VP, Regional Business & Specialty Service & Implementation

MetLife; Aurora (IL); On-site; USD 275,000 - 330,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with employer matching

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Paid time off

Tuition assistance

Parental leave

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Job summary

MetLife seeks an executive leader to direct the end-to-end Service & Implementation organization for Regional, Small, and Specialty Market segments across 2–4,999 employees. You will drive customer experiences, operational excellence, and scalable growth while partnering with Sales, Product, and Technology to meet business goals.

You will champion AI adoption and govern risks, delivering best-in-class outcomes and fostering a culture of accountability and innovation.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in customer operations, service delivery, implementation, or related industries.
• Experience leading large-scale, multi-functional organizations through growth and transformation.
• Proven ability to deliver operational excellence while balancing customer experience, employee engagement and financial performance.
• Ability to influence enterprise strategy and drive cross-functional initiatives in a matrixed environment.
• Experience leveraging technology, data and AI-enabled capabilities to improve efficiency and outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy, operations, and performance of a large-scale Service & Implementation organization across multiple market segments.
• Drive transformation initiatives to improve customer experience, scalability, and efficiency through automation and technology-enabled solutions.
• Champion AI fluency and responsible AI adoption while ensuring governance and risk management.
• Set service strategies, operating models, performance metrics, and SLAs that align with growth and profitability.
• Collaborate with Sales, Product, Technology, Finance, Operations, and Market Enablement leadership to align capabilities with priorities.
• Serve as executive escalation point for key customers, brokers, and sales leaders to strengthen relationships.
• Develop a high-performing leadership team through talent development and succession planning.

Skills

Executive leadership

Operations management

Change management

AI & automation

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Financial acumen

Customer-centric leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

MBA or Master's degree

Job description

Join the nation’s largest non-medical carrier of group insurance, where your work will impact over 55,000 customers and cover more than 50 million employees and family members. As part of MetLife’s Group Benefits team, you’ll deliver innovative benefits solutions - life, disability, dental, vision, and voluntary benefits - tailored to today’s employers and workforces. Collaborate with customers, brokers, and partners to expand our offerings and reimagine digital experiences. Join us and be part of an organization committed to supporting customers when they need us most.

The Opportunity

The Vice President, Regional Business & Specialty Service & Implementation is responsible for leading the end-to-end service and implementation organization supporting customers with 2-4,999 employees across MetLife's Regional, Small, and Specialty Market segments. This executive leader drives exceptional customer experiences, operational excellence, business transformation, and scalable growth while leading a large, multi-functional organization and partnering across the enterprise to achieve business, customer, and financial objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy, operations, and performance of a large-scale Service & Implementation organization supporting Regional Business and Specialty Market customers across implementation, servicing and account management functions.
• Drive transformation initiatives that improve customer experience, operational effectiveness, scalability, and ease of doing business through process optimization, automation, and technology-enabled solutions.
• Champion AI fluency and responsible AI adoption across the organization, identifying opportunities to leverage AI and automation to enhance associate productivity, improve customer outcomes, accelerate decision-making, and simplify operations while ensuring appropriate governance and risk management.
• Establish and execute service strategies, operating models, performance metrics, and service-level commitments that deliver best-in-class customer outcomes while supporting business growth and profitability.
• Partner closely with Sales, Product, Technology, Finance, Operations, and Market Enablement leaders to align operational capabilities with customer, distribution and enterprise priorities.
• Serve as the executive escalation point for key customers, brokers and sales leaders while strengthening external relationships and advancing customer retention and satisfaction.
• Build and develop a high-performing leadership team and engaged workforce through talent development, succession planning, organizational effectiveness, and a culture of accountability, innovation and continuous improvement.

The successful candidate will bring:

• Proven executive leadership experience managing large, complex service, operations, implementation, or customer experience organizations with responsibility for significant business outcomes.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale transformational change initiatives, including operational modernization, digital enablement, process improvement and organizational simplification.
• Strong strategic, financial and business acumen with the ability to translate enterprise priorities into measurable operational and customer results.
• Exceptional relationship-building and influencing skills, with a track record of partnering effectively across senior leadership teams and external stakeholders.
• A customer-centric, people-focused leadership style that inspires engagement, develops future leaders and fosters a culture of accountability, innovation and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in customer operations, service delivery, implementation, insurance, financial services, healthcare or a related industry.
• Experience leading large-scale, multi-functional organizations through significant growth, change, and transformation.
• Proven ability to deliver operational excellence while balancing customer experience, employee engagement and financial performance.
• Demonstrated success influencing enterprise strategy and leading cross-functional initiatives in a matrixed environment.
• Experience leveraging technology, automation, data and AI-enabled capabilities to improve operational efficiency, decision-making, customer experience and workforce productivity.
• Demonstrated ability to lead organizational change and build adoption of emerging technologies while maintaining appropriate governance risk management and customer focus.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of group benefits, insurance, employee benefits or related financial services businesses.
• Experience leading customer service, implementation, billing, eligibility, enrollment or participant service operations at scale.
• Experience sponsoring or leading AI, advanced analytics, automation, digital transformation or workflow modernization initiatives that delivered measurable business outcomes.
• Demonstrated success fostering AI fluency within a large organization, including enabling leaders and teams to effectively incorporate AI-enabled tools into day-to-day operations and decision-making.
• Background in Lean, Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, Digital Transformation or AI-enabled service operations.
• Experience managing large operational portfolios, enterprise modernization programs or customer experience transformation initiatives.
• Advanced degree (MBA or Master's degree).

The expected salary range for this position is $275,000 - $330,000. This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation and stock-based long-term incentives. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

Benefits We Offer

Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more! For more information regarding MetLife’s U.S. benefits, please

About MetLife

Recognizedon Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies",Fortune World’s 25 Best Workplaces™, as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companiesto Work For®, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of theworld’s leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities,employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutionalcustomers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positionsin the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

As part of our New Frontier strategy, MetLife is building an AI-enabled, people-centered future. We’re looking for people who bring curiosity, adaptability and a growth mindset as we use AI to enhance how we serve customers, support communities and evolve the way work gets done. At MetLife, AI is a responsible partner that supports human judgment, creativity and continuous improvement while helping us build trust, inclusion and long-term value.

Our purposeis simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities and the world atlarge create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our corevalues - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, andThink Ahead - we’re inspired to transform the next century in financialservices. At MetLife, it’s #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!

MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal state or local law(“protected characteristics”). If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [e-mail]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process. MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.

This posting is for a current vacancy and is anticipated to remain open for at least 90 days from the listed posting date.