Corporate Strategy Lead

JOB DESCRIPTION

Strategy Team
Corporate Strategy, CFO
Full-Time
Boston, MA (Hybrid Office)

The Opportunity

MassMutual is a Fortune 100 company with scaled businesses spanning life insurance, annuities, wealth management, and asset management.

Our CFO organization is embarking on a transformative vision: To be known as trusted business partners to the company and stewards of long-term value creation for our policyowners by driving influence and impact through high-quality, timely insights.

Corporate Strategy contributes to this vision by identifying and analyzing emerging industry trends and competitive risks, recommending growth opportunities and ensuring business and corporate unit strategies align with the organizational vision and long-term aspirations. Corporate Strategy will also evolve its capabilities and develop a multi-year strategic planning framework, incorporating scenario-based planning.

Corporate Strategy accomplishes these goals by working with senior leaders to optimize our portfolio of businesses for the benefit of our participating policyholders. Corporate Strategy’s remit includes strategic planning, Board strategy, and internal consultancy, all of which involves finding answers to top-of-mind business problems for senior leaders, including the CEO, Board of Directors, and Executive Leadership Team. As a Strategy Lead, you will play an integral role in helping the Corporate Strategy team deliver on these efforts.

Candidates for this role should expect to take the lead in designing, building, testing, and implementing a strategic planning process, a high visibility project that will influence strategic decision-making at the highest levels of the enterprise. Conceptually this includes creating a timeline and touchpoints for the incorporation of external and competitive trends; internal and business leader insights; Executive Leadership Team coordination; and synchronization with the annual planning process. Strategic planning will involve scenario analysis and resilience testing across multiple stress scenarios. 

Until the strategic planning process is established, anticipate strategic planning responsibilities being the primary focus. But in addition, as a leader on the Corporate Strategy team, your efforts will focus on:

• Defining MassMutual’s strategy, including what metrics we use to measure success, and optimizing our portfolio of businesses for long-term health and value
• Collaborating with partners across the enterprise on Board strategy deliverables including analysis of the external and competitive environment
• Producing actionable business insights through in-depth knowledge of our existing businesses aligned with peer Consumer Insights and Market Insights organizations
• Scoping, designing, and leading bespoke projects for senior leaders that solve key enterprise priorities
• Recruiting and developing Analysts with an emphasis on teaching them the strategy process and problem solving

Characteristics of successful Strategy Leads include insatiable intellectual curiosity, courageous thought leadership, team leadership, relentless process and project management, and superior communication skills. The team is acutely aware that we are not professional problem solvers; we are professional communicators who solve problems to have our solutions adopted and drive value. Because we are reliant on peers across the organization for data and analysis, we approach each project humbly and as an opportunity to learn and collaborate knowing that we often co-present with our partners to senior leadership to diffuse the strategy process throughout the enterprise.

Cultivating, coaching, and mentoring our Analysts is incredibly important. In turn, our Analysts provide our Strategy Leads with the leverage they need to grow and take on more responsibility. In addition, Strategy Leads take on leadership roles in the recruitment, training, and ongoing development of Analysts.

Strategy Leads will have compelling opportunities for significant professional advancement within the Corporate Strategy team and MassMutual more broadly.

The Team

MassMutual’s Corporate Strategy team adheres to a “classic” strategy process. We help the CEO, Board, and Executive Team with enterprise-level strategy and work with our CFO colleagues on building out a multi-year strategic planning process. We also serve as an “internal consultancy” where we help solve the most difficult business problems (typically cross-functional) facing our leaders.

The Corporate Strategy team is composed of high-performing professionals with a mix of top-tier financial services and management consulting experience. The Corporate Strategy team consists of the Strategy, Consumer Insights, and Market Insights functions. This role sits within the Strategy team, reports to the Head of Strategy, and works closely with the Head of Corporate Strategy. The team is aligned with MassMutual’s core values: focus on the customer, act with integrity, value people, work collaboratively, achieve results.

The Impact:

• Lead the development of a robust strategic planning process to drive alignment between enterprise strategy and financial planning to help chart MassMutual’s path forward
• Lead substantive strategic problem-solving efforts for senior audiences across the enterprise – define scope, generate project hypotheses, lead underlying research and analysis, collaborate with key stakeholders, test findings, and develop high-impact deliverables
• Help build the team by recruiting, developing, and managing Analysts as part of our rotational Analyst program (e.g., providing coaching / feedback, serving as a mentor, supporting recruiting and training efforts) and take responsibility for continually improving team performance and shaping team culture
• Positively impact the company’s “course and speed” – work as part of a broader, integrated team of MassMutual’s Corporate Strategy and Consumer & Market Insights teams to drive insights and impact
• Role model behaviors – high-energy, self-driven, strong interpersonal skills, intellectual curiosity, highest level of professionalism

The Minimum Qualifications

• 4+ years of strategy consulting experience (must be highly rated), inclusive of experience leading substantive portions of project teams, or deep financial services industry knowledge (8+ years experience) and a proven ability to lead projects
• Strategy consulting experience should be from a top-tier management / strategy consulting firm or a similar role with a leading internal strategy function
• Bachelor’s degree from leading college or university; graduate degree is valued, but not a requirement
• Evidence of quantitative skillset through coursework, certifications, or work experience
• Track record of developing Analysts through coaching and mentoring

The Ideal Qualifications

• Preferred undergraduate or graduate coursework in Business, Economics, Finance, Mathematics, Data Science or similar quantitative fields
• Ability to quickly break down problems in a structured manner, and prioritize analysis
• Ability to analyze complex data and draw out insights and implications
• Ability to create simple, powerful, and data-driven communications for senior leaders
• Ability to effectively communicate with senior leaders and build enduring, trust based and high-impact relationships with clients and other colleagues

What to Expect as Part of MassMutual and the Team

• Regular meetings with the Corporate Strategy team
• Focused one-on-one meetings with your manager
• Access to mentorship opportunities
• 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

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MassMutual is an equal employment opportunity employer. We welcome all persons to apply.

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