Life Business Strategic Finance Lead

Full-Time

Boston, MA or Springfield, MA

The Opportunity

Highly seasoned finance professional with specialized skills/knowledge, which is recognized across the organization for their expertise. Demonstrated potential to take on expanded responsibilities. Influences and makes decisions with significant impact on the organization and/or company. Influences the development of functional strategy. Establish medium to long term work plans for the function and contributes to the development of financial and resource planning needed to achieve department business objectives. Has an established track record of success for driving and accomplishing critical business objectives. Manage, coach and develop one or more direct reports.

The Life Business Strategic Finance Lead will work with business partners in Brand, Product & Affiliated Distribution (BP&AD) and Corporate Finance to provide high quality information and analysis to facilitate assessment and reporting of business performance, identification of options and decision-making. This role will be critical to managing the newly established Life P&L, including distribution, new business and In-force profitability. In addition, this role will oversee Sales for BP&AD (Life, Annuity and Worksite) and the MassMutual Financial Advisors, MMFA channel, including reporting and forecasting of product level sales. The role reports to the Head of BP&AD Strategic Finance within CFO, and will be working directly with the Head of Product and the Head of the MMFA Business on a regular basis.

As the Life business Strategic Finance Lead, you’ll have an opportunity to contribute to helping our businesses grow and become more profitable. You will develop and maintain strong knowledge of products, markets, competitors and key industry metrics. You will utilize your understanding of the business’ challenges and priorities to help drive decision-making. You will partner across Finance to understand the financials, leveraging data platforms to identify key information that will help to tell the story. You will provide support to CFO customers on performance, opportunities for cost efficiencies, benchmarking comparisons, sales, profitability results and considerations for decision-making. You will contribute to engagement for change, innovation and value creation.

The Team

In this role, you will join our BP&AD Strategic Finance team primarily supporting our MassMutual Life and MMFA business, which manufactures and sells protection and annuity products as well as wealth management solutions. The Strategic Finance team is a collaborative team whose members demonstrate accountability, agility, a dedication to be inclusive, strong business acumen, and show courage, even in the most difficult situations. Highly effective communication and influencing skills are key to successful relationship-building and the ability to articulate the reasoning and bases for recommendations and conclusions are imperative. In addition, the ability to influence and challenge assumption in a matrixed organization will be essential. Our team demonstrates an inquisitive approach, asking probing questions to identify issues with specificity.

The Impact:

As the Life Strategic Finance Lead your work will impact strategic decisions made by your business partners; enabling better strategic decisions utilizing the financial data and tools. You will accomplish that through the responsibilities listed below:

Drive and Support Strategic Initiatives:

• Actively participate in driving business financial projects/initiatives. Be a respected thought partner in the development and execution of strategies and initiatives to achieve the enterprise’s strategic aspirations and goals, including active, ongoing involvement in product development and pricing analytics
• Lead the development of the Life P&L, including development of a Source of Earnings view: Insurance Margin, Investment Margin and Fee Margin. Understand and actively influence the expense allocation process to ensure expenses supporting Life are representative of the business.
• Review forecast and initiative assumptions and contribute to cost-benefit analyses to support decision making, including prioritization, in order to pursue the most beneficial initiatives and maximize benefits.
• Inspire, lead and execute on CFO transformation initiatives, including data driven financial analysis, automated reporting, advanced analytics, data governance, and talent strategy.

Model and Analyze:

• Prepare high quality analysis to influence key financial decisions, including developing and employing analytical models. This analysis is also used both with the business and within CFO for management reporting and external reporting.
• Contribute to the development of driver-based forecasts, reviewing and vetting P&L assumption elements and assessing overall reasonableness of earnings forecasts. Ensure that key forecast business driver assumptions are developed in collaboration with business partners

Monitor and Communicate Business Drivers and Results

• Identify and monitor key performance drivers and risks with timely communications of trends and observations. This supports decision making and internal management reporting and external reporting.
• Develop Sales Forecast scenarios, in close partnership with MMFA, monitor and assess trends and leading indicators; be able to substantiate and evaluate sales trends
• Analyze Margin, expenses, PTOI, AUM, unit costs, VNB, capital consumption and other financial business drivers, used by business partners and the CFO organization
• Influence, lead and educate on financial-related elements of the strategic and tactical success of the businesses

Collaborate, Communicate and Influence:

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships and collaborate with business partners and CFO co-workers to, among other outcomes, continuously improve CFO processes.
• Use business acumen and communication skills to draft and contribute to commentary which enables readers to quickly understand why and how performance is impacting financial results. Communicate complex information and analysis in clear, understandable terms with appropriate context, focused on actionable content.
• Address and drive solutions for financial-related issues and opportunities, including influencing cross-functional actions and collaboration.
• Optimize our talent by hiring and developing a direct report to support in analytics and production within the Life Business and MMFA.

The Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years experience in finance or actuarial
• Experience using data and information to analyze and communicate (in writing, orally and visually) the implications of business unit activity, leveraging business intelligence applications (Alation, Microstrategy, SQL queries etc.)
• Experience with financial forecasting and quarter closes
• Intellectual curiosity to continue learning and adding breadth and depth to understanding.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with, challenge and influence senior business leaders and peers in using financial information and tools to identify options and make decisions across a matrixed organization
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to convey complex information in readily understandable terms
• Exceptional relationship building and influencing skills
• Proven ability to lead across a matrixed organization
• Ability to work well under pressure and manage multiple deliverables
• Ability to lead and manage one or more direct reports

The Ideal Qualifications

• FSA, CFA or MBA designation a plus
• Knowledge of U.S. GAAP and statutory financial reporting requirements relating to life insurance products a plus

What to Expect as Part of MassMutual and the Team

• Regular meetings with the team
• Focused one-on-one meetings with your manager
• Networking opportunities including access to Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, African American, women, LGBTQ, veteran, and disability-focused Business Resource Groups
• Access to learning content on Degreed and other informational platforms
• Your ethics and integrity will be valued by a company with a strong and stable ethical business with industry leading pay and benefits

#LI-LC1

Salary Range:

At MassMutual, we focus on ensuring fair equitable pay, by providing competitive salaries, along with incentive and bonus opportunities for all employees. Your total compensation package includes either a bonus target or in a sales-focused role a Variable Incentive Compensation component.

Why Join Us.

We’ve been around since 1851. During our history, we’ve learned a few things about making sure our customers are our top priority. In order to meet and exceed their expectations, we must have the best people providing the best thinking, products and services. To accomplish this, we celebrate an inclusive, vibrant and diverse culture that encourages growth, openness and opportunities for everyone. A career with MassMutual means you will be part of a strong, stable and ethical business with industry leading pay and benefits. And your voice will always be heard.

We help people secure their future and protect the ones they love. As a company owned by our policyowners, we are defined by mutuality and our vision to put customers first. It’s more than our company structure – it’s our way of life. We are a company of people protecting people. Our company exists because people are willing to share risk and resources, and rely on each other when it counts. At MassMutual, we Live Mutual.

MassMutual is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer Minority/Female/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/Individual with Disability/Protected Veteran. We welcome all persons to apply. Note: Veterans are welcome to apply, regardless of their discharge status.

If you need an accommodation to complete the application process, please contact us and share the specifics of the assistance you need.

At MassMutual, we focus on ensuring fair, equitable pay by providing competitive salaries, along with incentive and bonus opportunities for all employees. Your total compensation package includes either a bonus target or in a sales-focused role a Variable Incentive Compensation component. For more information about our extensive benefits offerings please check out our Total Rewards at a Glance.