Senior Director, Head of Associate Relations

Why Join GEICO?

At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities.

 

Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive on relentless innovation to exceed our customers' expectations while making a real impact on local communities nationwide.

 

Founded in 1936, GEICO is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies and one of the largest auto insurers in the United States. When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported, and proud to work here. That's why we offer the GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards, and Great Careers.

Role Overview:
GEICO is seeking an experienced, strategic people leader to serve as Head of Associate Relations. This leader will own the enterprise strategy, governance, operating model, and transformation of the Associate Relations function. This role is critical to GEICO as it has direct influence and impact to while helping shape the broader associate experience.

The leader in this role will serve as a key enterprise partner connecting Associate Relations with strategy, insights and execution of broader organizational effectiveness, which might include workforce insights, and leadership capability. The ideal candidate brings meaningful Associate Relations or Employee Relations depth, broader experience across HR disciplines, and the ability to influence executives, lead organizational change, improve operating models, and connect workforce insights to business outcomes.

Location: Hybrid, with an onsite presence of 3 days per week at our Bethesda, MD; New York, NY; Dallas, TX; Tampa, FL; or Chicago, IL office.

Reports to: Head of Associate Experience

Success in This Role:
The successful leader will strengthen the quality, consistency, and credibility of the Associate Relations function while helping GEICO better understand and address the conditions that shape the associate experience.

Key Responsibilities:

Associate Relations Strategy and Transformation 

• Define and execute a multi-year Associate Relations strategy and roadmap aligned with GEICO's Associate Value Proposition, culture, business objectives, and the needs of a large, evolving workforce.

• Evolve the operating model across organizational design, governance, processes, decision rights, service standards, and escalation pathways.

• Modernize capabilities through technology, analytics, process improvement, and scalable frameworks that strengthen consistency, transparency, fairness, and operational excellence across business units and locations.

Organizational Health, Trust, and Workforce Insights 

• Use associate concerns, investigations, feedback, and workforce data to identify emerging trends, risks, root causes, and opportunities.

• Translate qualitative and quantitative insights into actionable recommendations and sustainable solutions for business and People Group leaders.

• Monitor organizational health and connect individual concerns to broader opportunities to strengthen trust, engagement, accountability, leadership effectiveness, and workplace experience.

Enterprise Leadership and Influence 

• Serve as a trusted advisor to executives and senior leaders on workplace concerns, leadership effectiveness, organizational risk, culture, and associate experience.

• Influence enterprise decisions and represent Associate Relations in executive discussions, transformation initiatives, and working groups, balancing associate impact, business objectives, culture, and risk.

• Build strong partnerships across Legal, Compliance, Operations, Communications, HR Business Partners, HR Operations, and the broader People Group to advance enterprise people strategies.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance 

• Establish and oversee enterprise standards and decision frameworks for investigations, workplace concerns, policy interpretation, corrective action, and related processes.

• Ensure consistent, fair, defensible, and accountable application of policies and practices across the organization.

• Partner with Legal and Compliance to identify and mitigate workforce-related risks and prepare for evolving employment requirements and workplace expectations.

Leadership and Capability Building 

• Lead and develop a high-performing Associate Relations leadership team grounded in sound judgment, collaboration, accountability, empathy, and continuous learning.

• Build manager and organizational capability through quality standards, coaching, and development frameworks that strengthen investigative rigor, consistency, and associate-centered judgment.

• Foster a culture of innovation, curiosity, operational discipline, and continuous improvement.

Cross-Functional Associate Experience Leadership 

• Partner across Associate Listening, Associate Experience Consulting, Workplace Experience, Community and Engagement, HR Operations, HR Business Partners, and other People Group functions to identify and address systemic issues across the associate lifecycle.

• Support enterprise efforts to improve engagement, trust, retention, leadership effectiveness, cultural health, and operational consistency.

• Help shape the long-term Associate Experience strategy and champion solutions that balance associate needs, operational realities, business performance, fairness, and accountability.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Leadership, Psychology, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.

• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience across multiple people disciplines, with meaningful Associate Relations or Employee Relations experience spanning workplace concerns, investigations, employment practices, and workforce risk management.

• Demonstrated leadership beyond traditional employee relations, such as HR operations, business partnership, organizational effectiveness, workforce transformation, employee experience, or enterprise change.

• Proven success leading enterprise-scale functions, transformations, operating model redesigns, process modernization, or service delivery improvements.

• Experience influencing senior executives and aligning diverse stakeholders in complex organizations.

• Ability to use data, associate feedback, workforce insights, and qualitative themes to drive decisions and continuous improvement, supported by strong business acumen.

• Exceptional communication, executive presence, judgment, relationship-building, and commitment to fairness, integrity, inclusion, accountability, confidentiality, and ethical leadership.

Preferred Candidate Attributes: 

• Brings the credibility to lead Associate Relations from day one and the breadth to contribute across the larger Associate Experience portfolio as a strategic partner to senior business leaders.

• Understands how organizational design, leadership behavior, manager capability, processes, workplace norms, and associate sentiment interact, and can move comfortably between strategy and execution.

• Views Associate Relations as both a risk management function and a source of insight into organizational health, trust, and associate experience.

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Annual Salary

$195,000.00 - $315,000.00

The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate’s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.

 

At this time, GEICO will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The GEICO Pledge:

Great Company: Protecting customers through life’s twists and turns with innovation and integrity.

Great Careers: Personalized development programs, mentorship, and certification assistance.

Great Culture: Inclusive and collaborative culture rooted in shared success.

Great Rewards: Competitive pay, benefits, and flexibility to support your well-being and future.

 

The equal employment opportunity policy of the GEICO Companies provides for a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. GEICO hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled.

 

GEICO reasonably accommodates qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to receive equal employment opportunity and/or perform the essential functions of the job, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship to the Company. This applies to all applicants and associates. GEICO also provides a work environment in which each associate is able to be productive and work to the best of their ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment. We expect and require the cooperation of all associates in maintaining an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment with mutual respect by and for all associates and applicants.