We are currently seeking an entrepreneurial and collaborative Head of Strategic Growth Initiatives leader for Guardian’s Strategy and Corporate Development Team. The role reports to Guardian’s Head of Enterprise Strategy and Corporate Development and will lead a team of colleagues responsible for overall strategy development and planning as well as prioritizing and leading cross-cutting strategic transformation initiatives, and helping drive key enterprise strategic relationships.

Guardian has set out an ambitious growth strategy over the next 5 years, referred to as our Journey To ’30. This strategy focuses on continuing the growth of both our Group and Individual Markets business lines to diversify our product portfolio, increase our distribution footprint, grow our customer base, and leverage technology, data and AI as a strategic enabler. This growth strategy requires ongoing transformation across the enterprise, including both the business lines and corporate functions.

In the highly visible role of Head of Strategic Growth Initiatives, you will help develop the long-range plans for Guardian and partner with senior leaders to identify, develop, evaluate, prioritize and deliver strategic initiatives across the organization. You will play a key role in ensuring our strategic initiative portfolio is aligned to our near-term and longer-term strategy, driving ideation and process excellence across the firm with the express purpose of delighting our customers (both internal and external).

This role will collaborate closely with leaders in business areas, technology, data and AI, and finance to drive transformation, and will regularly update the executive leadership team on the progress of delivery efforts as well as the results of past initiatives to ensure the company is realizing value from transformation efforts. You will lead initiatives to solve complex problems and implementation issues critical to Guardian’s success.

Your work will span across:

Enterprise Strategy Development & Execution

• Help define the strategic direction and near-term priorities for Guardian or specific business unit topics supported by competitor/industry research and operational and financial analysis.
• In partnership Guardian Leadership Team, develop agenda, content, and experience for annual Guardian Leadership Team Strategy offsite, and September Strategy Session of the Board. Lead executive-level sessions to gain buy-in and develop content for delivery in various Board forums.
• Lead and own the annual Target Letter process, which sets annual goals by business and function aligned to our strategic objectives.
• Partner with Finance to develop and maintain a strategic prioritization framework that assesses and prioritize change initiatives and how Guardian allocates capital to these initiatives (both the annual process and quarterly funding requests).
• Provide strategic end-to-end oversight over enterprise transformation roadmap, across Group, Individual Markets and Corporate Functions. Provide operational leadership to optimize resource allocation and strategic outcomes
• Drive collaboration across business lines and corporate functional areas to oversee execution process and timeline. Includes monthly and quarterly updates, and emerging risks or opportunities.

Strategic Initiatives

• In collaboration with business areas, assess and develop business cases for new ideas driving innovation, partnerships, and other areas of investment outside of BAU.
• Lead and facilitate enterprise alignment for identified initiatives and tactical plans for execution, alongside business leaders and key stakeholders.

Strategic Relationship Management

• Lead and facilitate management of top strategic relationships across enterprise vendors, partners and investors.
• Act as a strategic connector, providing oversight of key commercial relationships and/or partnerships. Ensure follow-through, with a focus on uncovering new opportunities and driving more value creation.

Skills/Experience:

• Experienced with and enjoy leading, coaching and mentoring a team to solve complex strategic problems
• Strategic / framework drive structured thinker with excellent end-to-end problem-solving skills, able to identify issues and analyses
• A team leader, with change management experience, who can navigate independently up and down the organization and work well in cross-functional teams to achieve goals through strong interpersonal and influencing skills, maturity, and judgment
• An effective and confident communicator (both oral and written), with an outstanding ability to apply quantitative analytical approaches and develop and deliver concise communication materials for senior management

You have:

• Bachelor’s degree from a top institution with strong academic performance and demonstrated leadership ability; MBA from top-tier business school preferred, but not required
• 10-15 years of experience in roles related to strategy consulting, business management or transformation and operational experience within a financial services or consulting firm
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint