Head of Life, Disability & Executive Benefits Marketing

Head of Life, Disability & Executive Benefits Marketing

You Are

• A strategic, commercially minded marketing leader who can set the vision and growth agenda across a complex portfolio of Life, Individual Disability and Executive Benefits businesses.
• You combine deep customer, producer, distribution and market insight with strong go-to-market leadership, translating business strategy into differentiated positioning, segmented growth strategies and integrated activation that drives measurable results.
• You are equally comfortable shaping strategy with senior business leaders and mobilizing teams to execute.
• You understand how to lead distinct businesses while identifying opportunities to connect Life and Disability solutions around the needs of professionals, business owners, employers and executives.
• You bring a modern, digital-first marketing mindset and know how to build demand, enable distribution, improve customer and producer experiences, and continuously optimize performance.
• You are an enterprise leader who can influence across a highly matrixed organization, develop high-performing talent and create clarity around priorities, investment and outcomes.
  

You Will

• Own the end-to-end marketing strategy and growth agenda across Life, Individual Disability and Executive Benefits, translating business objectives into integrated, actionable go-to-market plans.
• Serve as the senior marketing partner to business, Product, Distribution, Sales, Operations, Digital, Enterprise Marketing and other senior stakeholders, aligning teams around portfolio priorities and growth opportunities.
• Lead customer-, producer-, employer- and distribution-led segmentation, positioning and value proposition development, using market intelligence and research to identify priority audiences, unmet needs and differentiated opportunities to win.
• Build distinct but connected go-to-market strategies across Life and Disability, including coordinated approaches for priority professional and business-owner segments where customer needs and solutions intersect.
• Establish Executive Benefits as a meaningful growth business spanning Life and Disability, with strategies tailored to employer and business-owner needs, specialized partners, Group relationships, third-party distribution and Principal Owner channels.
• Lead the shift from product-led marketing to needs- and solution-led marketing, connecting Life and Disability capabilities to customer and employer needs such as income protection, business continuity, talent attraction and retention, succession and executive protection.
• Direct integrated full-funnel marketing strategies spanning thought leadership, research, content, paid and owned media, digital experiences, audience journeys, account-based marketing, producer activation, sales enablement and market-facing programs.
• Set the marketing strategy for product launches and growth initiatives, ensuring market positioning, audience strategy, digital experiences, communications, field readiness and measurement are integrated from strategy through execution.
• Advance modern, digital-first experiences across the portfolio, using customer journeys, data, marketing technology and emerging capabilities to simplify experiences and improve engagement, conversion and adoption.
• Equip distribution with differentiated value propositions, discovery tools, industry and audience playbooks, solution maps, digital sales resources and other enablement that helps producers translate customer needs into relevant Life and Disability solutions.
• Establish and manage a disciplined performance framework with KPIs tied to demand, pipeline, sales contribution, adoption, engagement, conversion, persistency and marketing effectiveness; use insights to continuously optimize strategy and investment.
• Lead portfolio prioritization and budget stewardship, balancing core-business performance, new-market growth and transformational initiatives to maximize business impact.
• Maintain strong competitive and market intelligence capabilities and translate changes in customer behavior, distribution, technology, regulation and the competitive landscape into clear strategic recommendations.
• Champion brand excellence and ensure marketing strategies and materials meet applicable regulatory, compliance and company standards.
• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing marketing team across multiple businesses, establishing clear accountabilities, strong operating rhythms and a culture of collaboration, innovation and measurable impact.

You Have

Required

• 10+ years of progressive marketing leadership experience in financial services, insurance or another complex, highly regulated industry, including significant responsibility for go-to-market strategy and growth.
• Demonstrated success translating business strategy into customer- and distribution-led marketing strategies that drive measurable commercial outcomes.
• Proven experience leading complex portfolios, product lines or market segments and balancing strategic planning with disciplined execution.
• Strong experience with segmentation, positioning, value proposition development, integrated campaigns, product launches, digital marketing and sales or distribution enablement.
• Demonstrated ability to use customer, market, competitive and performance insights to make investment decisions, prioritize opportunities and optimize results.
• Significant people-leadership experience, with a track record of building, developing and leading high-performing teams.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive alignment across complex, matrixed organizations and cross-functional teams.
• Executive-level communication, presentation and storytelling skills, with the ability to simplify complex business and market issues into clear strategic choices.
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred

• Direct experience in Life insurance, Individual Disability Insurance and/or Executive Benefits.
• Experience marketing through complex insurance or financial-services distribution models, including career or affiliated distribution, brokerage, third-party partners, benefits channels or B2B/B2B2C models.
• Experience developing strategies for professional, small-business-owner, employer, executive and high-net-worth segments.
• Experience with solution-led selling, account-based marketing, customer journeys, digital transformation, marketing technology and modern sales-enablement platforms.
• Advanced degree or relevant professional designation.

Location:

• This role is hybrid out of our Hudson Yards NYC location with 3 days a week in office 2 days remote. Other hub locations including Stamford CT, Pittsfield MA, Holmdel NJ or Boston MA will be considered.
• Occasional travel is required, up to 25%.

Salary Range:

$132,420.00 - $217,545.00

The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for the primary location of the position. The salary for this position ultimately will be determined based on the education, experience, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate. In addition to salary, this role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

Our Promise

At Guardian, you’ll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals.  Through skill-building, leadership development and philanthropic opportunities, we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career, surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.

Inspire Well-Being

As part of Guardian’s Purpose – to inspire well-being – we are committed to offering contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues. Explore our company benefits at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits. Benefits apply to full-time eligible employees. Interns are not eligible for most Company benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, marital status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

Accommodations

Guardian is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected]. Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian, refer to the Guardian Careers site.

Visa Sponsorship

Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment-based visas (e.g., such as an H-1B). In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.

Notice Regarding Guardian’s Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

 

As part of Guardian’s job application process, Guardian may use artificial intelligence tools (“AI Tools") to automate the sorting and filtering of information provided by applicants as part of its preliminary screening. This preliminary screening may be used to help identify applicant materials and resumes relative to their indication that the applicant meets the requirements for the specific job for which they are applying, as specified in the listing posted on Guardian’s jobs website (Careers at Guardian at https://www.guardianlife.com/careers). At Guardian, we do not use AI Tools to substantially assist or replace human judgment or discretionary decision making in our hiring process. All hiring decisions will be made by Guardian colleagues.

 

Please be aware that if you apply for a specific position with Guardian, you will have the choice of opting out of Guardian’s use of AI Tools during the job application process. If you would like to request an alternative process that does not utilize AI Tools or would like to request a reasonable accommodation, within ten business days of your position application, you must email your request to [email protected], making sure to provide your name and job requisition identification number. Guardian will retain your applicant materials and resume and all information therefrom in accordance with Guardian’s document retention policy, a copy of which you may request via [email protected].

 

Additionally, at applicable times, Guardian will make public the most recent bias audit results for such AI tools, which may be found here. 

Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday.