Senior Vice President, Operations

Brief Description

Position Summary

The Senior Vice President, Operations is BetterLife’s senior operational executive, accountable for the full lifecycle of insurance administration — New Business, Underwriting, Inforce Policy Administration, Claims Administration, Customer Service, and Mail Imaging/Document Processing — as well as the enterprise Compliance function. This role sets the strategic direction and operational standards for BetterLife’s core service delivery, ensuring every member and policyholder interaction reflects the accuracy, timeliness, and care central to BetterLife’s fraternal mission. Reporting to the CEO, the SVP, Operations leads a geographically distributed workforce, drives process modernization and operational scalability, and serves as the organization’s primary steward of regulatory soundness across all insurance operations.

Essential Functions

Operational Leadership

– New Business Processing

– Underwriting Operations

– Inforce Policy Administration

– Customer Service

– Mail Imaging and Document Processing

– Claims Administration

– Compliance

• Establishes and owns enterprise service level standards across all operational units, ensuring daily execution is accurate, efficient, and member-focused.
• Develops and governs operational goals, policies, procedures, and performance metrics at the enterprise level; holds departmental leaders accountable to outcomes.
• Monitors aggregate operational workflows and performance data to identify systemic risks, capacity gaps, and improvement opportunities before they affect service quality.

Team Leadership & Workforce Development

• Leads, develops, and retains a distributed team of operational directors, managers, and individual contributors across multiple locations, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and member-first service.
• Provides direct leadership to the Sr. Director of Policy Administration and Director of Compliance, setting performance expectations, coaching toward growth, and managing succession planning across the Operations organization.
• Drives workforce planning and organizational design in partnership with People & Culture to anticipate capacity needs and support business growth, including organizational integrations.
• Builds management bench strength through structured development, coaching, and performance management practices that cascade accountability throughout the operational hierarchy.

Process Improvement & Operational Excellence

• Leads enterprise-level operational modernization initiatives — process redesign, technology adoption, and workflow automation — to improve throughput, reduce error rates, and scale capacity ahead of membership and organizational growth.
• Partners with IT and business teams on system enhancements and policy administration platform improvements, providing executive sponsorship for technology investments within the Operations portfolio.
• Oversees quality assurance frameworks across Policy Administration and Claims; sets accuracy standards and holds leaders accountable to documented QA outcomes.
• Champions data integrity and document management standards, ensuring operational records support both member service and regulatory defensibility.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Owns enterprise Compliance as a direct functional responsibility; ensures BetterLife’s insurance operations adhere to applicable state regulations, fraternal benefit society requirements, and federal law.
• Maintains continuous examination readiness, oversees regulatory filing obligations, and serves as BetterLife’s primary operational liaison to state insurance departments.
• Monitors operational risk across all administered functions and drives timely corrective action; escalates material risk findings to the CEO and Board as appropriate.
• Collaborates with Legal and external counsel on regulatory matters, consent orders, and compliance program design.

Strategic Collaboration & Executive Partnership

• Partners with the CEO and executive peers (CFO, COO, SVP Fraternal Development, SVP Strategic Initiatives) to translate enterprise strategy into operational priorities, resource plans, and measurable OKRs.
• Provides operational reporting, key metrics, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership and the Board; frames operational performance in terms of member impact, financial outcomes, and regulatory posture.
• Leads operational workstreams associated with corporate integrations, mergers, or benefit society partnerships, including workforce alignment, system migration, and policy harmonization.
• Participates in enterprise strategic planning cycles as the operational subject-matter expert on capacity, scalability, and regulatory environment.

Additional Responsibilities

• Represents BetterLife at industry conferences, fraternal benefit society forums, and regulatory stakeholder engagements.
• Contributes operational risk perspectives to BetterLife’s enterprise risk management (ERM) framework and risk committee.
• Supports CEO and Board with ad hoc operational analysis and scenario planning as needed.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Insurance, Finance, or a related field, OR equivalent professional experience in insurance operations leadership.
• 20 or more years of progressive experience in insurance industry operations, with a minimum of 8 years in a senior leadership role overseeing multiple functional areas.
• Deep operational expertise spanning at least two of: life insurance policy administration (New Business, Inforce, or Claims), Underwriting operations, or Insurance Compliance.
• Demonstrated experience leading distributed or multi-site workforces, including remote team management, cross-location performance accountability, and culture-building at scale.
• Working knowledge of state life insurance regulatory requirements, including market conduct examinations, annual statement filings, and compliance program design.
• Proven track record of leading operational transformation — process improvement, technology implementations, or organizational integrations — at an enterprise scale.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with fraternal benefit societies, mutual insurance companies, or member-owned organizations.
• FLMI (Fellow, Life Management Institute), AIRC (Associate, Insurance Regulatory Compliance), or equivalent professional designation.
• Experience with life insurance administration platforms (e.g., LifePRO or comparable systems).
• Experience leading M&A integration or benefit society consolidation workstreams.
• Graduate degree (MBA or JD) with an insurance or operations concentration.

Competencies

Operational Leadership: Builds high-performing operational organizations with clear accountability structures; removes barriers to execution while sustaining high standards across distributed teams.

Regulatory Acumen: Navigates insurance regulatory complexity with confidence; proactively identifies compliance risk and builds compliance infrastructure that scales with organizational growth.

Strategic Thinking: Connects operational decisions to long-term enterprise goals; anticipates capacity and risk ahead of demand and positions the Operations organization to scale.

Distributed Team Leadership: Sustains culture, performance, and engagement across geographically dispersed teams through consistent communication, equitable practices, and visible leadership presence.

Member-First Orientation: Advocates for the member and policyholder experience in every operational and strategic decision; balances efficiency with service quality and fraternal mission.

Change Management: Leads teams through operational transformation and organizational integration with clarity, transparency, and a structured approach to adoption and retention.

Physical Requirements & Work Environment

This position is primarily sedentary, performed in a climate-controlled office or home office environment with frequent use of computer equipment, including keyboards, monitors, and video conferencing tools, with or without reasonable accommodation. Periodic travel to branch and satellite offices, member chapter events, and regulatory meetings is required.

Travel Requirements

Up to 20%, primarily for multi-site team visits, organizational integration activities, regulatory engagements, and industry conferences.

Equal Opportunity Statement

BetterLife is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned, with or without notice.