[Hiring] Head of Group Distribution Economics @Guardian Life Insurance

Role Description

As Head of Distribution Economics, you serve as a key member of the Group Benefits Distribution Operations leadership team and are responsible for creating and leading Guardian’s total Distribution expense and partner investment strategy. The responsibilities include:

• Owning our Sales Planning Process and Distribution Compensation Strategy.
• Executing our compensation and planning operations.
• Overseeing our total Distribution expense spend.
• Helping Guardian determine where Distribution investment dollars should be placed and how those investment decisions are governed.
• Measuring value creation across the entire Distribution ecosystem.
• Partnering with Finance, Pricing, Product, Underwriting, HR, Partnership Management, and Distribution leadership to turn Distribution spend into clear trade-offs and decision-ready recommendations.

You will:

• Provide strategic leadership for Total Distribution Expense across Group Benefits, including partner economics, broker supplemental compensation, internal compensation, GA/COE, BenTech/API, enrollment support, and market access strategies.
• Answer the core question for the business: where should our Distribution investment dollars be invested, governed, measured, reallocated, redesigned, or sunset?
• Lead portfolio management of Distribution investments, including portfolio trade-offs, prioritization, investment recommendations, economic guardrails, and renewal, redesign, and sunset recommendations.
• Build and run governance for material Distribution investment decisions, including intake, approval readiness standards, decision log, RACI, scorecards, review cadence, and enforcement triggers.
• Evaluate strategic partner fee programs, BenAdmin administrative fee programs, enrollment firms, and broker platforms to determine whether each investment is justified, measurable, strategically aligned, and subject to stewardship commitments.
• Connect Finance compensation analytics with partnership management, pricing, funding, profitability, persistency, and market-access economics to inform enterprise trade-offs.
• Establish scorecard accountability for Distribution investments and drive the reallocation of underperforming spend toward higher-value opportunities.
• Build economic models, scenario analyses, and ROI frameworks that quantify the cost, return, and risk of Distribution investment alternatives.
• Deliver decision-ready executive recommendations to Group Benefits and Distribution leadership, and facilitate leader conversations on funding trade-offs, growth objectives, and investment priorities.
• Lead the Compensation Operations sub-function, ensuring accurate, compliant execution aligned with Distribution investment decisions.
• Build strong relationships across Distribution, specifically with the Regional Vice Presidents (RVPs) and Client Management heads (HCMs), as well as Finance, Pricing, Legal, and Partnership Management.
• Lead, hire, develop, and manage the Distribution Economics team, including the Compensation Operations sub-function.
• Stay abreast of and ensure alignment with legal, regulatory, and market requirements affecting Distribution expense, compensation, and partner arrangements.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, business, or a related field is required; MBA or advanced degree in a related field highly desirable.
• Minimum 10 years progressively responsible experience in distribution economics, financial planning and analysis, corporate strategy, portfolio or investment management, or sales and distribution compensation.
• Enterprise investment strategy and portfolio management experience, including making and defending trade-off, reallocation, and sunset recommendations.
• Strong financial acumen and economic modeling skills, including ROI, profitability, persistency, pricing, and scenario modeling.
• Proven executive governance and decision leadership.
• Demonstrated cross-functional enterprise influence in a large, matrixed company.
• Ability to turn data, analytics, and multiple data sources into strategic insights and clear executive recommendations.
• Strong knowledge of compensation practices, commission and override structures, and supplemental compensation programs.
• Group Benefits or insurance industry experience strongly preferred.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex economic concepts in simple terms.
• Strong project management and planning skills.
• Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills, with strong PowerPoint skills.
• The judgment and courage to recommend redesigning, reallocating, or sunsetting spend when the economics do not hold.
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and develop a course of action.

Requirements

• Salary Range: $158,480.00 - $260,360.00.
• The salary for this position will be determined based on education, experience, knowledge, and abilities.
• This role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

Benefits

• Support and flexibility to achieve professional and personal goals.
• Opportunities for skill-building, leadership development, and philanthropic activities.
• Contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources.