AVP, Head of Employee Marketing Creative, Content & Customer Communications

Position: AVP, Head of Employee Marketing Creative, Content & Customer Communications

Job Location: New York, NY or Bridgewater, NJ (Hybrid work arrangement)

Department: Marketing

The Role:

As Head of US Group Benefits Employee Marketing Creative, Content & Customer Communications, you will lead a team of internal communications professionals and external agency partners responsible for the development of all creative assets to support employee marketing communications across multiple channels and through the customer lifecycle – including campaigns and ongoing communications to acquire, onboard, service, and retain US Group Benefits participants/employees.

For this new team, we are looking for an experienced marketer and inspirational people manager with knowledge of the group benefits space that can help nurture our relationships with end customers. She/He will lead the team’s efforts to develop creative output aligned against business/marketing strategies & OKRs. The creative & customer communication strategy and output should 1) address employee/consumer needs at different stages of their lifecycle, 2) appropriately showcase the value added by our product’s features and benefits, 3) continue evolving our look and feel, 4) create efficiencies with designs and copy that leverage variable templating and dynamic composition techniques to customize communications for our customers. Responsibilities include the development of creative for ongoing and ad-hoc marketing campaigns in coordination with segment and product marketing teams.

The ideal candidate will have a natural eye for creativity, as well as the confidence to challenge the status quo and think out of the box. She/He will also bring the needed discipline to balance diverse idea generation with practical execution and budgets.

The ideal candidate is able to build and share a clear vision for creative approach and its rationale. She/He can facilitate alignment with both cross-functional partners and is skilled at defining and socializing creative concepts, customizing by consumer need/segment, and working within a complex, highly regulated environment. The ideal candidate should also have a passion for learning about which tactics and approaches drive successful results, and equal discipline for ensuring insights are incorporated into future designs and content.

Achieving results in this role will require the leader to be an innovative, results-driven marketer with strong collaboration skills to work cross-functionally with a broad range of stakeholders within Product Marketing, CX, Research & Insights, Servicing and Marketing Operations, among others.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor a team of internal designers, content developers, copywriters and marketing communications professionals.
• Develop and execute the content and creative strategy to support Employee Marketing acquisition, engagement and retention plans for all US Group Benefits – harnessing brand design, copy, art, dynamic composition capabilities and digital technology.
• Manage relationships with external creative agencies
• Elevate content strategy and development processes that translate complex ideas into compelling, needs-based digital/print materials and experiences.
• Maintain creativity within a rules-based, templated structure with significant industry regulations and compliance requirements.
• Collaborate with Segment & Product Marketing, Distribution, and Marketing Operations teams to bring marketing plans to life, analyze/optimize their results, identify new opportunities, and make recommendations for future testing.
• Maintain governance over content marketing requests ensuring analysis of brand tracking, market trends, consumer needs, and the competitor landscape influence creative output.
• Partner with Marketing Operations to build creative assets for their respective channel activations, as well as help anticipate needs for supporting resource allocation, pipeline management, and capacity.
• Oversee the creative asset development budget ensuring that all campaigns and communications development are managed efficiently and delivered on time in accordance with agreed-upon SLAs.
• Participate in agile teams based on key product priorities.
• Provide strategic leadership to develop innovative and actionable initiatives in a fiscally responsible manner.
• Ensure teams are proactively kept up to date on creative development progress, including timeline shifts, conflict resolution, barrier/constraint removal, identification of risks, monitoring and realignment of budget, and maintenance/communication of change requests.

Key Relationships:

• Reports to: VP, US B2C/DTC Marketing
• Direct reports/team: Customer and Product Creative teams
• Key Stakeholders: Distribution Marketing, Product Marketing, Servicing, Marketing Operations, CX team, Brand and Corporate Marketing

Essential Business Experience and Technical Skills:

• 12+ years of relevant experience, with seven or more years of experiences creating marketing/advertising campaigns — from developing the vision and messaging platform to overseeing production on time and within budget
• Experience in creating integrated content across all marketing channels: digital, social media, paid media, mobile, offline, and print
• Proficiency in leading a team of diverse, talented creatives
• Strong creative vision, with an eye on business objectives
• Strong interpersonal skills to work collaboratively
• Strong management and leadership skills
• Strong influencer skillset across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, and ability to use experiential case studies, competitive insights and data to support recommended approach and creative rationale vs. subjective, gut instinct alone.
• Strategic thinker with the ability and the skill set to see the bigger picture as well as understand the details of campaigns
• Ability to think through and apply complex logic and business rules as it relates to variable copy and customization.
• Proven, results-driven approach to test, learn and optimization.
• A “get it done” attitude with strong process management, planning and resource allocation skills - including the ability to motivate, prioritize across multiple projects, and creatively resource surge needs.
• Advisory and consultative skillset to provide guidance to our content authors and contributors to improve how we share content
• Ability to lead, delegate to, manage, and motivate a team of talented professionals

MetLife Success Principles

• Experiment with Confidence – Courageously learn and test new ideas without fear of failure
• Act with Urgency – Demonstrate speed to action with agility and determination
• Seek Diverse Perspectives – Source ideas and feedback to expand thinking and make informed decisions
• Seize Opportunity – Drive responsible growth and identify areas for continuous improvement
• Champion Inclusion – Foster an environment where everyone is valued, heard, and can speak up
• Create Alignment – Partner with others across the organization with candor and transparency
• Take Responsibility – Be accountable and act in pursuit of the right outcomes
• Enable Solutions – Anticipate and address obstacles while managing risk
• Deliver What Matters – Execute meaningful priorities and follow through on commitments

MetLife:

MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

We are one of the largest institutional investors in the U.S. with $642.4 billion of total assets under management as of March 31, 2021. We are ranked #46 on the Fortune 500 list for 2021. In 2020, we were named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the fifth year in a row. DJSI is a global index to track the leading sustainability-driven companies. We are proud to have been named to Fortune magazine’s 2021 list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies.”

MetLife is committed to building a purpose-driven and inclusive culture that energizes our people. Our employees work every day to help build a more confident future for people around the world.

The wage range for applicants for this position is $154,700 to $206,300. This role is also eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation and stock-based long-term incentives. MetLife offers a comprehensive benefits program, including healthcare benefits, life insurance, retirement benefits, parental leave, legal plan services and paid time off. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

We want to make it simple for all interested and qualified candidates to apply for employment opportunities with MetLife. For further information about how to request a reasonable accommodation, please click on the Disability Accommodations link below.

MetLife is a proud Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer dedicated to attracting, retaining, and developing a diverse and inclusive workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment at MetLife without regards to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, national origin, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status, uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.