agentic Experience Strategy function and the AI Experience Product Management function, partnering heavily to ensure experience strategy and product strategy remain tightly aligned.

 

Key Responsibilities

AI Search, Acquisition, and AI-Mediated Demand Strategy

• Lead the cross-functional strategy and program for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Answer Optimization (GAO), and AI-mediated discoverability, establishing New York Life’s approach to being accurately and favorably represented in AI search environments including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, and emerging AI agents.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to define and maintain strategic frameworks for how New York Life’s content, knowledge assets, and brand voice should be structured, optimized, and governed to perform in large language model and AI-generated answer contexts.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration with Content Strategy, Brand, Experience Design, VOC, Performance Marketing, Enablement, AI Product Management, and Technology teams to translate AEO/GAO strategy into actionable programs, content standards, and workflow integrations.
• Define AI-driven acquisition strategies that leverage AI search, AI-mediated discovery, and AI-enabled marketing channels to generate and capture demand across product lines and audience segments, including consumer acquisition and field recruiting awareness.
• Partner with Experience Design and research/voice of customer teams to map and optimize AI-influenced acquisition journeys, identifying where AI touchpoints create entry points and guide prospects into the right areas of New York Life.
• Partner with analytics, Consumer Marketing, Performance Marketing, and Growth teams to establish measurement frameworks for AI search presence and AI’s contribution to acquisition outcomes, including attribution across AI-mediated touchpoints.
• Develop and maintain a competitive intelligence practice for AI search, monitoring how New York Life and key competitors are represented across AI search platforms.
• Distinguish credible AI search optimization approaches from vendor hype, maintaining a pragmatic, evidence-based program that prioritizes sustainable content quality over short-term tactics.

Future-State Experience Vision, Concept Development, and Experimentation

• Lead future-state visioning for AI-mediated acquisition and marketing experiences, defining what fundamentally different AI-first discovery, engagement, and demand models look like as AI becomes the primary channel through which consumers and other audiences find and evaluate financial services providers.
• Drive hands-on AI experience concept development in partnership with Experience Design for marketing and acquisition contexts, owning the AI b